Question:
Please explain the rest spoken of in Hebrews 4:1-9. Some have thought that the rest of the Sabbath is referred to; others, the rest of the children of Israel after they entered the land.
Answer:
The one thing above all referred to is God’s great, eternal rest. All other rests were types or shadows or pledges of that rest. Before sin entered, that rest was assured when God created the earth and gave it to men. God rested on the seventh day. That was God’s pledge of eternal rest and eternal Sabbath-keeping to His people, for the Sabbath pertains not simply to one day of the week but to all time. But because of sin, man failed to enter the rest then. He brought misery and unrest upon the race. God offered it to His people when He called them out of Egypt. He tells us that men’s days would have been “as the days of heaven upon the earth” if they had obeyed Him but failed again. (See Deuteronomy 11:21). They did not enter into His rest because of unbelief, so Hebrews 4:8 implies that Joshua (“Jesus” in the Common Version; “Joshua” is the Hebrew form, of which “Jesus” is the Greek form) did not give them rest. Therefore the Lord referred to another day, quoting from the Psalms. It was “to-day” then that they could enter His spiritual rest. Our Lord Jesus Christ offers us the same rest, giving up our sins and our own works and accepting the rest in Christ Jesus and His works. For that rest, the Sabbath is a pledge, and he only truly keeps the Sabbath who knows the rest of Christ. That rest is a pledge of eternal rest when all God’s children enter the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world.
