Hebrews 4:6–10

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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).

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.

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.

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).

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.

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?

"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."

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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 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.