One of the most difficult times to be working is when many other people have the day off. For people in the general or emergency services, there are social or critical services that people avail themselves of, even on holidays. Although it can often mean earning a higher wage, it also can have a toil on family and personal life, for these people are often just continuing their regular work. Some are so consumed with earning extra money or general workaholics that any time away from work is stressful for them. As destructive as neglecting physical rest can be, neglecting spiritual rest has an even greater result.
Hebrews 4 continues the warning to informed but unresponsive Jews that began in 3:7. These Jews not only knew the basic truths of the gospel but had even renounced Judaism. Still they did not trust in Christ. The warning, of course, applies to anyone who is hesitating in committing himself fully to Jesus Christ, and can be summarized: “Do not harden your hearts like Israel did in the wilderness.” The Israelites had left Egypt, but they often longed to go back. They refused to trust the Lord completely and, oppressive and disappointing as it was, the old life still had an appeal. They halted at the crucial point of decision. Consequently, they were not allowed to enter the Promised Land and into God’s rest. So it is with many who are drawn to Jesus Christ. Unbelief forfeits rest.
Yet, even within the Christian sphere, many people are looking for “rest”, not in the knowledge of Christ and the assurances of His Word. To be sure, even the Christian life, apart from submission and obedience to Him, will be filled with dissatisfaction and inward turmoil. And no amount of material success, physical comfort, psychological counseling, or religious duty will provide the peace and rest He has promised. It can only be appropriated by faith in the promises of God, regardless of adversity and the circumstances around us.(J. Dwight Pentecost. Faith That Endures: A Practical Commentary on the Book of Hebrews. 2000. Published by Kregel Publications, a division of Kregel, Inc., P.O. Box 2607, Grand Rapids, MI 49501)
God’s rest is based on three things: 1) Personal faith (Hebrews 4:2–3), 2) Sovereign decree (Hebrews 4:5–6), and 3) Immediate action (Hebrews 4:7).
First, God’s rest, His salvation, is based on:
1) Personal Faith (Hebrews 4:2–3)
Hebrews 4:2-3 [2]For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. [3]For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, "As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest,'" although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. (ESV)
The conjunction for links the concept of the promise, given to the Israelites but still valid today (v. 1), with that of the good news/gospel preached to the nation Israel in the desert and to us (William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker. Exposition of Hebrew. Baker NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY. BAKERBOOKS. 1984)
The good news/gospel is the central story about Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection and the subsequent blessings which are offered through those events. That message: “came to us just as to them.” Be it either before or after Christ was on earth, the general offer from God was the same, i.e., if his people would be faithful, they would be with him forever in his eternal rest. (JIM GIRDWOOD & PETER VERKRUYSE. HEBREWS: THE COLLEGE PRESS NIV COMMENTARY. COLLEGE PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY. Joplin, Missouri. 1997)
From the human side, the first requirement for salvation is faith. Hearing the gospel is essential, but it is not enough. The ancient Israelites heard God’s good news of rest, but it did them no good since they did not accept it. They did not trust in the God who gave them the good news. Hearing the good news must be united by faith. The practical implication is clear: it is not the hearing of the gospel by itself that brings salvation, but its appropriation by faith; and if a genuine faith, it will be a persistent faith (F. F. Bruce. Hebrews: The New International Commentary Series, p. 73).
Israel’s problem was that they did not combine the message with faith. It was not united by faith. The verb συγκεράννυμι (synkerannymi, “to unite/combine, blend”) …The family of words indicates a very thorough mixing. The point of the statement in Hebrews is that there must be more than casual response to God’s message. Faith must be closely bonded with the message in thorough, minute detail. There is no place here to pick and choose which part of the Bible we want and which we will discard. For the gospel to have value, it must have faith mixed all through it. It must be trusted in all its parts (JIM GIRDWOOD & PETER VERKRUYSE. HEBREWS: THE COLLEGE PRESS NIV COMMENTARY. COLLEGE PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY. Joplin, Missouri. 1997).
