Hebrews 4

Heb 4:1-16.

THE

PROMISE OF

GOD'S

REST

IS

FULLY

REALIZED THROUGH

CHRIST:

LET

US

STRIVE TO

OBTAIN

IT BY

HIM,

OUR

SYMPATHIZING

HIGH

PRIEST.

1. Let us . . . fear--not with slavish terror, but

godly "fear and trembling"

(Php 2:12).

Since so many have fallen, we have cause to fear

(Heb 3:17-19).

being left us--still remaining to us after the others

have, by neglect, lost it.

his rest--God's heavenly rest, of which Canaan is the type.

"To-day" still continues, during which there is the danger of failing

to reach the rest. "To-day," rightly used, terminates in the

rest which, when once obtained, is never lost

(Re 3:12).

A foretaste of the rest Is given in the inward rest which the

believer's soul has in Christ.

should seem to come short of it--Greek, "to have

come short of it"; should be found, when the great trial of all

shall take place [ALFORD], to have fallen short of

attaining the promise. The word "seem" is a mitigating mode of

expression, though not lessening the reality. BENGEL and OWEN take it, Lest there

should be any semblance or appearance of falling short.

2. gospel preached . . . unto them--in type: the

earthly Canaan, wherein they failed to realize perfect rest, suggesting

to them that they should look beyond to the heavenly land of rest, to

which faith is the avenue, and from which unbelief

excludes, as it did from the earthly Canaan.

the word preached--literally, "the word of hearing": the word

heard by them.

not being mixed with faith in them that heard--So the

Syriac and the Old Latin Versions, older than any of our

manuscripts, and LUCIFER, read, "As the world did

not unite with the hearers in faith." The word heard being the food

which, as the bread of life, must pass into flesh and blood through

man's appropriating it to himself in faith. Hearing alone is of as

little value as undigested food in a bad stomach [THOLUCK]. The whole of oldest extant manuscript

authority supports a different reading, "unmingled as they were

(Greek accusative case agreeing with 'them') in faith with its

hearers," that is, with its believing, obedient hearers, as

Caleb and Joshua. So "hear" is used for "obey" in the context,

Heb 4:7,

"To-day, if ye will hear His voice." The disobedient, instead of being

blended in "the same body," separated themselves as Korah: a tacit

reproof to like separatists from the Christian assembling together

(Heb 10:25;

Jude 19).

3. For--justifying his assertion of the need of "faith,"

Heb 4:2.

we which have believed--we who at Christ's coming shall be found

to have believed.

do enter--that is, are to enter: so two of the oldest

manuscripts and LUCIFER and the old Latin.

Two other oldest manuscripts read, "Let us enter."

into rest--Greek, "into the rest" which is

promised in the ninety-fifth Psalm.

as he said--God's saying that unbelief excludes from

entrance implies that belief gains an entrance into the rest.

What, however, Paul mainly here dwells on in the quotation is that the

promised "rest" has not yet been entered into. At

Heb 4:11

he again, as in

Heb 3:12-19

already, takes up faith as the indispensable qualification for

entering it.

although, &c.--Although God had finished His works of creation

and entered on His rest from creation long before Moses' time,

yet under that leader of Israel another rest was promised, which most

fell short of through unbelief; and although the rest in Canaan was

subsequently attained under Joshua, yet long after, in David's days,

God, in the ninety-fifth Psalm, still speaks of the rest of God

as not yet attained. THEREFORE, there must be

meant a rest still future, namely, that which "remaineth for the

people of God" in heaven,

Heb 4:3-9,

when they shall rest from their works, as God did from His,

Heb 4:10.

The argument is to show that by "My rest," God means a future rest, not

for Himself, but for us.

finished--Greek, "brought into existence," "made."

4. he spake--God

(Ge 2:2).

God did rest the seventh day--a rest not ending with the seventh

day, but beginning then and still continuing, into which believers

shall hereafter enter. God's rest is not a rest necessitated by

fatigue, nor consisting in idleness, but is that upholding and

governing of which creation was the beginning [ALFORD]. Hence Moses records the end of each of the

first six days, but not of the seventh.

from all his works--Hebrew,

Ge 2:2,

"from all His work." God's "work" was one, comprehending,

however, many "works."

