Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left of entering into his rest, any one of you might seem to have failed [of it].
The letter has just given strong assurance. Now it tells its readers to fear falling short of a promise that still stands open, so everything turns on what "His rest" means and what fear the writer calls for.
Whose rest is it? Commentators point the phrase "His rest" back to God Himself.
Like Israel of old, believers today are passing on their way through a wilderness world to the rest of the coming glory. This rest is the great theme of the first eleven verses of Hebrews 4. Let us note that it is God's rest of which the writer speaks. It is called "His rest", and, in the quotations from the Old Testament, "My rest".
The same writer marks it off from three kinds of rest a Christian may already know.
This rest — the rest of God — is entirely future. It is not the present rest of conscience that faith in the Person and work of Christ gives the believer... Nor is it the rest of heart that belongs day by day to the one who walks in obedience to Christ, submitting to His will... Nor is it the temporary rest of a tired worker.
If the subject were forgiveness, the command would be the opposite.
The apostle does not speak of believing in the Lord Jesus for present rest of conscience... What are we to fear then? Not that the blood of Christ will fail, and not that we will lose the forgiveness of sins because God turns from grace at some moment. Be afraid of settling down in this world; fear falling short of the true outlook of pilgrims and strangers on the way to a better land.
Fear has no place in the gospel itself. It has a place on the road.
Not, of course, with a slave's fear, but with a son's fear. The gospel of God's grace shuts fear out — "perfect love casts out fear" — and no "if" dims its brightness... The pilgrim path is one of testing. The world is attractive, and the flesh is not only weak but treacherous. In that setting an "if" fits well, and fear becomes a necessity. Godly fear is not a blot on a Christian's character, but an adornment.
Assurance and fear look like opposites. One writer shows they come from the same source.
This "fear" and this "labour" begin when that question is settled, and settled for ever. The blessed principle brought out is that they are consequences of our having to do with God. We have full confidence in the love of God, and we value the rest of God. So we fear everything: not only the temptations and traps in the way, but every working of the flesh, and anything like it, that would come between us and God.
The wording is careful. The writer does not say that any will fail to reach the rest, only that any might seem to.
What destroys a person who has no faith still injures the believer, and can injure him to the very last degree. That is why we read of "seeming" to come short. There is no rest of God now, nor for us is it here but in heaven. Let us fear even the appearance of settling down on earth, which indeed is not our rest or hope.
The promise did not lapse when Israel forfeited it.
The promise has been left us, but the promise is to faith: any who come short of it do so only through unbelief.
That is exactly the lesson drawn from Israel's history. They left Egypt but never reached Canaan, and the reason is stated plainly by the writer of Hebrews.
They came out of Egypt. Did they go into the land? They did not. Caleb and Joshua got in. Why? Because they were men who really had faith in the Lord and in the truth of His word.
Verse 1 does not stand alone. It is the first half of a pair. The second call comes later in the chapter, where the ESV reads "strive" and older translations read "labour".
There is the danger that we may despise the rest of God that lies at the end of the journey, or grow weary of the labour of love on the way. Israel did both. Let us then beware lest any of us fall after the same example of unbelief. The two great exhortations are, "Let us fear" lest we despise the promise of the rest, and "Let us labour" on the way to the rest.
- Rest — the rest here is God's own rest, still ahead. It is not the settled conscience or quiet heart a believer already enjoys.
- Promise — Israel forfeited that rest, but the promise stayed open. God holds it out to faith, and only unbelief falls short.
- Fear — the fear here is not doubt about forgiveness. It is a son's fear of anything that would come between him and God on the road.
- Seeming — the warning covers even the look of settling down here. This world is not the promised rest.
- Labour — the chapter opens with fear and closes with effort. Value the rest enough to fear losing sight of it, and keep walking toward it.
For indeed we have had glad tidings presented to us, even as they also; but the word of the report did not profit *them*, not being mixed with faith in those who heard.
Israel stood at the edge of a promised land they never entered. The fault was not in the message they heard, but in how they heard it. This verse sets two groups side by side — them and us — and asks what makes good news do a person good.
The word translated "gospel" simply means good news, and the good news Israel received was not the message we hear today.
It would be a mistake to think that every time the word "Gospel" appears in our English Bible it means the message God proclaims today... When Hebrews 4:2 tells us that the Gospel was preached to Israel, it does not mean that today's proclamation of grace sounded in their ears. The good news announced to them pointed to the rest in Canaan at the end of their desert journey.
Caleb and Joshua carried that news to Israel. It was short, and Israel would not have it.
The good news Caleb and Joshua proclaimed was very simple: "It is an exceedingly good land." That was good news indeed. But what was working in Israel's heart? Unbelief... Unbelief always says, "We are not able."
What was announced to each group differed. What was required of each did not.
The good news preached to them was rescue from Egypt and entrance into Canaan. The good news preached to us is deliverance from sin and entrance into heavenly blessing. But in both cases the word preached does no good unless faith receives it. The gospel is wonderful medicine for the broken heart. But it comes to us in a bottle with these directions on it: to be mixed with faith in those who hear. Ignore the directions, and there is no cure, and no one reaches the rest of God.