Both the positive and negative sides of this truth are categorical, absolute. The writer to the Hebrews states in Hebrews 4:3: Those who have believed enter that rest and those who do not believe shall not enter My rest. Κατάπαυσις is the human word that is chosen because of the unrest, the desert wandering of Israel, which in their case was to end in the “rest” of possession and enjoyment in Canaan, which was a prelude to the far higher “rest” in heaven with God. God’s rest is not for himself alone; from the creation onward and despite man’s fall, his Word and promise produce the faith by which we all may enter it.(R. C. H. LENSKI. The Interpretation of The Epistle to the Hebrews and The Epistle of James. 1966. Augsburg Publishing House Minneapolis, Minnesota)
The English rest and the Greek word (katapausis) that it translates here have similar meanings. The basic idea is that of ceasing from work or from any kind of action. You stop doing what you are doing. Action, labor, or exertion is over. Applied to God’s rest, it means no more self-effort as far as salvation is concerned. It means the end of trying to please God by our feeble, fleshly works. God’s perfect rest is a rest in free grace.
They are now entering the “rest” which God withheld from the unbelieving Israelites. It is expressed in a present tense of continuing action. The entrance has begun, but it is not viewed as completed until they have remained faithful to the very end (3:14; 4:1). The people of Israel were also in the process of entering the promised land when their sin cut them down. Those who sinned while wandering in the wilderness not only forfeited Canaan. Unless they exercised personal faith in God sometime during the forty years, they also forfeited eternal life—of which Canaan was only a symbol (JIM GIRDWOOD & PETER VERKRUYSE. HEBREWS: THE COLLEGE PRESS NIV COMMENTARY. COLLEGE PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY. Joplin, Missouri. 1997).
There are many times as believers that we fail to be restful. There are times of crisis that disrupt harmony or sin itself that takes us away from resting in God.
There are three kinds of rest mentioned: a past rest, a present rest and a future rest. The past rest is the rest of salvation; the present rest is the rest of victory over sin; and the future rest is the eternal rest in heaven when all our labors and trials will be over. The first and the third rest are God’s past gift and future promise. They do not depend on our works, but upon His work, and so cannot be lost. But the second “rest,” the rest of service and the peace of victory, is a present possibility and depends upon our labors, and our faithfulness; and because it depends upon our faithfulness it can be lost, and hence the warning (Studies in Hebrews by M. R. De Haan © 1996 by the M. R. De Haan Trust and published by Kregel Publications, P.O. Box 2607, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501.).
Please turn to Matthew 11
The rest promised to those who believe is My rest, that is, God’s rest. God’s own rest from His work of creation, and the rest that He gives us in Christ, are not the rest brought on by weariness or the rest of inactivity, but are the rest of finished work. His works were finished from the foundation of the world. God has finished His work. This means rest cannot be defined as inactivity; rather, it involves the sense of completion. The rest Christians can enjoy today comes when we willingly take on Jesus’ yoke (Matt. 11:28–30).
Matthew 11:28-30 [28]Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29]Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30]For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (ESV)
This sense of completion experienced in taking on Jesus’ yoke is a benefit which comes to those who have experienced salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. When God rested on the seventh day, he celebrated the completion of his work of creation, but he did not just take a day off eternally. When we enter into rest with Jesus, we will find God’s presence, blessing, and peace but not a cessation from labor. Our rest with God gives us new strength, but it does not introduce us into inactivity. God’s salvation produces people who receive divine energy to serve, obey, and work for him. (Lea. Thomas D. Hebrews & James: Holman New Testament commentary. 1999 Broadman & Holman Publishers. Nashville, Tennessee)
The best rest we can enjoy is after a hard job done. For Christians, through faith, the best rest we can enjoy is a delight in the work that Christ has done and continues to do to secure our faith. The idea of “rest” does not mean that we sit around sipping spiritual lemonades. It conveys the idea of our total acceptance by God and the blessing of his presence, leadership, and power in our lives.