5. in this place--In this passage of the Psalm again, it is

implied that the rest was even then still future.

6. it remaineth--still to be realized.

some must enter--The denial of entrance to unbelievers is a

virtual promise of entrance to those that believe. God wishes not His

rest to be empty, but furnished with guests

(Lu 14:23).

they to whom it was first preached entered not--literally, "they

who first (in the time of Moses) had the Gospel preached to them,"

namely, in type, see on

Heb 4:2.

unbelief--Greek, rather "disobedience" (see on

Heb 3:18).

7. Again--Anew the promise recurs. Translate as the

Greek order is, "He limited a certain day, 'To-day.'" Here Paul

interrupts the quotation by, "In (the Psalm of) David saying after so

long a time (after five hundred years' possession of Canaan)," and

resumes it by, "as it has been said before (so the

Greek oldest manuscript, before, namely,

Heb 3:7, 15),

To-day if ye hear His voice," &c. [ALFORD].

8. Answer to the objection which might be made to his reasoning,

namely, that those brought into Canaan by Joshua (so "Jesus" here

means, as in

Ac 7:45)

did enter the rest of God. If the rest of God meant Canaan, God

would not after their entrance into that land, have spoken (or speak

[ALFORD]) of another (future) day of entering the

rest.

9. therefore--because God "speaks of another day" (see on

Heb 4:8).

remaineth--still to be realized hereafter by the "some (who)

must enter therein"

(Heb 4:6),

that is, "the people of God," the true Israel who shall enter into

God's rest ("My rest,"

Heb 4:3).

God's rest was a Sabbatism; so also will ours be.

a rest--Greek, "Sabbatism." In time there are many

Sabbaths, but then there shall be the enjoyment and keeping of a

Sabbath-rest: one perfect and eternal. The "rest" in

Heb 4:8

is Greek, "catapausis;" Hebrew, "Noah";

rest from weariness, as the ark rested on Ararat after its tossings to

and fro; and as Israel, under Joshua, enjoyed at last rest from war in

Canaan. But the "rest" in this

Heb 4:9

is the nobler and more exalted (Hebrew) "Sabbath"

rest; literally, "cessation": rest from work when

finished

(Heb 4:4),

as God rested

(Re 16:17).

The two ideas of "rest" combined, give the perfect view of the heavenly

Sabbath. Rest from weariness, sorrow, and sin; and rest in the

completion of God's new creation

(Re 21:5).

The whole renovated creation shall share in it; nothing will there be

to break the Sabbath of eternity; and the Triune God shall rejoice in

the work of His hands

(Zep 3:17).

Moses, the representative of the law, could not lead Israel into

Canaan: the law leads us to Christ, and there its office ceases, as

that of Moses on the borders of Canaan: it is Jesus, the antitype of

Joshua, who leads us into the heavenly rest. This verse indirectly

establishes the obligation of the Sabbath still; for the type continues

until the antitype supersedes it: so legal sacrifices continued till

the great antitypical Sacrifice superseded it, As then the antitypical

heavenly Sabbath-rest will not be till Christ, our Gospel Joshua,

comes, to usher us into it, the typical earthly Sabbath must continue

till then. The Jews call the future rest "the day which is all

Sabbath."

10. For--justifying and explaining the word "rest," or

"Sabbatism," just used (see on

Heb 4:9).

he that is entered--whosoever once enters.

his rest--God's rest: the rest prepared by God for

His people [ESTIUS]. Rather, "His rest":

the man's rest: that assigned to him by God as his. The

Greek is the same as that for "his own" immediately after.

hath ceased--The Greek aorist is used of indefinite time,

"is wont to cease," or rather, "rest": rests. The past

tense implies at the same time the certainty of it, as also that

in this life a kind of foretaste in Christ is already given [GROTIUS]

(Jer 6:16;

Mt 11:28, 29).

Our highest happiness shall, according to this verse, consist in our

being united in one with God, and moulded into conformity with Him as

our archetype [CALVIN].

from his own works--even from those that were good and suitable

to the time of doing work. Labor was followed by rest even in Paradise

(Ge 2:3, 15).

