Each Thursday we will take a few minutes to examine three thoughts (or bullets) from the book of Hebrews. We encourage you to read the text, and consider the bullet points. Then join us in a simple prayer.
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. 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. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 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, 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.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 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. 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.
The now and the not yet elements of “rest”
The author starts chapter 4 by making a transition from the fiasco of the desert wanderers (who failed to enter God’s rest referenced in chapter 3) towards a call to his current audience to take care that they haven’t failed to enter that rest. But what, specifically, is the “rest” the author has in mind?
Commentators disagree greatly on this, some arguing that the rest being referenced is nothing more than a future eschatological state, a destination in the after-life.
But G. Theissen, on the other hand, has responded...by pointing out the association of “rest” with God’s rest on the seventh day. Commentators have noted that in Genesis 1–2 the first six days of creation have an end, or evening; the seventh day, however, is an “open-ended day,” which has no end. This, for Theissen, suggests that the rest must not be limited to a location and a point in time. God’s “rest” must be seen as a present reality. The present context, with its emphasis on “Today” as a present time of opportunity, seems to support this position.
Furthermore, how could those of the community seem to have fallen short now if the rest lies entirely in the future? If the concept of rest as discussed in Hebrews 4 has an entirely future orientation, all of the members of the community are short of achieving it at present. Although elements in Hebrews point to attainment of God’s promises in the future, the present appropriation of God’s “rest” must be considered an aspect of our author’s concern.
The writer of Hebrews seems to be returning again to a familiar theme, the now and the not yet of our reality as believers. As Guthrie writes, “Christian realities have been inaugurated but have yet to be consummated. Therefore, the “rest” is something a believer enters (and thus experiences) now, but this rest in its fullness remains a promised destination for the future.
“Sabbath Rest”
If you’ve ever read Hebrews 4 and wondered why the author mentions rest numerous times and then specifically refers to “sabbath rest” in verse 9 you’re not alone.
As Guthrie writes, the author of Hebrews is driving at a very specific idea. He says, “Up to this point in the discussion the author has used the term katapausis (“rest”) to communicate the concept of rest. In verse 9, however, he strategically introduces the word sabbatismos (the earliest known use of the word in Greek literature). He appears to have coined the word from the verb form sabbatizein, which means “to celebrate the Sabbath with praise.” Sabbatismos, therefore, may suggest the festive joy surrounding a celebration of the Sabbath, in which one joins in praise and adoration of God.
In Leviticus 16:29-31 and Leviticus 23:26-28, Moses associates the sabbath directly with the high-priestly offering on the day of atonement. By this lasting ordinance the people of God were not to do any work, and God would cleanse them from their sins.
Yet, the author of Hebrews is also urging his hearers to “strive to enter that rest,” (Heb 4:11). “Here, then, the reader confronts a paradox—the true, spiritual rest of God, in which one is cleansed from sin, may be entered not by cessation of effort but by its application. Rather than contradicting himself, the author has a specific theological framework in mind. Those of the desert wanderings failed to enter God’s promised rest (i.e., the land of promise) because they stopped short of obedience to God’s command to enter. Thus by disobeying, by distrusting God, and by taking their own counsel as to what would be best in the situation, they failed to enter God’s rest. Correspondingly, the hearers of Hebrews must not stop short of obedience to God’s call to enter the promised Sabbath rest of atonement. To stop short—that is, failing to combine hearing of the gospel with faith (i.e., trusting obedience; 4:1–2)—results in spiritual devastation.
The penetrating power of the word of God
Hebrews 4:12-13 is a very well known, and often quoted, passage of scripture. But, sometimes missed in the treatment of these verses is the author’s grounding in the Old Testament hermeneutic, specifically from Psalm 95.
“What should be pointed out from the beginning is that this description of God’s word echoes the author’s treatment of Psalm 95, with its emphasis on the “voice” of God that we should “hear” (95:7). Psalm 95, therefore, forms the basis for the author’s comments on “the word” in Hebrews 4:12–13.
In listing the parts of a person on which the word acts—“soul and spirit, joints and marrow”—the preacher simply proclaims the word’s ability to break past a surface religion to an inner, spiritual reality. Rather than dealing with externals such as religious observance, the penetrating word “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
The word translated “uncovered” (gymnos), which normally communicates nakedness or having a lack of adequate clothing, was also used figuratively of being helpless or unprotected. In the context of God’s penetrating word, the concept calls to mind a complete inability to hide anything from God’s gaze. Those who have not responded to God’s word in obedience are spiritually naked, vulnerable before his awesome gaze.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
There is nowhere that I can go to hide from you, and nothing that I have done, or neglected to do is hidden from your sight.
But in the midst of my sinfulness, I yearn for you. Sanctify me through your Spirit, as you call me toward yourself and away from the pleasures of this world.
Help me to be mindful of the present reality of your rest, that I may enter it.
Help me also to look forward with joy-filled anticipation, to the day when I will realize the full completeness of that rest.
I long to be with you, forever.
Amen