If the message brought no benefit, that says nothing against the message.
That Word is unconquerable and eternal. The way people receive it does not affect it at all. But whoever will not receive it can get no profit from it.
The last clause can be read in two ways, and commentators differ over which is right. One reading appears in the version printed above this commentary.
They certainly heard this good news, but it was all in vain. "The message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened" (Hebrews 4:2) — this is most likely how we should read that last clause.
Others keep the older wording: the word was not mixed with faith in those who heard. Either way the outcome is the same. Israel heard, and faith never took hold.
Preaching can be pure and attractive and still leave the hearer where he was.
A pure gospel may be preached. The grace of God may be declared in all its attractiveness. Someone might speak of Christ in a way we would think must draw the heart and mind to Him. But more is needed. It has to be mixed with faith in those who hear. Unless there is true faith, unless faith lays hold of the Word, it has no effect. A person may make an outward profession, but that counts for nothing without a living, God-given, genuine faith mixed with the Word... A man may say he is too great a sinner, and so he cannot be saved. He may say he is unworthy, and so he dare not trust God. But only one thing can keep a person out of God's rest: the sin of unbelief.
Israel saw wonders and heard God's voice, and still fell. We have no such sights, and faith is still what is required.
The Christian Jew was in no way behind his fathers. If the elders had good news, those who hold to Christ in heaven had even more. But if the word is not mixed with faith, it can no more profit the hearer now than it did long ago. The fathers saw wonders and heard the Voice, more terrifying than thunder or earthquake; yet they fell through unbelief, and through the disobedience it produced. So now, when sight and sound are not the question, the word must still be mixed with faith for those who hear. Otherwise the ruin is even harder to undo than falling in the wilderness.
- Heard. "Gospel" here means good news. Israel's news was a good land ahead. Ours is deliverance from sin and heavenly blessing. Different messages, the same offer of God's rest.
- Unmixed. The word must be mixed with faith in the hearer. It works like a medicine bottle: skip the directions and no cure follows.
- Unblamed. The word itself is unconquerable and untouched by how people receive it. The loss falls on the one who will not receive it.
- Unbelief. Not unworthiness, not the size of one's sin — only unbelief shuts a person out of God's rest.
- Unprofited. Israel heard, did not believe, and gained nothing. Hear that word now without faith, and the ruin is even harder to repair.
For we enter into the rest who have believed; as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest; although the works had been completed from [the] foundation of [the] world.
Hebrews 4:3 follows a warning drawn from Israel's failure in the desert: some heard God's good news and never arrived. This verse names what marks out the people who do enter, and it reaches back to Genesis to show how old and how great that rest is.
The verse does not describe people who might believe one day. The grammar marks out a definite group, and the oath that follows — worded in older versions as "If they shall enter into my rest" — shuts everyone else out.
Believers are the ones who enter the rest of glory: not all people, and not all Israel, but "we who have believed." The past tense makes the group accepted for the blessing more definite. It does not mean people who believe as if they might do so later, or whenever they pleased... The "if" sounds the death sentence of unbelievers... "If they shall enter into my rest" means, for anyone who knows what unbelief is, that they shall not.
The same verse holds a promise and a threat side by side, and the difference between them is faith:
Notice that with "we who have believed" there is absolute affirmation, for the promise is absolute... The believer's position is therefore completely secure, resting on the truth of God's Word; but the unbeliever has the oath of God against him. The blessing depends on God's work, and its value is available to everyone by faith. Unbelief is a shameful refusal of the blessing, because it refuses God's Word.
The present tense here has caused confusion. Commentators read it as a journey in progress, not a destination reached.
That is, we are on the road. He does not say that we have entered, and he does not mean anything of the sort. Such a reading runs flat against the argument and aim of the passage... We are entering into the rest. We have it in front of us, and we are moving toward it; but we are not yet there.
Being on the road takes nothing away from the certainty of arrival:
There is no uncertainty about arriving, but we are not yet in it. We might compare it to people invited to a feast in a splendid upper room, climbing the stairs to it: they are entering in.
The rest belongs to God before it belongs to us, and that settles what kind of rest it is.
But what is this rest? He will explain. It is God's rest, as the Psalm declares. "My rest." It cannot, then, be rest of conscience. Who could associate that with God? True, the sinner needs rest of conscience, and Christ gives that to the weary and heavy-laden who come to Him. Nor is it rest of heart along the way... But God's rest is rest from all toil and labour.
The verse's closing clause is strange. God finished His works long ago, yet He shut a whole generation out. Genesis shows a rest that once existed and no longer stands.
How could He rest here? Not till He sees all those He loves perfectly happy. How can He rest where sin is? Holiness cannot rest where sin is. Love cannot rest where sorrow is. He rested from His works in the first creation, because it was all very good; but when sin came in, His rest was broken.
A finished creation, then, is not the ground on which anyone gets in:
Sin came into the world, and man rejected Jesus, who had come into its sorrow. So there could be no rest for creation in connection with the first Adam. Hence the words, "They shall not enter my rest," although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. Grace, power, and redemption must be the basis of rest and blessing.