In verse 4, the “somewhere/certain place” where God spoke these words is Genesis 2:2.God rested on the seventh day after creating the universe, not because he was tired, but to indicate the completion of creation. The world was perfect, and God was satisfied with it, so he rested. This does not mean that God became idle; Jesus taught that God still works (John 5:17). God was able to rest because creation was good, exactly as it should be, with nothing that needed to be added. (Bruce B. Barton. Hebrews: Life Application Bible Commentary. 1997. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. WHEATON, ILLINOIS)
Adam and Eve were completely righteous when they were created.They walked and talked with God as regularly and as naturally as they walked and talked with each other. They were at rest, in its original and its fullest sense. They relied on God for everything. They had no anxieties, no worries, no pain, no frustrations, no heartaches. They did not need God’s forgiveness, because they had no sin to be forgiven of. They did not need His consolation, because they were never grieved. They did not need His encouragement, because they never failed. They only needed His fellowship, because they were made for Him. This was their “rest” in God. God completed His perfect work and He rested. They were His perfect work and they rested in Him. But something terrible happened. When Satan began to dispute God’s word and integrity and love, Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan. They trusted him rather than God. And when they lost their trust in God, they lost His rest. And from that time until now, humanity apart from God not only has been sinful but restless. The entire purpose of the Bible and the entire working of God in human history have one theme: bringing man back into His rest To accomplish that, God had to remove the barrier to their rest, the barrier which separated them from Him. He sent His Son to do just that, to provide again for humanity’s rest in His Creator. Through Christ’s death people are again offered life. Rest is another name for life, life as God meant it to be. Even the people who lived before Jesus were saved on the basis of what God was going to do through His Son. Christ bore sins past and future, and through Him God’s rest has been available to anyone who believes.
Illustration: Modern cultures are often characterized by frenetic activity. The fast-paced, problem-prone, project-oriented existence many of us live resists the spiritual life, pushing away recognition of God’s voice with its invitation to rest. We face endless “To Do” lists for work, home, family, and other organizations, and these add a weight to our souls, from which we find little respite even in a good night’s sleep. It seems all we can do to keep up the pace.
In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass the author comments on this aspect of modern society through the character of the Red Queen, who says to Alice, “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
As a result, in the crush and rush of weeks that flash before our eyes we sacrifice the important for the urgent, the personal for the professional, the private for the public image needed to keep our opportunities to do more and more. Such frenzied activity perhaps manifests a deeper spiritual emptiness, which prompts us to be ever striving for something of eternal value to fill the void, a “promised land” of inner milk and honey. In other words, we long for true rest that goes deeper than skin, muscle, and bone. (The NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews. Copyright © 1998 by George H. Guthrie. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49530)
Second, God’s rest, His salvation, is based on:
2) Divine Decree (Hebrews 4:5–6)
Hebrews 4:5-6 [5]And again in this passage he said, "They shall not enter my rest." [6]Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, (ESV)
Rest still remains. Why? Because God could not cut it off. That would mean He started something that was not worth completing. But He does not do such things. God did not establish rest for humanity for nothing. The rest He has provided, someone will enter: It remains for some to enter it. When man lost God’s rest, God immediately began a recovery process. Through His Son, Jesus Christ, some would be brought back in. He created humanity for fellowship with Himself, and His plan would not be thwarted, either by a rebellious archangel or by disbelieving humanity. By divine decree, therefore, there has always been a remnant of believers, even among mostly disbelieving Israel. “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice” (Rom. 11:5). The way of God’s rest has always been narrow, and only a few, relative to all of humanity have ever found it. But some must enter into it, because God’s purpose must be fulfilled. By sovereign decree He designed a rest for humanity and some, therefore, are going to enter it.
