The Lord also caused a great spring of fresh water to burst out of a solid rock near the camp; and thus they were supplied with water.

We can hardly see how these people could ever turn against the Lord and become unthankful and disobedient toward him after he had been so kind and done so much for them.  But they became so.  They even went so far as to make a golden calf to worship instead of Jehovah, who had brought them through the Red Sea.  For this they were sorely punished.

After awhile Moses died, and Joshua led them into the land of Canaan, after they had wandered about in the wilderness under Moses for the space of forty years.  The land of Canaan was a good land, flowing with milk and honey, and if they had been willing to serve the Lord by obeying his commands they would have found rest and peace.  But they never found either rest or peace, because they were never able to drive their enemies from the land.  They found many enemies in the land when they entered it, and on account of their disobedience to the Lord they were unable to rid the land of Canaan of them.  This is what is meant by the verse that next precedes my text:  “For if Joshua had given them rest, the Lord would not have spoken of another day.”

But as Joshua failed to do this, on account of their disobedience, we have the words of the text:  “There remaineth therefore a rest unto the people of God.”  But where is that rest?  In the beautiful lines of Montgomery we ask: 

  “Oh, where shall rest be found? 
    Rest for the weary soul: 
  ’Twere vain the ocean’s depth to sound;
    Or pierce to either pole. 
  This world can never give
    The rest for which we sigh.”

Where may be found that favored spot in whose delightful shade the soul may fold her wings and be at rest?  I imagine that some of you are now saying to yourselves, “This rest is in heaven.”  In this you are right, in one sense.  Heaven is a place of rest to those who are prepared for it.  But let me say to you in all candor and love that heaven is rest only to those who first find rest here in our Lord Jesus Christ.  He is now calling to every sin-burdened sinner:  “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  The hardened unbeliever could no more be happy in heaven, even if allowed to enter there, than a fish could be happy out of water.  Heaven is not the sinner’s element.  Besides, an unconverted sinner can never get there.

  “Those holy gates forever bar
    Pollution, sin, and shame;
  For none can find admittance there,
    But followers of the Lamb.”

Rest must first be found in Jesus by coming to him, accepting his yoke, and working in his service.  And to encourage all to do this he himself says:  “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  If you want to find out how easy his yoke is, and how light his burden, take it upon you, and see if it does not give your soul rest.