Some read this verse as a promise of rest available right now in daily life. Commentators push back.
People have built a whole system of mistaken doctrine on the words, "For we who have believed enter that rest" — a system its supporters often call "the rest of faith"... No one questions that there are boundless resources in Christ for the believer in his daily path. It is our failure that we know so little how to draw on them. But the present question is whether this is the meaning of our passage.
The chapter's own conclusion decides it:
"So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." That is, it is still future. It is the sabbath rest of eternity, God's own rest, and He in His grace proposes, as He always has proposed, to bring His people into it.
- Believing — faith marks the group that enters: not all people, not all Israel. The verse's "if" is aimed at those who question God's word.
- Entering — the present tense means on the road, not arrived. The destination is certain; we are still on the stairs.
- His rest — the rest is God's own, so it is not a quiet conscience or a calm heart. Christ gives those too; God's rest is rest from all toil and labour.
- Broken — sin shattered the rest God took in a finished creation. Holiness cannot rest where sin is; love cannot rest where sorrow is.
- Remaining — since that first rest broke, grace and redemption lay the new foundation. The sabbath rest of eternity lies ahead, and believers are walking toward it.
For he has said somewhere of the seventh [day] thus, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works
Hebrews 4:4 reaches back to Genesis 2. There God finished making the world and stopped. One fact carries the argument. God once entered a rest of His own. So such a rest exists, and the question is who gets to share it.
The verse names no human author for the words it quotes. Commentators say this is on purpose. Right through the chapter, the writer keeps the focus on the true speaker.
The writer needs to settle a point of timing in chapter 4. First he says, "He spoke in a certain place" (v. 4) and "And in this place again" (v. 5). Then comes the sentence, "Again, He sets a certain day, saying in David" (v. 7). Notice that the writer avoids saying David said it. He says God spoke it — God spoke it in David.
Genesis 2 on its own settles nothing about us. Put it beside Psalm 95, quoted in the next verse, and it does. One writer shows what each passage adds.
He speaks only of Adam's world, only of the "works" God carried out on the six "days." … So Genesis 2 says, "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works." Thousands of years later, He said in Psalm 95, "They shall not enter my rest." The first scripture proves that He had a rest Himself; the second, that even His people had not yet entered into it. Sin came in for Adam and his race at the beginning. God could not rest in sin, nor could sinners as such enter into God's rest.
The chapter keeps calling it "My rest." That possessive shapes everything, and it rules out some familiar meanings people bring to the word.
But what is this rest? He will explain. It is God's rest, as the Psalm declares. "My rest." It cannot, then, be rest of conscience. Who could associate that with God? True, the sinner needs rest of conscience, and Christ gives that to the tired and burdened who come to Him. Nor is it rest of heart along the way. He promises that to us if we take Christ's yoke and learn from Him (Matthew 11:28-30). But God's rest is rest from all toil and labour. We read of this kind of rest in Genesis 2:1-3.
God's rest in Genesis 2 did not last. Sin broke it, and God has been at work ever since.
As far as this world goes, sin spoiled God's rest, for He can never rest where sin is. As one has beautifully said: "Holiness cannot rest where sin is. Love cannot rest where sorrow is." … God ended that work of creation and rested. But sin came into the world through Adam and Eve, and God took up toil at once. That toil grew and grew, and goes on to this very day.
One writer draws the comparison out. What God stopped doing decides what we will stop doing.
It is not at all the common notion of resting from bad works when a man gets peace with God. However true that may be, it has nothing whatever to do with what is written here. … His works were never bad, but always and perfectly good. Still, He is to rest even from the activity of His love, to enjoy the glorious results. … Now is the time for the believer not to stop his good works. Soon he will enter the eternal rest of God.
Commentators differ on how much rest is already ours. One writer separates rest of conscience from the rest still ahead: "I have ceased from my works, as far as my conscience goes, because I have ceased from works for justification. I have not ceased from godly works — that rest has not come yet" (J. N. Darby).
The seventh day of Genesis becomes a picture of something the chapter says is still ahead.
There is another kind of rest yet to come. … This lies outside of the present world. It belongs to the new creation, which God will bring in when the present heavens and earth have fled away. Then God will have carried out all His purposes of grace. The full fruit of the cross will show in heaven and on earth. God will rest for ever, surrounded by all whom He has favoured. … There no sin will enter, no foe will intrude, no jarring note will be heard, and toil and suffering will be unknown.
- God's rest. The seventh day of Genesis 2 proves that a rest exists which belongs to God Himself. He rested in it first.
- God's rest broken. Sin spoiled it, so God has worked ever since. Holiness cannot rest where sin is, and no sinner can enter where God rests.
- God's rest promised. Psalm 95, quoted in the next verse, shows His people had still not entered. The invitation still stands.
- God's rest shared. Entering means stopping work as God stopped His — not stopping bad works, but all labour. So now is the time to work, not to stop.
- God's rest kept. It waits in the new creation, where God rests surrounded by all He loves, and no sin, foe, toil or sorrow ever enters.
and in this again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Hebrews has just quoted Genesis 2 to prove that God has a rest of His own. This verse brings back the oath of Psalm 95 a second time, and the question is what that repeat adds.
