The Promised Rest
1 Therefore, since the promise to enter his rest remains, let us beware that none of you be found to have fallen short. 2 For we also have received the good news just as they did. But the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith. ,b 3 For we who have believed enter the rest, in keeping with what he has said,
So I swore in my anger,
“They will not enter my rest,” ,c
even though his works have been finished since the foundation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in this way: And on the seventh day God rested from all his works. ,d 5 Again, in that passage he says, They will never enter my rest. 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, e 7 he again specifies a certain day—today. He specified this speaking through David after such a long time:
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts. ,f
8 For if Joshua g had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. 10 For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his. h 11 Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.
12 For the word of God is living and effective i and sharper than any double-edged sword, j penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. k 13 No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom l we must give an account.
Our Great High Priest
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. m 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, n yet without sin. o 16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.
4:1–2. That the alternatives Israel faced in the wilderness are the same ones believers face today is demonstrated by the use of the terms “promise” (4:1; cf. 6:12; 9:15; 10:36; 11:39–40) and “good news” (4:2; cf. 4:6; Rm 10:16; Gl 3:8). This verifies the author’s consistent assumption that the gospel and its demands have remained unchanged from the beginning and that the spiritual world of the ancient people of God with its conditions, blessings, and powers is identical to that in which the readers now live.
4:3–8. The rest that faithless Israel failed to obtain but that believers will obtain is now identified as participation in God’s own rest that began after the creation of the world (4:3–5; cf. Gn 2:2–3). The present tense in 4:3 (“we . . . enter the rest”) expresses a principle or rule and so looks to the future (cf. Ac 14:22). Israel, therefore, failed to obtain the rest not because the rest itself was not yet available but solely because of unbelief. Further, Israel’s forfeiture of the rest is at issue (4:6–8), not the failure to enter Canaan, as if the rest were one thing in the OT and another today. Canaan was only a symbol of the eternal inheritance that faith obtains (11:9–10, 13–16). Joshua brought Israel into the land, and generations of Israelites had lived in the promised land when God issued the warning of Ps 95. It was quite possible to inhabit Canaan and yet forfeit God’s rest.
4:9–11. So God’s rest has always been available to women and men and remains so today (4:9). The sole question is whether we will exercise that persevering faith that alone obtains rest. For it is a rest that one enters not in this life but only in the world to come, when the believer has rested from work (10:36).
4:12–13. This appeal is enforced by a consideration of the character of the word of God, which confronted Israel and confronts us still today. It is the living voice of God, which is never disobeyed with impunity. Here the word is thought of as an instrument of God’s judgment, discerning the secrets and motives of the heart (cf. 1 Co 4:5). The author’s readers must not suppose that they will obtain the rest of God because they are accepted by human beings or are counted as members of the people of God. The faith required is to be exercised and will be measured in the day of Christ as much in the thoughts of the heart as in outward conformity to the will of God. The phrases “soul and spirit, joints and marrow” (4:12) denote the inner life of humankind in all its aspects.
D. Jesus Christ superior to Aaron (4:14–10:18). 4:14–16. In 4:14–5:10, the author discusses Jesus Christ’s qualifications as our great high priest, picking up the thread of the earlier statement that Christ is the high priest of his people (2:17–3:1). The author offers consolation and encouragement to those who have discovered that the life of faith is full of painful difficulties and severe temptations. Jesus, true God and true human being, is the high priest who combines perfect understanding of and sympathy with the struggling believer’s lot in this world of sin (4:15) with his unlimited ability to help. He knows how to deliver the godly from temptation, having been victorious himself in every moment of his sorely tested life (cf. 2:18).