The work and subsequent rest of God are the archetype to which we

should be conformed. The argument is: He who once enters rest, rests

from labors; but God's people have not yet rested from them, therefore

they have not yet entered the rest, and so it must be still future.

ALFORD translates, "He that entered into his (or

else God's, but rather 'his';

Isa 11:10,

'His rest': 'the joy of the Lord,'

Mt 25:21, 23)

rest (namely, Jesus, our Forerunner,

Heb 4:14; 6:20,

'The Son of God that is passed through the heavens': in contrast

to Joshua the type, who did not bring God's people into

the heavenly rest), he himself (emphatical) rested from

his works

(Heb 4:4),

as God (did) from His own" (so the Greek, "works"). The

argument, though generally applying to anyone who has entered his

rest, probably alludes to Jesus in particular, the antitypical

Joshua, who, having entered His rest at the Ascension, has ceased or

rested from His work of the new creation, as God on the seventh day

rested from the work of physical creation. Not that He has ceased to

carry on the work of redemption, nay, He upholds it by His mediation;

but He has ceased from those portions of the work which constitute the

foundation; the sacrifice has been once for all accomplished. Compare

as to God's creation rest, once for all completed, and rested from, but

now still upheld (see on

Heb 4:4).

11. Let us . . . therefore--Seeing such a promise is

before us, which we may, like them, fall short of through unbelief.

labour--Greek, "strive diligently."

that rest--which is still future and so glorious. Or, in

ALFORD'S

translation of

Heb 4:10,

"That rest into which Christ has entered before"

(Heb 4:14;

Heb 6:20).

fall--with the soul, not merely the body, as the rebel

Israelites fell

(Heb 3:17).

after the same example--ALFORD translates,

"fall into the same example." The less prominent place of the

"fall" in the Greek favors this. The sense is, "lest any fall

into such disobedience (so the Greek for 'unbelief'

means) as they gave a sample of" [GROTIUS]. The

Jews say, "The parents are a sign (warning) to their sons."

12. For--Such diligent striving

(Heb 4:11)

is incumbent on us FOR we have to do with a God

whose "word" whereby we shall be judged, is heart-searching, and whose

eyes are all-seeing

(Heb 4:13).

The qualities here attributed to the word of God, and the whole

context, show that it is regarded in its JUDICIAL

power, whereby it doomed the disobedient Israelites to exclusion from

Canaan, and shall exclude unbelieving so-called Christians from the

heavenly rest. The written Word of God is not the prominent thought

here, though the passage is often quoted as if it were. Still the word

of God (the same as that preached,

Heb 4:2),

used here in the broadest sense, but with special reference to its

judicial power, INCLUDES the Word of God,

the sword of the Spirit with double edge, one edge for convicting and

converting some

(Heb 4:2),

and the other for condemning and destroying the unbelieving

(Heb 4:14).

Re 19:15

similarly represents the Word's judicial power as a sharp sword going

out of Christ's mouth to smite the nations. The same word which

is saving to the faithful

(Heb 4:2)

is destroying to the disobedient

(2Co 2:15, 16).

The personal Word, to whom some refer the passage, is not here meant:

for He is not the sword, but has the sword. Thus

reference to Joshua appropriately follows in

Heb 4:8.

quick--Greek, "living"; having living power, as "the rod

of the mouth and the breath of the lips" of "the living God."

powerful--Greek, "energetic"; not only living, but

energetically efficacious.

sharper--"more cutting."

two-edged--sharpened at both edge and back. Compare "sword of

the Spirit . . . word of God"

(Eph 6:17).

Its double power seems to be implied by its being "two-edged."

"It judges all that is in the heart, for there it passes through, at

once punishing [unbelievers] and searching [both believers and

unbelievers]" [CHRYSOSTOM]. PHILO similarly speaks of "God passing between the parts

of Abraham's sacrifices

(Ge 15:17,

where, however, it is a 'burning lamp' that passed between the pieces)

with His word, which is the cutter of all things: which sword, being

sharpened to the utmost keenness, never ceases to divide all sensible

things, and even things not perceptible to sense or physically

divisible, but perceptible and divisible by the word." Paul's early

training, both in the Greek schools of Tarsus and the Hebrew

schools at Jerusalem, accounts fully for his acquaintance with Philo's

modes of thought, which were sure to be current among learned Jews

everywhere, though Philo himself belonged to Alexandria, not Jerusalem.