The repeat is not for emphasis. It is evidence, and each passage carries a different half of the proof.
So Genesis 2 says, "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works." Thousands of years later He said in Psalm 95, "If they shall enter into my rest." The first Scripture proves that He had a rest Himself. The second proves that even His people had not yet entered into it. Sin came in for Adam and his race at the beginning. God could not rest in sin, nor could sinners as such enter into God's rest.
The same two-sided reading appears elsewhere. Because entry was still being spoken of in David's day, entry had clearly not yet happened.
From the foundation of the world, He has shown that He had a rest, as in the passage already quoted, "If they shall enter into my rest"; but this, showing that the entering in was still an open question, showed that man had not entered into God's rest in the first creation.
The ESV reads, "They shall not enter my rest." Older versions keep the literal form: "If they shall enter into my rest." The sentence breaks off unfinished — the way people once swore a solemn oath.
"As I swore in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest" (that is, they shall not). A solemn sentence of exclusion. In a man's mouth it is incomplete: God do so to me and more, if — ! In God's lips, the condition of man's entering is the moral certainty that it is all over with him. Good is only and wholly of grace. There is no entrance into the rest of God if it depends on man's deserts.
Commentators differ on how to read that unfinished clause. One reads the form as a question, not a flat denial:
Both in the Psalm quoted (95) and here the verse is translated "They shall not" and so on, but the actual form is a question. Is the lesson not simply this? Man dares to question the truth and faithfulness of God by his proud rebellion. So does God not have a right to question man's title to blessing? In other words, profession must be questioned, or tested, to find out whether it is real.
The chapter introduces these quotations with vague phrases — "in a certain place," "in this place again," and later "in David." The chapter stays vague about the human writer. It is exact about who spoke the words.
Sometimes the writer needs to establish a point of chronology, as in chapter 4. He first uses the words "He spoke in a certain place" (v. 4) and "And in this place again" (v. 5). Then we have the sentence, "Again, He limits a certain day, saying in David" (v. 7). Notice that the writer carefully avoids saying that David said it, but that God spoke it — God spoke it in David.
This rest is God's own rest first. Genesis 2 shows what it is like.
God formed the world and created man in His own image and likeness. Then His creation works were finished. This led to creation rest, with its two distinctive marks. First, God's satisfaction in all that He had made, as we read, "God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good." Second, the complete stopping of all His creation work, as it is written, "He rested on the seventh day from all his work which He had made." So we learn the two great truths that mark God's rest: complete satisfaction in the result of the labour; and, once satisfaction is reached, the complete end of all toil.
Sin broke into that rest.
Sin spoiled God's rest, as far as this world was concerned, for He can never rest in the presence of sin. As one has beautifully said: "Holiness cannot rest where sin is. Love cannot rest where sorrow is." God ended that work of creation and rested. But the toil He took up as soon as sin came into this world through our first parents went on and on, growing greater, and goes on to this very day.
The oath shuts a door, but the very next verse turns the exclusion into a promise for others.
Verse 5, quoting Psalm 95:11, shows that some would not enter into His rest. So verse 6 concludes that "some must enter therein." God's rest was not just for His own enjoyment. He had decreed that others would share it. The latter part of the verse shows that those who had the first opportunity did not enter in.
- God rested. Genesis 2 proves God has a rest of His own, marked by full satisfaction in His work and the complete end of toil.
- Sin spoiled it. He cannot rest where sin is, so sin broke the creation rest, and His toil has gone on ever since.
- God swore. The unfinished oath — "if they shall enter" — is a solemn sentence of exclusion. Entry can never rest on what man deserves.
- God repeated it. The second quotation proves His people had still not entered. And Hebrews says God spoke the words in David; it does not say David said them.
- Some must enter. God shut one generation out, but He had decreed that others would share His rest.
Seeing therefore it remains that some enter into it, and those who first received the glad tidings did not enter in on account of not hearkening to the word,
Hebrews 4 rests on two Old Testament quotations: God has a rest, and the people first invited never arrived. This verse draws the conclusion — someone will still enter — and raises the question: who enters, and what kept the first group out?
The verse opens with "since." Two failures lie behind it. Neither one cancels what God intends.
Sin had broken the creation rest, and unbelief spoiled the Canaan rest. Even so, God assures us that He still has a rest before Him, which He calls "My rest." He assures us too that some will enter into God's rest — even though those to whom it was first preached missed the rest through their unbelief. The sin and unbelief of man cannot thwart God's purpose to secure a rest according to His own heart.
Who were the people who missed it? Grant answers in two steps.
God's rest was not merely for His own enjoyment. He had decreed that others would share it. The second half of the verse shows that those who had the first opportunity did not enter in. This refers directly to the unbelieving generation in the wilderness. It applies also to Israel as a nation, when the Gospel was preached "to the Jew first." So it stands as a solemn warning to Hebrews today.
The verse holds a certainty and a tragedy in one sentence. Darby draws both from the Scriptures already quoted.
