Biblion Bible Commentary
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A Rest That Remains
Hebrews 4:1-7
1 Let’s fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest. · WEB
The same message reached two generations with opposite results, and the one variable named is faith.
Let's fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.
Fear is prescribed, which is unusual in a letter this concerned with confidence. What it is fear of is stated exactly: not of punishment but of coming short — arriving late, missing something that was available.
Verse 2 then states the parallel that governs the chapter: we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did.
The wilderness generation is described as having been evangelized. The same kind of announcement reached them, so the difference in outcome cannot be explained by a difference in message.
And the one variable is named: the word they heard didn't profit them, because it wasn't mixed with faith by those who heard. The image is of two things combined to make a third — a word alone does nothing, and the additive is faith. Which is the same conclusion the last verse of chapter 3 reached from the other direction Hebrews 3:19.
Verse 3 states the positive case in the present tense — we who have believed do enter into that rest — and then does something unexpected with the oath. Having quoted they will not enter into my rest, the writer adds: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
So the rest was not created for the wilderness generation and was not consumed by their refusal. It has been there since the works were finished, which is what verse 4 establishes: God rested on the seventh day from all his works.
That is the ground of the whole argument. The rest in question is anchored in creation rather than in Canaan, and its availability therefore does not depend on any later event going well.
Verse 6 draws the inference: it remains that some should enter into it. A promise that has not been used is still outstanding, and the ones who failed did so because of disobedience.
And verse 7 says what God did about that: he again defines a certain day, "today", saying through David so long a time afterward.
The offer is re-dated. Long after the exclusion, the same word is issued again through a psalm — and the writer's point is that the re-issuing proves the thing had not lapsed.
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