III.
(continued) The Promised Rest (3:7–4:13)
C.
(continued) Christians Enter the Rest ()
1.
() "Let us fear," the writer says, because he does not want his readers to grow complacent, for there is real danger. God's promises mean much to the writer. The promise in question "remains." Though it has not been fulfilled, neither has it been revoked. () In one sense, of course, there was a filfillment, for the generation after the people who died in the wilderness entered Canaan. But throughout this section it is basic to the argument that physical entry into Canaan did not constitute the ultimate fulfillment of the promise. God had promised "rest" and that meant more than living in Canaan.
a.
The word translated "seem” can mean either "think" or "seem." If "think" is chosen, the writer is reassuring fearful Christians who thought they might miss out on the rest. If "seem" is chosen, these words constitute a soft warning to the readers to take care lest they miss the promised rest. On the whole, this second interpretation (seem) fits the context best. () The divine author, then, is reminding his readers that there was a generation (in Moses’ time) to whom the rest was promised and who missed it. His readers should beware lest they make the same mistake with a simple profession of Christianity.
2.
() "We have had the good news preached to us" uses the verb that became the technical term for preaching the Gospel (euangélion), though the word can also mean simply "hear good news." Israel of old, like Christians in the divine author's day, heard the Gospel (long ago the Gospel was on account: the tabernacle, priests, and Levites were pictures of the Messiah to come). The first half of the verse makes it clear that on the score of hearing God's Good News, there was not much difference between the wilderness generation and the readers. The stress is on the readers. They have the message, and they must act on it, in contrast to the Israelites of old who did not.
a.
"The word they heard did not profit them." The Word of God brought them no profit. The last part of this verse can be taken in either of two ways. The meaning is either "It [the word] was not mixed with faith in them that heard," or "They were not united by faith with them that heard" (i.e., with real believers, men like Caleb and Joshua). The main thrust is plain enough: It is not enough to hear the message; it must be acted on in faith. This is the writer's first use of "faith", a term he will employ frequently. This word means "faithfulness" as well as "faith," but the latter preponderates in the New Testament. Sometimes faith in God is meant and sometimes faith in Christ In this letter it is often the former (see ). Here the term points to the right response to the Christian message — the attitude of trusting God wholeheartedly. The writer speaks of "they heard" without specifying what it was they heard. But there can be no doubt that he is looking for a right response to what God had done and to what God had made known.
3.
() "We who have believed" once more stresses the necessity of faith. It is believers who enter God's rest, not members of physical Israel, and they do so through a right relationship to God, with an attitude of trust. Characteristically, the writer supports his position by an appeal to Scripture. There is nothing in the Greek to correspond to "God" in "He has said." Yet, this is a correct interpretation because the writer habitually regards God as the Divine Author of Scripture. The verb tense used in "has said" emphasizes permanence. What God has spoken stands. The quotation is from . Its point appears to be that those to whom the promise was originally made could not enter the rest because of the divine oath. This does not mean any inadequacy on God's part, for He had completed His works from the time of Creation. God's rest was thus available from the time Creation was completed, and His "rest" was the rest He Himself enjoyed. The earthly rest in Canaan was no more than a type or symbol of this.
4.
(; ) The writer does not precisely locate his quotation but contents himself with the general "somewhere." Nor does he say who the speaker is, though once again it must be God, the Author of all Scripture. Locating a passage precisely was not easy when scrolls were used; and unless it was important, there was a tendency not to look it up. The important thing is that God said these words. The passage speaks of God as resting from His work on the seventh day.
a.
It is worth noticing that in the creation account, each of the first six days is marked by the refrain "And there was evening and there was morning." However, this is lacking in the account of the seventh day. There we simply read that God rested from all His work. () This does not mean that God entered a state of idleness, for there is a sense in which He is continually at work. But the completion of creation marks the end of a magnificent whole. () There was nothing to add to what God had done, and He entered a rest from creating, a rest marked by the knowledge that everything that He had made was very good So, we should think of the rest as something like the satisfaction that comes from accomplishment, from the completion of a task.
5.
() The writer again adds [read earlier] , which is central to his argument at this point. As here, he often uses "again" where a further quotation is added to a preceding one (e.g., ; ; ). In this case, however, it does more than reinforce his idea; it introduces a second point in the argument. The first passage said that God rested (and by implication that the rest was open to those who would enter it); the second passage said that the Israelites did not enter that rest because God's judgment fell on them. So, the way is prepared for later steps in the argument.
6.
() The argument moves along in logical sequence. Some will enter that rest because it is unthinkable that God's plan should fail to be fulfilled. If God prepared a rest for humanity to enter, then they will enter it. Perhaps those originally invited will not do so, for there is often something conditional about God's promises. It is precisely the force of the present argument that nothing can stop the promises from being kept, but they must always be appropriated by faith. So, if one does not approach the promises by faith, one does not obtain what God offers, and the offer is made to others. Some, then, must enter God's rest, though the first recipients of the Good News (cf. vs. ) did not.
a.