God had worked in creation, and then rested from His works when He had finished them. So from the foundation of the world He has shown that He had a rest. The passage already quoted says that they shall not enter into His rest. This shows that the entering in was still an open question, and that man had not entered into God's rest in the first creation. Two things then are clear. Some were to enter in. The Israel to whom it was first offered did not enter in because of their unbelief.
The verse names the cause: disobedience. It is not a matter of a few broken rules.
Disobedience, and above all disobedience such as this, God hates and judges. It does not mean isolated acts. It means refusing to be subject to Himself. That is the opposite of what Romans 1 calls the obedience of faith — especially now that He has in grace revealed Himself in the Lord Jesus. Such subjection goes deeper than obeying His commands, however important that is in its place. It proves not only love, but faith with a divine character, and therefore life in Christ.
They had heard the good news. Hearing was not the problem.
Someone may preach a pure gospel. He may declare the grace of God in all its attractiveness. He might speak of Christ in a way we would think must draw the heart and mind to Him. But more is needed. The word has to be mixed with faith in those who hear... there is only one thing that can keep someone out of God's rest: it is the sin of unbelief.
God will fill His rest. So the invitation moves on instead of closing.
So some would hear and believe, while the mass were unbelieving and perished. The type showed both: Israel fell as a whole; Joshua and Caleb entered Canaan... Human opposition or indifference would not stop God's mercy. If those first appealed to refused the glad tidings, He keeps on calling. He again fixes a day, and in David, long after Moses and Joshua, "Today" is the word.
Adam lost the creation rest. Israel lost the Canaan rest. So where does God's rest stand now?
The blessed Creator provided Himself a rest after creation. He promised Himself a rest in Canaan after bringing Israel through the wilderness. Adam disturbed His creation-rest. Israel disturbed His Canaan-rest. Is He then left without His rest? No; He has found it in Christ... Christ is the One who has worked out that rest, and who holds it now. It remains with Him both for God and for His saints. "Therefore it remains for some to enter it." It is no longer a fragile thing depending on Adam or on Israel. So let us take care that we do not come short of it.
The certainty produces effort, not ease.
There are privileges set before us — the rest of God and His glories. So let us work hard to enter that rest, not missing the walk of faith.
- Must — God will fill His rest; human sin and unbelief cannot cancel His purpose to share it.
- Missed — those first invited heard the same good news, but did not mix it with faith.
- Moved on — a refusal by the first hearers becomes a fresh day of calling for others; God keeps saying "Today."
- Secured — Adam spoiled the creation rest and Israel the Canaan rest, so God has found His rest in Christ, who holds it now.
- Mine? — only unbelief keeps anyone out, so take care not to come short — work to enter that rest.
again he determines a certain day, saying, in David, 'To-day,' after so long a time; (according as it has been said before), To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Centuries after Israel entered Canaan under Joshua, God speaks again and names a day called "today." That timing carries the whole argument: the rest He promised was still ahead, and every hearer stands under a live invitation with a warning attached.
The verse does more than repeat the earlier warning. It dates it. David sang these words generations after Israel settled the land. That gap of time carries the argument.
Verse 7 goes further than verse 6, and quotes from David, "after so long a time." Even those who did enter the land, and lived there so long, had not really entered God's rest. For there they were told not to harden their hearts. Joshua had brought them into the land (Jesus is the Greek form of the same name), but he had not given them this rest. After they arrived there, another day is spoken of.
One writer shows how Hebrews answers a difficulty for its Jewish readers:
They read in Joshua 12 that the Land had rest from war. The writer meets this by telling them how their prophet king sang the words of the 95th Psalm hundreds of years later... "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on."
The verse names David, and the wording around his name matters. Older translations read "saying in David" where the ESV has "through David."
We have the sentence, "Again, He appoints a certain day, saying in David" (v. 7). Notice the writer carefully avoids saying that David said it, but that God spoke it—God spoke it in David.
One writer sets out the two roles behind the psalm:
He was used—he was the singer, but the Holy Spirit was the composer of the music. David's songs were "the songs of the Lord." The Lord, as the apostle says, was "saying in David" (Heb. 4:7).
The word has a limit. Commentators tie its ending to the appearing of Christ.
This word "today" is the expression of the patient activity of God's grace towards Israel even to the end. The people were unbelieving. They have hardened their hearts. They have done so, and sadly they will go on doing so to the end, until judgment comes in the Person of the Messiah-Jehovah, whom they have despised. But until then God loves to say again, "Today, if you hear My voice." It may be that only a few will listen... but the word "today" still sounds out for everyone among them who has ears to hear, until the Lord shall appear in judgment.
That same "today" is a dangerous stretch of road. What God has given since makes His voice more urgent to heed, not less.
Doubtless "today" is a serious and testing time (verse 15). We are in the wilderness, and without God what is there but difficulty and danger for His people?... What He has done and revealed and made ours goes far beyond all He did of old in Egypt and the desert. It ought to be the most powerful encouragement, and the firm foundation, for heeding His revealed will against our treacherous hearts. Those hearts are sure to grow hard if we treat His word lightly or play with sin. "Today" is until Jesus comes.
The hardening here is not drift. It is a decision.
