[Heb 4:8 KJV] 8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.This that Paul wrote is speaking of Joshua. The name Joshua and Jesus are the same. But in this verse, it is talking about Joshua. Joshua 5 and Exodus 16 are good places to read of this. It involves the transition from wandering in the wilderness to entering the figurative land of promise. Why figurative? Because if it was the rest, another would not have been spoken of. If the manna was the bread of heaven, then Christ could not be, as He said, the true bread that came down from heaven. But He is, and He sojourned, He did tabernacle in the wilderness of flesh for a season and spoke all He was given to speak and do. Then He entered not into the holy of holies in the symbolic house of the Lord, but into heaven itself. If one part of these great past events is shown to symbolize Christ, then all of it does. The Lord is not the author of confusion.

Moses was a figure of the law of carnal commandments. The fact that he came as close to the figurative land of promise as to see it with his eyes, but never set foot in it, tells you that the old order can describe Christ to the point that you can “see” Him, but it can not bring you to Him. You must enter in faith. He, Christ, is the end of the law for righteousness, not in everyone who keeps the law, but in everyone who believes Him of whom all the law and the prophets testify. Every product you buy comes with a manual. The manual can not do what the product does. Only help you understand it.

Joshua, whose name means salvation, was the figurehead who brought the people from wandering in the wilderness, the same wilderness of flesh wherein Jesus was tempted, and into the figurative land of rest and promise. Manna was collected six days in the week in the wilderness. It was forbidden to seek it on the seventh, indicating that the real rest of God was not a day of the week, nor in the wanderings of flesh. But when the children entered the land, the manna never fell again. It had a new place. It was hidden in a golden pot, in the greatest symbolic place of rest that existed. It was hidden in the ark of testimonies. That was the only place it might be found, abiding there in eternal rest.

These two symbolic breads are revealed in two places today. The multitudes of “believers” who as yet have not entered in faith, but still wander about in the wilderness of flesh, looking for something. The other is found in rest, in them who have overcome in faith, and rest in and with Christ. Their bread is not looked for in the wilderness, it abides in them eternally, hid with Christ in God. These two distinct “places” are revealed in a pattern of prayer the Lord gave in answer to them who did not know how to pray. In His answer Jesus told them to ask each day, for their daily bread. But Jesus said to any who overcomes, He will give the right to eat of the hidden manna. This manna existed symbolically, only in the ark of testimonies. Paul wrote also of these things and these two coexisting conditions among the Lord’s people:

[Heb 4:1 KJV] 1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

We enter in faith. We overcome in faith. We dine with the Lord in secret, in faith. We harden not our hearts as in the provocation in the wilderness. Today we hear His voice and know we are in His rest.The understanding is greatly enhanced when it is understood that the wilderness wherein Jesus was tempted, was His flesh.Another promise to the over comer, he/she will be made a pillar, a fixture, in the house of the living God, and he/she will go no more out. The cycle of running out into the world to get beat up, and returning to the Lord for comfort, running back to the world to get beat up, returning to the Lord for comfort…the cycle is broken. You can not find the Lord’s rest where it does not exist.