God himself taught this to the children of Israel while they yet sojourned in the wilderness, for Canaan was the land of rest that was promised unto them, as says the scripture. “Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation of the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, and proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter my rest” (Hebrews 3:8–11). However, though the rest of God was promised to them in Canaan, they could nevertheless taste of that rest while still in the wilderness.
Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. (Exodus 31:15–17)
Every seventh day, therefore, the children of Israel rested, tasting of that rest that was to be revealed to them in the Promised Land. The Sabbath of rest was therefore the substance of the rest that they hoped for. It was the evidence of the rest of the Promised Land that they had not yet seen. And as they rested from one Sabbath to the next, they reckoned that the true rest of Canaan drew ever closer and closer.
Not only did Israel taste of the promise of rest while still in the wilderness, they tasted also of God’s divine provision. Remember that it was written concerning Canaan that it was a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, and of oil olive and honey. It was a land where one would eat bread without scarceness, whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills one may dig brass (Deuteronomy 8:8–9). Yet, while still in the wilderness, the children of Israel tasted of this divine provision by the hand of God who met their every need.
Where there was no water, he brought forth water for them out of the rock of flint. He fed them in the wilderness with manna, which their fathers knew not, that he might humble them and that he might prove them, to do them good at their latter end. Their raiment waxed not old upon them, nor did their feet swell all those forty years (Deuteronomy 8:4, 15, 16). These experiences were the substances of things hoped for, even the evidence of things not seen. And so, by experiencing divine provision in the wilderness, they reckoned that the bounty of the provision of God that awaited them in the Promised Land drew nearer and nearer.
Their experiences of all these things (i.e., faith) was meant to give them confidence in the certainty of the blessings that awaited them in Canaan. Yet many of them did not believe that God could take them there despite all these experiences of faith. And because they did not taste in truth of the promises of Canaan by faith, they would not be found worthy to inherit the Promised Land at the fullness of time. Their sin against God was therefore a sin against faith, even a sin against all the things that they had experienced in the wilderness of training. They therefore could not enter the Promised Land because of a lack of faith.
The same also applies to us, beloved, who wait for the kingdom of God that will be revealed at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ our Lord. For though eternal life is one of the blessings of that kingdom that will be revealed (Mark 10:29–30), we see that even now, while still in this present world, can we begin to have a taste of that blessing of life everlasting. Jesus therefore tells us that he who hears his words and believes in him who sent him, even now, has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life (John 5:24). In the same manner, beloved, we see that though salvation is a blessing of that world that is to come (Hebrews 9:28), even now can we taste of that salvation while still in this present world, as it is written, “For by grace are ye are saved through faith; and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
We see then that even now have we been given a taste (i.e., a down payment) of all the things that have been promised to us in the world that is to come. And this down payment that has been given to us is given in the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest (i.e., down payment) of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13–14)
By the baptism of the Holy Ghost, we therefore taste of the powers of the highest. We taste of the good word of God and of the powers of the world that is to come (Hebrews 6:5). This, beloved, is the story of our Christianity and our introduction into the sweet doctrine of Jesus Christ our Lord.