When the apostle in Hebrews refers to the wilful stubbornness of the Israelites in the wilderness he uses a different word... The word skleruno and its related forms seem to describe a definite resistance on man's part. A man deliberately blocks up his heart to shut out the light of God — as the Lord said, "You refuse to come to me that you may have life" (John 5:40).
If the day is still open, the rest it points to has not yet arrived.
Then we read that He fixes a certain day, saying in David, "Today, after so long a time." The conclusion is now drawn: "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." That is, the rest is still future. It is in fact the sabbath rest of eternity, God's own rest, into which He in His grace proposes, as He always has proposed, to bring His people.
And while the day stands open, delay is a danger:
Be afraid then to stay away from the Saviour of sinners, in case tomorrow finds you in a more hardened state than today. All delays are dangerous; but what is so dangerous as to put off bowing to the Son and accepting God's free salvation?
- Again — after Israel failed, God names a fresh day. Human refusal does not stop His mercy; He keeps calling.
- In David — God spoke the words through David, not David for himself. David was the singer; the Spirit was the composer.
- Today — the word is God's patience held open, and commentators tie its close to the appearing of Christ.
- Harden not — the danger is deliberate resistance, not mere carelessness. It shuts the heart against the light.
- Rest — Joshua's land was not God's rest. A sabbath rest still lies ahead, and that is why refusing today costs so much.
For if Jesus had brought them into rest, he would not have spoken afterwards about another day.
Hebrews 4:8 turns on one fact of history: Israel did reach Canaan under Joshua, yet God was still offering rest centuries later. So was the land the goal God had in mind, or is something better still ahead?
Older translations read "Jesus" here, which has confused many readers. The two names are the same name in different languages.
"For if Joshua" (not "Jesus," it is simply the Greek form of the word) "if Joshua had given them rest," (that is, when he brought them into the land of Canaan) "then would he not have spoken of another day."
The name itself carries meaning, which is why it was given to the Saviour:
As Hebrews 4:8 shows, Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, or Jehoshua. The name means "Jehovah is salvation," or "whose salvation is Jehovah." So there is good reason for the common remark that the name Jesus means Jehovah the Saviour.
A Jewish reader had a ready reply to the warning about the wilderness generation: their descendants did get into the land.
A natural objection comes up here, and the passage answers it fully. The Israelites had indeed fallen in the wilderness. But Joshua had brought the people into Canaan, which the unbelievers never reached. The Jews were there, so they did enter the rest that the others failed to reach. The answer is clear. It was long after this that God said through David, "I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'" If Joshua had given rest to Israel, David could not later have spoken of another day.
The force lies in the timing of the psalm, not merely in its words:
Even those who did enter into the land and had been so long in it, had not really entered God's rest, for there they were warned not to harden their hearts.
The verse does not deny that Joshua accomplished something. Israel genuinely settled and the fighting stopped — but only for a season, and only in part.
Israel having passed through the desert and at rest in the land (Joshua 23:1), not the rest that fulfils the purpose of God (see Heb. 4:8), but rest from war during the remainder of Joshua's life and his contemporaries, enough for God's purpose at that time.
Hebrews looks at two earlier rests and sets both aside.
restores creation line, ESV wording, simpler
This verse fits a pattern running through Hebrews. Christ takes the place of one honoured figure after another.
Hebrews 1 lays angels aside. Next we see Moses laid aside: "Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant ... but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son." We can part with Moses because we have Christ. Then in Hebrews 4 Joshua comes forward. But he too is set aside. "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on." Christ stands before me as the true Joshua, the one who truly gives me rest.
Hebrews 4 is often read as a promise of rest for the soul right now. One writer says that misses the point.
It does real harm to apply Hebrews 4 to the question of the soul's present rest by faith. That is not at all the point the apostle Paul is discussing there. His point is the danger for the believer of seeking rest now, since we are passing through the wilderness and have not yet reached Canaan. We are still pilgrims and strangers.
- Name — The "Jesus" of older translations here is Joshua. That Hebrew name means "Jehovah is salvation."
- Proof — David spoke of "another day" long after Canaan was occupied, so the land was never God's rest.
- Partial — Joshua gave real rest from war for his lifetime. It was enough for that moment, but never the rest that fulfils God's purpose.
- Remaining — What is left over is a sabbath-keeping, a rest not yet come.
- Pilgrims — Joshua's rest gave way to Christ's, so the danger now is settling down in a wilderness God never meant us to rest in.
There remains then a sabbatism to the people of God.
God's rest is the goal this letter sets before its readers. Israel lost that promise in the desert, but the writer says it is still open. One question drives the chapter: do believers have that rest now, or is it still ahead?
The word for "rest" in this verse is unusual. Older translations simply say "rest," while the ESV brings out its sense as "Sabbath rest."
The Sabbath was a picture. It pointed forward to the rest of God, and Hebrews 4 says He will bring us into that rest at last. When we read, "There remains therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb. 4:9), the margin tells us that the word for "rest" literally means "a keeping of a sabbath." Scripture uses that word nowhere else.
The word "remains" carries the argument, and the argument turns on dates. Joshua did bring Israel into Canaan. So why did God speak of His rest again, long afterwards, through David?