The writer concentrates on two generations only: the wilderness generation and his contemporaries. There had been other generations who might have appropriated the promise. But the focus is on the first generation who set the pattern of unbelief and then on the writer's generation, who alone at that time had the opportunity of responding to God's invitation. The intervening generations were not germane to his argument.
b.
The reason the first group did not enter God's rest was their "disobedience". This word is always used in the New Testament of disobeying God, often with the thought of the Gospel in mind; so, their disobedience is really “disbelief” (cf. vs. ; ). Because the first generation had passed the opportunity by, God set another day. The idea that the wilderness generation was finally rejected was one the rabbis found hard to accept. Thus, they expressed a conviction that somehow those Israelites would be saved. The divine author, however, has no such reservations about that generation. They disobeyed God and forfeited their place. was written long after the Israelites in the desert had failed to use their opportunity and had perished. Its use of the term "Today" shows that the promise had never been claimed and was still open to today’s generation. The voice of God still called. A day of opportunity remained, even though the fate of the wilderness generation stood as an impressive witness to the possibility of spiritual disaster.
7.
() This sentence expresses a contrary-to-fact condition: " If Joshua had given them rest [as he did not], [God] would not have spoken of another day [as He did] after that." The name "Joshua" is the Hebrew form of the Greek name "Jesus." "Joshua" is a good way of rendering the text, as it makes clear to the English reader who is in mind. The Greek text, however, says "Jesus"; and both the writer and his original readers would have been mindful of the connection with the name of Christ, even though the emphasis in the passage lies with Joshua, who led the Israelites after Moses died.
8.
() This verse expresses the logical consequence of what precedes. The Greek word used for "Sabbath-rest" is most likely a word made up by the divine author. There were various kinds of "rest." () There was, for example, the kind of rest Israel was to get in its own land when it had rest from wars. When the psalmist wrote , he knew firsthand what this kind of rest in Palestine meant, and he was still looking for "rest." Thus, rest from war is not the kind of rest that the divine author of Hebrews had in mind. () Jesus spoke of quite another kind of rest — rest for the souls of people. This is nearer to what the divine author means. He links rest with the original Sabbath, with what God did when He finished Creation and what Christians are called into. This, then, is a highly original view. The divine author sees the rest as for "the people of God" (cf. ; ). In the Old Testament, "the people of God" is the nation of Israel long ago, but in the New Testament, it signifies believers. The rest the divine author writes about is for such people. Those who shut themselves out by disobedience and unbelief cannot enter into it because their Christian profession is not genuine.
9.
() We now have a description of at least part of what the rest means. The writer reverts to the word for "rest" that he has been using earlier instead of the "Sabbath- rest" of vs. . To "enter God's rest" means for a believer to cease from one's own work, just as God ceased from His.
a.
The main question that arises is whether the rest takes place here and now, or after death, as seen in : "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord . . . they may rest from their labors." It is best to see this rest as an experience in which they live here and now by faith, but the rest they know here is not the full story. That will be revealed in the hereafter. There is a sense in which to enter Christian salvation means to cease from one's works and to rest securely on what Christ has done. And there is a sense in which the works of the believer, works done in Christ, have about them that completeness and sense of fulfillment that may fitly be classed with the rest in question.
D.
Exhortation to Enter the Rest ()
The idea of the rest of God is not simply a piece of curious information not readily
accessible to the rank and file of Christians. It is a spur to action. So, the writer proceeds
to exhort his readers to make that rest their own.
1.
() It is possible that this verse should be attached to the preceding paragraph, but it seems preferable to see it as introducing an exhortation based on the penetrating power of the Word of God. The writer includes himself with his readers in urging a quick and serious effort to enter the rest "so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience." (; ) Paul refers to the same generation to hammer home a similar lesson, and he regards the wilderness happenings as types. These earlier people had perished. Let the readers who profess Christianity beware!!
2.
() "The Word of God" means anything that God utters — particularly the word that came through Jesus Christ. "Living and active" shows that there is a dynamic quality about God's revelation. It does things. (; ; ; ; ) Specifically, it penetrates and, in this capacity, is likened to a "double-edged sword".
a.
The Word of God is unique. No sword can penetrate as it can. We should not take the reference to "soul" and "spirit" as indicating a "dichotomist" over against a "trichotomist" view (body, soul, and spirit) of a human being (but see ), nor the reference to "dividing" to indicate that the writer envisaged a sword as slipping between them. Nor should we think of the sword as splitting off our "joints" and "marrow." What the divine author is saying is that God's Word can reach to the innermost recesses of our being. We must not think that we can bluff our way out of anything, for no secrets are hidden from God. We cannot keep our thoughts to ourselves. There may also be the thought that the whole of human nature, however we divide it, physical as well as nonmaterial, is open to God.