Addressing Jews, he by the Spirit sanctions what was true in their

current literature, as he similarly did in addressing Gentiles

(Ac 17:28).

piercing--Greek, "coming through."

even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit--that is,

reaching through even to the separation of the animal soul, the

lower part of man's incorporeal nature, the seat of animal desires,

which he has in common with the brutes; compare the same Greek,

1Co 2:14,

"the natural [animal-souled] man"

(Jude 19),

from the spirit (the higher part of man, receptive of the Spirit of

God, and allying him to heavenly beings).

and of the joints and marrow--rather, "(reaching even

TO) both the joints (so as to divide them)

and marrow." Christ "knows what is in man"

(Joh 2:25):

so His word reaches as far as to the most intimate and accurate

knowledge of man's most hidden parts, feelings, and thoughts, dividing,

that is, distinguishing what is spiritual from what is

carnal and animal in him, the spirit from the

soul: so

Pr 20:27.

As the knife of the Levitical priest reached to dividing parts, closely

united as the joints of the limbs, and penetrated to the

innermost parts, as the marrows (the Greek is

plural); so the word of God divides the closely joined parts of

man's immaterial being, soul and spirit, and penetrates to the

innermost parts of the spirit. The clause (reaching even to)

"both the joints and marrow" is subordinate to the clause, "even

to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." (In the oldest manuscripts

as in English Version, there is no "both," as there is in the

clause "both the joints and . . . which marks

the latter to be subordinate). An image (appropriate in addressing

Jews) from the literal dividing of joints, and penetrating to, so as to

open out, the marrow, by the priest's knife, illustrating the

previously mentioned spiritual "dividing of soul from spirit," whereby

each (soul as well as spirit) is laid bare and "naked" before God; this

view accords with

Heb 4:13.

Evidently "the dividing of the soul from the spirit" answers to the

"joints" which the sword, when it reaches unto, divides

asunder, as the "spirit" answers to the innermost "marrow." "Moses

forms the soul, Christ the spirit. The soul draws with it the body; the

spirit draws with it both soul and body." ALFORD'S

interpretation is clumsy, by which he makes the soul itself, and

the spirit itself, to be divided, instead of the soul

from the spirit: so also he makes not only the joints to

be divided asunder, but the marrow also to be divided (?). The

Word's dividing and far penetrating power has both a punitive and a

healing effect.

discerner of the thoughts--Greek, "capable of judging the

purposes."

intents--rather, "conceptions" [CRELLIUS];

"ideas" [ALFORD]. AS the Greek for

"thoughts" refers to the mind and feelings, so that for

"intents," or rather "mental conceptions," refers to the

intellect.

13. creature--visible or invisible.

in his sight--in God's sight

(Heb 4:12).

"God's wisdom, simply manifold, and uniformly multiform, with

incomprehensible comprehension, comprehends all things

incomprehensible."

opened--literally, "thrown on the back so as to have the neck

laid bare," as a victim with neck exposed for sacrifice. The

Greek perfect tense implies that this is our continuous

state in relation to God. "Show, O man, shame and fear

towards thy God, for no veil, no twisting, bending, coloring, or

disguise, can cover unbelief" (Greek, 'disobedience,'

Heb 4:11).

Let us, therefore, earnestly labor to enter the rest lest any fall

through practical unbelief

(Heb 4:11).

14. Seeing then--Having, therefore; resuming

Heb 2:17.

great--as being "the Son of God, higher than the heavens"

(Heb 7:26):

the archetype and antitype of the legal high priest.

passed into the heavens--rather, "passed through the

heavens," namely, those which come between us and God, the aerial

heaven, and that above the latter containing the heavenly bodies, the

sun, moon, &c. These heavens were the veil which our High Priest

passed through into the heaven of heavens, the immediate

presence of God, just as the Levitical high priest passed through the

veil into the Holy of Holies. Neither Moses, nor even Joshua, could

bring us into this rest, but Jesus, as our Forerunner, already

spiritually, and hereafter in actual presence, body, soul, and spirit,

brings His people into the heavenly rest.