The Israelites had indeed fallen in the wilderness, but Joshua had brought the people into Canaan, which the unbelievers never reached... The answer is clear. Long after this, God said through David, "I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'" If Joshua had given rest to Israel, David could not have spoken later of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. It is yet to come, and God's word guarantees it.
The chapter calls it "My rest" and "His rest." That ownership shapes what the rest must be.
Notice here above all that the verse speaks of God's own rest. That lets us understand the happiness and perfection of the rest. God must rest in what satisfies His heart. This was true even in creation — everything was very good. And now, toward us, nothing less than a perfect blessing can satisfy that perfect love. We will have a heavenly portion in His own presence, in perfect holiness and perfect light.
If God's rest were open in this world, we would find God resting in it now. Instead, He works.
Blessed be His Name, He had not come into this world to rest. How could He rest — how could He keep a sabbath — surrounded by human need and misery?... And how could divine love rest while things were in such a state? Completely impossible. Love can only be a worker in a scene of sin and sorrow. From the moment of man's fall, the Father had been working. Then the Son appeared to carry on the work. And now the Holy Spirit is working. Work, and not rest, is the divine order in a world like this.
Commentators differ: is this rest present or future? One writer names the disagreement.
Calvin held that this is a question of the present rest which belongs to believers in Jesus. That seems to me completely contrary to the scope of the chapter. We are called to fear and to labour now; we are still in the wilderness, and are only on our way to the rest of God... It is not yet time for the believer to rest from his works. It is time to use diligence to enter that blessed rest. That rest has not arrived; it remains for the people of God.
That does not deny the peace a believer already has. It says the subject here is larger.
We must always insist that the believer has a present rest, both of conscience and of heart. But the rest spoken of here goes further. It points to the end and outcome of all God's purposes for His redeemed.
So what will believers rest from? Not what most people assume.
It is not rest from sin, but rest from labour. And not rest from labour because the labourer is tired, but rest because his work is done.
The verse names no location, and that silence is deliberate.
The great thought of the passage is that a rest remains. That is, the believer is not to expect it here. But the passage does not say where it is. It does not describe the rest in detail either, because that leaves the door open for an earthly rest for the earthly people, on the ground of the promises. Yet for Christians, who share in the heavenly calling, God's rest is plainly a heavenly one.
- Rest begun. God rests only in what satisfies His heart. In creation everything was very good, and the Sabbath is a picture of that rest.
- Rest broken. Sin made rest impossible for a God of love. So the Father works, the Son worked, and the Spirit works still.
- Rest promised. Canaan under Joshua did not fulfil it. Long afterwards David spoke of another day, so the promise still stands open.
- Rest remaining. It is God's own rest, and it lies at the end of the road, not along it. The peace of a cleared conscience is real, but it is not this.
- Rest finished. We will stop working as God did — not because we are tired, but because the work is done. Until then the order is diligence, not settling down.
For he that has entered into his rest, he also has rested from his works, as God did from his own.
This verse explains why a rest still remains for God's people. The one who enters it stops working, just as God stopped after creation. Three questions follow. Whose rest is it? When does it come? Which works are the ones that cease?
The verse calls it "God's rest." Commentators trace that rest through Israel's history and show that it still lay ahead.
The rest held out to Israel in that Psalm was not the rest they had under Joshua. The Psalm came centuries after they entered the land, and it spoke of the rest as still future. Nothing between David's day and the writing of this Letter could count as the fulfilment of the Psalm, and nothing since then either. So the rest of God that it speaks of must still be future. Whose rest is it? We think "His rest" here, as elsewhere, means God's own rest, which He holds out to us as a prospect.
A common reading treats this verse as the sinner giving up self-effort and finding peace. The writers say that peace is real, but it is not what this verse describes.
"Whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works" — and not only from sin. When God ceased, it was not from sin, but from labour. Godly works are not rest. God rests in Christ. I have ceased from my works as far as my conscience goes, because I have ceased from works for justification. I have not ceased from godly works — that rest has not come yet.
The verse measures our rest by God's rest, and that settles the argument. God had no evil works to stop from.
This verse states a general principle through the case it puts: we cannot be working and resting in the same things and in the same sense. When one has entered into his rest, he has also rested from his works. This is not the common idea of resting from bad works when a man gets peace with God. That may be true in itself, but it has nothing to do with what this verse says… God's works were never bad. They were always perfectly good. Yet He will rest even from the activity of His love, to enjoy the glorious results.
The rest belongs to God, so God decides what it is like. It also decides how much ends — not just sin, but the whole strain of the Christian life.
Notice here that it is the rest of God. This helps us understand how happy and perfect that rest is. God must rest in what satisfies His heart. That was true even in creation — all was very good… So all these will cease: the hard work of faith, the exercise of faith in the wilderness, the warfare (though there are many joys), the good works done there — labour of every kind. We shall not only be set free from the power of indwelling sin. All the efforts and all the troubles of the new man will cease… We shall rest from our works — and not from evil ones. The subject here is the Christian's rest from all his works.
Stopping because you are worn out is not the same as stopping because the job is done. The verse points to the second.
