Hebrews Chapter 4

From The Open Bible Project

4:1 Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.

4:2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn't profit them, because it wasn't mixed with faith by those who heard.

• (1) By these words "His voice" he shows that David meant the preaching of Christ, who was then also preached, for Moses and the prophets honoured no one else.
• (a) He compares the preaching of the gospel to drink, which being drunk, that is to say, heard, profits nothing, unless it is mixed with faith.

4:3 For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, "As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;"[15] although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

• (2) Lest any man should object, that those words spoke refer to the land of Canaan and doctrine of Moses, and therefore cannot applied to Christ and to eternal life, the apostle shows that there are two types of rest spoken of in the scriptures: one being the seventh day, in which God is said to have rested from all his works, the other is said to be the rest into which Joshua led the people. This rest is not the last rest to which we are called, proven through two reasons. David long after, speaking to the people which were then placed in the land of Canaan, uses these words "Today" and threatens them still that they will not enter into the rest of God if they refuse the voice of God that sounded in their ears. We must say that he meant another time than that of Moses, and another rest than the land of Canaan. That rest is the everlasting rest, in which we begin to live to God, after the race of this life ceases. God rested the seventh day from his works, that is to say, from making the world. Moreover the apostle signifies that the way to this rest, which Moses and the land of Canaan, and all the order of the Law foreshadowed, is revealed in the Gospel only.

4:4 For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, "God rested on the seventh day from all his works;"[16]

4:5 and in this place again, "They will not enter into my rest."[17]

4:6 Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter therein, and they to whom the good news was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,

4:7 he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), "Today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts."[18]

4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.

• (b) He speaks of Joshua the son of Nun: and as the land of Canaan was a figure of our true rest, so was Joshua a figure of Christ.

4:9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

4:10 For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

• (c) As God rested the seventh day, so must we rest from our works, that is, from those things that proceed from our corrupt nature.

4:11 Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

• (3) He returns to an exhortation.
• (d) Lest any man become a similar example of infidelity.

4:12 For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

• (4) An amplification taken from the nature of the word of God, so powerful that it enters even to the deepest and most inward and secret parts of the heart, fatally wounding the stubborn, and openly reviving the believers.
• (e) The doctrine of God which is preached both in the law and in the gospel.
• (f) He calls the word of God living, because of the effect it has on those to whom it is preached.
• (g) He calls the seat of emotions "soul".
• (h) By "spirit" he means the mind.

4:13 There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

• (i) In God’s sight.

4:14 Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession.

• (5) Now he compares Christ’s priesthood with Aaron’s, and declares even in the very beginning the marvellous excellency of this priesthood, calling him the Son of God, and placing him in the seat of God in heaven, plainly and openly contrasting him with Aaron’s priests, and the transitory tabernacle. He expands on these comparisons in later passages.
• (k) And let it not go out of our hands.

4:15 For we don't have a high priest who can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

• (6) Lest he appear by the great glory of our High Priest, to prevent us from going to him, he adds after, that he is nonetheless our brother indeed, (as he proved before) and that he counts all our miseries as his own, to call us boldly to him.

4:16 Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.