Jesus--the antitypical Joshua

(Heb 4:8).

hold fast--the opposite of "let slip"

(Heb 2:1);

and "fall away"

(Heb 6:6).

As the genitive follows, the literally, sense is, "Let us

take hold of our profession," that is, of the faith and hope

which are subjects of our profession and confession. The accusative

follows when the sense is "hold fast" [TITTMANN].

15. For--the motive to "holding our profession"

(Heb 4:14),

namely the sympathy and help we may expect from our High Priest. Though

"great"

(Heb 4:14),

He is not above caring for us; nay, as being in all points one with us

as to manhood, sin only excepted, He sympathizes with us in every

temptation. Though exalted to the highest heavens, He has changed His

place, not His nature and office in relation to us, His condition, but

not His affection. Compare

Mt 26:38,

"watch with me": showing His desire in the days of His flesh for the

sympathy of those whom He loved: so He now gives His suffering

people His sympathy. Compare Aaron, the type, bearing the names

of the twelve tribes in the breastplate of judgment on his heart, when

he entered into the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord

continually

(Ex 28:29).

cannot be touched with the feeling of--Greek, "cannot

sympathize with our infirmities": our weaknesses, physical and

moral (not sin, but liability to its assaults). He, though sinless, can

sympathize with us sinners; His understanding more acutely perceived

the forms of temptation than we who are weak can; His will repelled

them as instantaneously as the fire does the drop of water cast into

it. He, therefore, experimentally knew what power was needed to

overcome temptations. He is capable of sympathizing, for He was at the

same time tempted without sin, and yet truly tempted [BENGEL]. In Him alone we have an example suited to men of

every character and under all circumstances. In sympathy He adapts

himself to each, as if He had not merely taken on Him man's nature in

general, but also the peculiar nature of that single individual.

but--"nay, rather, He was (one) tempted"

[ALFORD].

like as we are--Greek, "according to (our) similitude."

without sin--Greek, "choris," "separate

from sin"

(Heb 7:26).

If the Greek "aneu" had been used, sin would have

been regarded as the object absent from Christ the subject; but

choris here implies that Christ, the subject, is regarded

as separated from sin the object [TITTMANN]. Thus,

throughout His temptations in their origin, process, and result, sin

had nothing in Him; He was apart and separate from it [ALFORD].

16. come--rather as Greek, "approach," "draw near."

boldly--Greek, "with confidence," or "freedom of speech"

(Eph 6:19).

the throne of grace--God's throne is become to us a throne of

grace through the mediation of our High Priest at God's right hand

(Heb 8:1; 12:2).

Pleading our High Priest Jesus' meritorious death, we shall always find

God on a throne of grace. Contrast Job's complaint

(Job 23:3-8)

and Elihu's " IF," &c.

(Job 33:23-28).

obtain--rather, "receive."

mercy--"Compassion," by its derivation (literally, fellow

feeling from community of suffering), corresponds to the

character of our High Priest "touched with the feeling of our

infirmities"

(Heb 4:15).

find grace--corresponding to "throne of grace."

Mercy especially refers to the remission and removal of sins;

grace, to the saving bestowal of spiritual gifts [ESTIUS]. Compare "Come unto Me . . . and I

will give you rest (the rest received on first

believing). Take My yoke on you . . . and ye shall

find rest (the continuing rest and peace found in daily

submitting to Christ's easy yoke; the former answers to "receive

mercy" here; the latter, to "find grace,"

Mt 11:28, 29).

in time of need--Greek, "seasonably." Before we are

overwhelmed by the temptation; when we most need it, in temptations and

persecutions; such as is suitable to the time, persons, and end

designed

(Ps 104:27).

A supply of grace is in store for believers against all exigencies; but

they are only supplied with it according as the need arises. Compare

"in due time,"

Ro 5:6.

Not, as ALFORD explains, "help in time," that is,

to-day, while it is yet open to us; the accepted time

(2Co 6:2).

help--Compare

Heb 2:18,

"He is able to succor them that are tempted."