After the dire warning of the last chapter, you might think that the Hebrews found themselves well and truly warned. But our author knew of at least one more misconception- and it was one so pervasive, the Apostles had suffered from it, too:
Act 1:6 So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
How many times did He have to tell them, "My kingdom is not of this earth"? And yet, these Hebrews also labored under this misconception. And that comes across when the author spends most of this chapter on the subject of rest:
Heb 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
Heb 4:2 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.
Heb 4:3 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.
Heb 4:4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works."
Heb 4:5 And again in this passage he said, "They shall not enter my rest."
This may seem a little scattered to our minds, but let me make it linear. WE have a promised rest, God's rest, to Enter. We enter it by belief in Jesus, as against the unbelief we discussed last chapter. Those who were in unbelief would NOT enter that rest, and this is where their misconception started. They saw that the original refugees from Egypt had failed to enter the Promised Land. They assumed that the 'rest was entering the Promised Land, because:
Jos 24:13 I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.'
And:
Jos 1:14 Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them,
Jos 1:15 until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise."
They thought the rest was in this world. But they missed the part about "MY rest", as in 4:4, For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works." God was talking about a rest, a reward, not of this world. The author drove this home with simple math:
Heb 4:5 And again in this passage he said, "They shall not enter my rest."
Heb 4:6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,
Heb 4:7 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."
Heb 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.
Heb 4:9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,
Heb 4:10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Both the phrase "They shall not enter my rest" from Psalm 95, and the "Today" passage, also from it, were written down hundreds of years AFTER Joshua had lived. If the rest God was talking about had been the physical entering of Canaan, these would have been unnecessary. So now the goal posts were set far ahead, from this world into the next. They were now, officially, cut adrift from all they had known before. And being human, that would give them two options to think on.
First: If this world means nothing, and we're not bound by Moses or under the thumb of angels, we can do what we want. This is the reaction of the flesh, and probably most of us, on realizing what they had, might react in this direction. Thus, the author reminds them of the awesome power of God:
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Heb 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
And to our western eyes, we might have put the previous verse next:
Heb 4:11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
So now, we must find a different way to that obedience than what we have done before. We can't trust in angels, Moses, Joshua. How do we get there? The second action, therefore, would be despair. And the author had that covered as well:
Heb 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
This is a big tie-it-all-together verse for me. If you remember my last trip through Proverbs, I explained how I saw Christ as Understanding there. Not only is He understanding in the concept of helping us learn about God, He is understanding in the concept, as the ads say, that He gets us. All of us. And He has both spiritually and physically connected us to God, thus He is the triple bond drawing us to that rest. As much as the last chapter sounded a death-knell for those of the unbelief, this one ends on the bright, clear peal of faith:
Heb 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
