He will live with them, and they’ll be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or sadness or crying or pain, because these things are gone forever.”
But we do have faith, and we can still enter that rest. God said, “When I was angry, I swore an oath: ‘They’ll never enter the rest I planned for them.’ ” God said that even though he’d already been resting ever since he finished creating the world.
It’s true that Joshua led the next generation of Israelites into the promised land. But if that had been the rest God said he was planning, God wouldn’t have spoken later about another day.
Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die as believers in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, and they’ll be rewarded for what they’ve done.”