Smoodock's Blog

Israel under Moses failed to enter the **rest** of God (Hebrews 3:11), due to unbelief or a lack of trust in the God who led them out of bondage (Hebrews 3:18-19). In Hebrews 4:1 Paul makes a new point, saying that there remains a promise unfulfilled by ancient Israel, and, since they couldn’t enter because of unbelief, then Paul’s readers needed to be careful or fear (G5399) that they, too, didn’t follow that same example of unbelief.

Paul was telling his readers that there remained a promise of rest that was never fulfilled by ancient Israel, because they refused to trust God, and the proof, showing that promise was never fulfilled, is the fact that it was later mentioned by David in Psalm 95:7-11 (cf. Hebrews 3:7-11). Remember, Paul was reasoning with folks who took the Scriptures of the Old Covenant as authoritative and decisive about a matter. He could not have been appealing to what we call the New Covenant. Rather, he was appealing to the Old Covenant and interpreting it in light of the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. Therefore, we may say, unequivocally, that Hebrews 3:11 does not refer to entering the Promised Land. Although, taking Canaan was, indeed, a type of that rest, it was never intended to **be** that rest, and David knew it and taught it (cf. Psalm 95:1-11).

The Greek word translated seem (G1380) is usually translated think in the New Covenant, and I believe it should be so translated here in Hebrews 4:1. Paul’s argument is “lest… any of you should think he has come too late.” That is, don’t think the **rest** had been fulfilled by Israel entering the Promised Land. In other words, Paul didn’t want his readers to neglect the “promise” and not enter the rest of God by default, believing it was already a completed act. For example, the fathers of the American Revolution gained independence from England for all Americans who would come afterward. Americans, today, can no longer do that, because our independence from England is a completed act. We are able to appreciate what the fathers of the American Revolution did, but they fulfilled the quest of independence for us. However, ancient Israel didn’t do on their part what the fathers of the American Revolution did on theirs. The didn’t enter **the rest of God** by taking the land of Canaan, simply because David spoke of still entering that rest centuries later (Psalm 95:1-11; 116:7).

Paul was telling his readers that they needed to be very careful that they didn’t fail to enter the rest of God by default. In other words, it would be wrong to believe the Law fulfilled what God required of them, and the Messiah, therefore, was merely someone who was a part of that whole. That idea, in effect, would reject Jesus as their Messiah, for in reality it is Jesus, not the Law, who fulfills the whole and leads believers into a New Covenant. Entering the Promised Land and the receiving of the Law were but shadows of what was to occur in Christ (cf. Colossians 2:16-17). He is the Reality that casts the shadow, and the act of taking Canaan was a shadow or a type of resting in the completed work of Christ.

[1] See my earlier studies: Is The Lord Among Us or Not? and Monotheism v/s Polytheism.