Joshua 21:44

Rest round about. The Hebrew reads, “rest from round about,” that is, from the surrounding nations. However, God had in mind more than mere physical rest from warfare. The settlement in Canaan was preliminary to a great missionary program that God was planning to accomplish through Israel. Such a program could be carried forward only by individuals who in their own lives were representatives of that plan. The writer of the book of Hebrews was referring to the attainment of this spiritual objective in the soul and the accomplishment of the missionary objective in the world when he said, “For if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day” (Heb. 4:8). When Israel miserably failed to fulfill her high destiny and enter into her “rest,” God called upon the Christian church to fulfill the divine purpose. Therefore we should “fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should come short of it” (Heb. 4:1).