The great mark of this rest will be that toil stops, for "whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works." This settles a great truth. Whether it is God's heavenly rest for a heavenly people, or God's earthly rest for an earthly people, the rest is still future. It is a rest towards which faith is pressing on. Also, it is not rest from sin but rest from labour. The worker does not stop because he is tired. He stops because his work is finished.
The practical edge of the verse is the opposite of what people expect. Because rest is future, the present is for labour.
The bright day when we shall rest has not yet arrived. He therefore urges the saints to diligence in the meantime. Now is the time for work. Everyone who has the love of Christ must feel this in a world like ours, for the simple reason that sin and misery cover the world. Divine love, whether in God or in His people, refuses to rest in evil or in misery.
- Whose — the rest is God's own rest, held out to His people as a prospect, not something already reached.
- Which works — the pattern is God ceasing from works that were "very good," so the works that end are good ones, not sins.
- Not conscience — for the believer, rest from works for justification is already settled. This verse points to something still ahead.
- Why He stops — the labourer stops not from exhaustion but because the work is finished.
- So, now — while sin and misery remain, love cannot sit still; the present is for diligent work, and the rest comes after.
Let us therefore use diligence to enter into that rest, that no one may fall after the same example of not hearkening to the word.
This verse closes a long argument that started with Israel in the wilderness. God's rest is still ahead, and two questions press in at once: why work for a rest that God gives, and why warn believers about falling?
(Note: the ESV says "disobedience" where older translations say "unbelief." The quotes below use the older wording.)
The word here is not about earning. One writer points to how it reads elsewhere in the New Testament:
"Let us labour, therefore" (v. 11). The idea of working to earn the rest does not enter into this expression. The word in the original is not the usual word for "labour." Elsewhere the same word appears as "be diligent" (Titus 3:12) and "endeavouring" (Eph. 4:3). The force of the expression is, "Let us be diligent therefore to enter into that rest." No moral quality is worth more than diligence. Remember this: bringing human effort into salvation spoils the grace of God. But using the teachings of grace as an excuse for lazy Christians is just as harmful, in the opposite direction.
Many people read this verse as being about peace of conscience instead. One writer answers that reading head on:
In this Epistle the Spirit of God presses the need to go forward to the rest of God. I hold this to be the only genuine meaning. People often apply the words to rest of soul instead, and that use tends to weaken or destroy that rest. Verse 11 shows that rest of soul is not what the passage is about: "Let us labour (or, use diligence) therefore to enter into that rest." What kind of gospel would it be to tell people they must do that to get a clear conscience? Clearly it would upset the grace of God, because that is nothing other than salvation by works.
"That rest" is not Canaan, and it is not behind us. Israel's own history rules out the obvious answer:
In due time the people under Joshua entered the land. They rested after the long wilderness journey and after their wars in Canaan. In a measure that was rest for the nation (Deut. 12:9), but it is not the rest held out to us. It is just as clear that this is not the rest held out to Israel in that Psalm. That Psalm came centuries after they entered the land, and it still spoke of the rest as future. Nothing since David's day had fulfilled the Psalm when this Epistle appeared, and nothing has fulfilled it since. So the rest of God it speaks of must still be future.
If the rest is ahead, then the present is for effort, and the pull toward settling down is real:
Let us then be diligent to enter into that rest, refusing every other. Israel is the great example of falling through not listening to the Lord. This is the fatal disobedience spoken of here. They stumbled at the word, being disobedient. And such is the danger of all Christians now, as well as of those directly addressed. We stop short, grow weary, and make difficulties. We get preoccupied, distracted from God's objects, and drawn to things that are seen and temporal. We are called now to the work of faith and labour of love, while we patiently wait for rest in glory at Christ's coming.
The writer names who is in danger, and what pulls at them:
This is not labor for the rest. It means: be in earnest, be zealous, be sincere, "to enter into that rest." The warning reaches any of you who profess Christianity — especially those among the Hebrew professing Christians, whose constant temptation was to turn back to an earthly religion and to worldly ceremonies. The point is that none of you should "fall after the same example of unbelief."
The writer's own pronouns are the key to how the warning works:
Look at the forms of exhortation in this passage. They throw no doubt on the future of believers, even though they urge the readers in the strongest way to rouse themselves. When he warns the saints not to stop short, he says "you" (3:12, 4:1). When he urges them to press forward he says "us" (3:14, 4:14), and puts himself with them. He could not read their hearts. But each one, like him, should know whether he was really converted.
So who actually falls? One writer answers plainly:
Grace will prevent such a result. But the flesh — the working of man's will — must bring the unrenewed professor to exactly that.
- Diligence, not wages. The word behind "strive" means "be diligent." The effort follows salvation; it never buys it.
- Diligence toward what. The rest is God's own rest, not Canaan and not a quiet conscience. The Psalm still called it future long after Joshua.
- Diligence against what. We stop short, grow weary, get preoccupied, and drift toward what is seen and temporal.
- Diligence versus a pattern. Israel stumbled at the word. The danger now is turning back to an earthly religion after professing Christ.
- Diligence without dread. He says "us" when he urges them forward and "you" when he warns. Grace holds the believer; the warning exposes the professor.