The second element of rest mentioned here is God’s sovereign decree. It is mentioned second, but it came first. Without God’s decree, humanity faith would be futile and worthless. We are saved from the wrath of God by two things: God’s will, expressed in His sending His Son to save; and our will, expressed in our trust in His Son to save us. We can be saved because He planned to save us before the world was created. That is predestination, or election. Jesus said:
John 6:44 [44]No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (ESV)
John 6:65 [65]And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." (ESV)
Personal faith is necessary before God can apply His redemption to us. Yet our personal faith is effective because the Father has first drawn us to the Son.
Illustration Jesus offers the ultimate source for true rest, for true rest is found only in a right relationship with the person of God. The rest is his rest, for his people, found by obeying his Word. In the wake of a culture leaving the fragmented, fragile, and fatigued in its wake, the church has the phenomenal opportunity of pointing people to the ultimate land of promise and spiritual well-being.
In her article “Keeping Sabbath: Reviving a Christian Practice,”26 Dorothy C. Bass points outthat Sabbath commandments in the Old Testament are grounded in two activities of God: creation and exodus. In the book of Exodus God’s people are given the gift of joining him in the rest established as a creation ordinance. By their pattern of work and rest they exhibit the image of God. Thus to find God’s rest means to fulfill our place as human beings in the created order.
If we wander in the desert and lack the promised rest, the problem is a dysfunctional relationship to God; all who are not in right relationship with God need the promised rest found in Christ’s “Day of Atonement” sacrifice. This need, therefore, extends to many who may not seem fatigued physically or emotionally. They may even seem energetic and purposeful in their wanderings. Nevertheless, as Augustine noted long ago, rest comes to realization only as wanderers find rest in God. True rest, which involves ceasing from one’s own work as God did at creation and entering God’s promised blessing of forgiveness, cannot be had by slaves or desert wanderers. Rather, true rest is found in rightly relating to God through faith and obedience to his Word. Only by joining him in his creation rest and humbling ourselves in light of his Day of Atonement sacrifice can we experience the Sabbath celebration reserved for God’s people. (The NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews. Copyright © 1998 by George H. Guthrie. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49530)
Finally, God’s rest, His salvation, is based on:
3) Immediate Action (Hebrews 4:7)
Hebrews 4:7 [7]again he appoints a certain day, "Today," saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." (ESV)
Please turn to Psalm 95
The third element of rest is immediate action. God appoints/fixes a certain day, “Today.” Opportunity for God’s rest remains, but it will not remain indefinitely. For each individual it will end before or with death; and for all humanity it will end in the Last Day. The current age of grace is not forever. This is why immediate action is a basis of entering God’s rest, of being saved.
Psalm 95 [95:1]Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! [2]Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! [3]For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. [4]In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. [5]The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. [6]Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! [7]For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, [8]do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,[9]when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. [10]For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways." [11]Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest." (ESV)
Delay hardens the heart, especially when we are fully aware that we have heard the voice of God in the inner soul. Every shrug of the shoulder that puts off acting on God’s urging for change, every toss of the head that says, “I know I should, but I don’t care,” every attempt at outward conformity without inner commitment produces a hardening of the heart that makes repentance harder and harder to do. The witness of the Spirit must not be ignored, for the opportunity to believe does not last forever. Playing games with the living God is not only disrespectful, but also dangerous. “There is a line, by us unseen, That crosses every path. The hidden boundary between God’s patience and His wrath”. (Stedman, Ray C. Hebrews: The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. 1992. InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515, U.S.A.)
None of us know how long we will live. There are many otherwise healthy people who succumbed to their injuries in a car accident or even a hidden illness, that suddenly took their life. The only time that we are guaranteed is this immediate moment. God limits the time for salvation to this life. This is God’s today, right now—the only day, the only opportunity, we can be sure of. Acknowledge to God that you are not perfect. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins though faith in Christ. This very second you can have eternal rest, assured of God’s perfect peace.
(Format Note: Outline & Some base commentary from MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1983). Hebrews. MacArthur New Testament Commentary (pp. 95–107). Chicago: Moody Press.)
