or we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? (Heb. 3:14-18)
When the church faces times of great trial, such as that faced by Moses' Israel in the wilderness, the previously hidden natures of men are made visible. Some fall quickly to doubt and despair, crying, "There are giants in the land, we cannot take it." Others in faith declare: "We are well able to take the land, for God is with us." This second group of men are confident not in themselves but in the Lord to carry out His promises. When Joshua and Caleb held on to their confidence in the face of opposition, they demonstrated that they were indeed men of faith. So also the recipients of the letter to the Hebrews were to show that they had become partakers of Christ by holding on to their confidence steadfast to the end, insuring that they would enter God's rest.
The author of Hebrews makes a comparison between the Israelites of old and his readers because of their similar situations. God did not allow Israel under Moses to enter His rest because of unbelief (v. 19). The recipients of this letter were in danger of not entering God's rest for the same reason.
To understand how, we need to examine what this rest is. First, it is not the land of Canaan, entered forty years later under Joshua, for if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day (Heb. 4:8). The afterward refers to the fact that the psalm quoted which looks forward to the day of God's rest (Psalm 95) was written by David, long after Israel had entered Canaan. Secondly, God's rest here described is not the heavenly rest, entered by the believer at death. Neither Moses nor Joshua could have brought the Israelites into heaven, even if the faith of Israel had not failed. And neither possibility fits the context of the letter, which describes the superiority of the religion of Jesus Christ over anything found in Judaism.
The rest is thus the salvation rest which is entered by believers in this life as they respond in faith to the gospel. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest (Heb. 4:1-3). The gospel which was preached to Israel is not here described by the author. Elsewhere Paul says that the gospel was preached to Abraham in the promise: In you all the nations shall be blessed (Gal. 3:8). When this gospel was repeated in its various forms to Israel throughout their history, especially in the Mosaic covenant, they turned from it in disbelief and disobedience. But God's
promises cannot be annulled, and so the promise of entering His rest still stands, since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience (Heb. 4:6).
There are many aspects to this rest, but that aspect which best fits the theme of the letter is the rest that is obtained by leaving behind the Mosaic institution of worship, especially as it had been corrupted by the Jews up to the first century, with its endless sacrifices and innumerable rules.
It is a rest from works, similar to the rest observed by God on the seventh day of Creation, as it says: For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His (Heb. 4:10, cf. 4:4). Jesus used similar language to call the people out from the burden of Judaism when He said, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28).
What danger concerning this rest were the Hebrews being warned against? The hearers were in danger of not entering this rest (Heb. 3:11), coming short of it (4:1), and departing from the God who gives it (3:12). There may have been some among them who were tempted to depart from Christian worship and return to the works of defunct and fading Judaism. The Jewish religion would have had a strong pull for converted Jews at this time for a number of reasons.
For example, Christianity had none of the ritualisms to which they would have been accustomed: no visible Temple, no altar, no priests, no sacrifices. And if the persecutions of Rome were falling upon the Christians at this time, the temptation to apostatize to Judaism would be especially strong. Turning away from faith toward the works of Judaism would prevent these Jews, like Israel of old, from fully obtaining God's rest. In addition, there were warnings also throughout this letter that the Jewish religion, and Jerusalem itself, were soon to come to an end (cf. Heb. 8:13; 10:25; 12:27; 13:14).
And so from this point forward in Hebrews the author's effort is to show the readers not only that Christ is superior -- which has been the theme up to this point -- but also that Christianity is superior to Judaism in every way, as reality is superior to the picture. We need to keep this mind as we continue in our study of this letter.
But more importantly, we need to take to heart and apply the command given to the Hebrews here:
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience
(Heb. 4:11). The temptation to return to a religion of shadows -- faced by the initial readers of Hebrews -- was not limited to the first century. Watch your life and doctrine, lest you begin to seek after a religion of works and ritual,
rather than that of faith and rest.
