Hebrews and the Rest that Remains
An Essay by Eugene Prewitt
The Problem
Hebrews four, at least as it reads in the King James Version, combines a number of statements about “rest” in such a way as to confuse me. And I think it is fair to extrapolate that fact to say that it confuses many.
The rest looks, sometimes, future. Other times, it looks to be at present. It looks to be God’s rest of the Sabbath that has been here for millennia. Then it looks like the rest of heaven (which most commentators have concluded it to be.) Some persons use the passage to prove that we should keep the Sabbath. Others use it to prove that born-again persons are spiritually keeping the Sabbath by their restful dependence on the grace of God.
And frankly, it is the devil’s very normal mode of operation to preach error and take for his text a confusing passage. If we feel that we can’t say what the passage really means, we hesitate to say that anyone else is wrong regarding its meaning. And so the Devil is bolder.
It is also normal for me to undervalue what I do know about a passage when struggling to understand a portion that I do not really understand. I will resist that tendency in this essay.
The Context and Message of Hebrews
Hebrews opens with one big idea. God spoke to His people many ways before Jesus came to earth. But at the last, God spoke through Jesus. This is the Jesus that created all things. And this is the Jesus that will inherit all things.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Heb 1:1-2
The remainder of chapter 1 contrasts Jesus with the angels. He is in every way more exalted. He is the Creator and they the created ones. He sends them to help us and they are sent.
That is how chapter two is introduced. In view of its Source, we ought to give special heed to the truth that angels have communicated.
For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; Heb 2:2-3
And why do men receive such valuable service by the angels? Why do they serve us and not rather we them? Because of our relation to Jesus, the one we have seen that is “appointed heir of all things.” Initially it was a man, Adam, that was set over the works on this planet. And that is the point Hebrews is making. Adam was set over the works of God’s hands.
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Heb 2:5-7
And this brings us back to the original point. Jesus is destined to inherit all things. But He has not inherited them yet. The things on earth are not “subject to him.”
But now we see not yet all things put under him. Heb 2:8
The next few verses address the important question: How does Christ’s exalted destiny benefit us? And the answer is that Jesus became a man, and so became the “captain” of our race. He tasted death for us so that we might taste the joys of what He deserves. He lives as our Priest to assure that we can inherit with Him the things that he inherits. He lives to comfort us.
For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. Heb 2:18
Chapter 3 begins by inviting us to “consider” Jesus in these dual roles of priest and apostle (one that has been sent). The Hebrews are invited to compare Christ to Moses. What do they have in common: They were faithful. How do they differ? Christ built the household of which Moses was a member.
And this brings us to our portion of Hebrews. Under what condition are we counted as part of Christ’s household, the one He created and faithfully cares for?
And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Heb 3:5-6
Endurance Makes the Difference
So being part of Christ’s “house” is not conditioned on an event. Those that are faithfully faithful to death are counted as His seed. (Faithfully faithful – that is, we should be talking and acting as if our faith were invincible, holding our “rejoicing” “firm” despite the changes in our feelings.)
If faithfulness is the condition of being part of Christ’s family, then Satan will aim at interrupting that very thing, faithfulness.
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, ‘To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: Heb 3:7-8
The passage goes on to quote a large portion of Psalm 95 that will be referred to over and over again in chapters 3 and 4. The idea is that “to day” is the day to be faithful. Today is the day to believe and obey rather than to “harden” the heart.
When the quotation from Psalms 95 closes (with the right parenthesis), the book comes right back to this point: Unbelief leads away from faithfulness and causes us to depart from “the living God.” In view of the significance of holding fast we are to encourage each other every day to be faithful.
‘So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.’) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; Heb 3:11-14
So Psalms 95 is brought into the narrative to encourage life-long faithfulness. What exactly does the passage say? This is the last half of the Psalm, the part used repeatedly in Hebrews:
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. Ps 95:7-11
The idea is very much like that of Hebrews 3. We are his flock, but on condition. We won’t be made to lie down beside green pastures any more than the ten spies were if we grieve the Lord the way they did. “Today” is the day to believe, to obey. And what is this word “rest” that concludes Psalm 95?
Rest in Scripture
Psalm 95 is rehearsing a story that is found in Numbers 14. Where Psalm 95 says “they should not enter my rest” the story in Numbers says “they shall not see the land that I swear unto their fathers.” “Doubtless ye shall not come into the land.” “And ye shall know my breach of promise.” Numbers 14:23, 30, 34.
Such oaths are found elsewhere. “And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, ‘Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers.’” Deuteronomy 1:34-35.
Was Canaan the promised rest? Joshua and Caleb and the second generation entered the land. And there they had a type of rest. They had rest from war[1], the gift of safety. Without such rest the promised land could hardly be a possession that fulfilled the promises.
… ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and … he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; Deuteronomy 12:10
… the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it. Deuteronomy 25:19
… And the land had rest from war. Joshua 14:15
If this kind of rest was the ultimate fulfillment of the promise (Genesis 12 and 15) then Joshua did, indeed, give the people this kind of rest. But, in fact, that kind of rest was only an early installment of the rest that the “fathers” were looking for. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had the new earth in mind when they were thinking about the “promises.” They were looking “afar off” into the future for the fulfillment of God’s covenant.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God…. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. . . Now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:8-16
The condition, that we have already observed, of being counted as part of the family that inherits this eternal rest, is holding fast to faith. How long must someone hold on? Until death. And so it is, in scripture, that death is pictured as the first installment of that eternal rest. Westerners have adopted this idea into their phrase “rest in peace.”
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Revelation 14:13
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. Revelation 6:11
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Acts 2:26
This places the timing of the conscious portion of our “rest” at the very end of time, at the resurrection of the just. That is when the unconscious portion of our rest ends. And for those that are troubled here on this earth, being relieved by Christ’s coming is a very sensible rest. That is the rest we anticipate.
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. 2 Thessalonians 1:7
As Canaan is to heaven, so is respite to the same. The refreshing seasons here are foretastes of the future. According to Baxter in The Saints Everlasting Rest it is our troubles that make us sensible of how precious our eternal rest will be. Rest from persecution was a welcome change to the early church. Acts 9:31. And a temporary rest from wearing labor was treasured by the apostles.
And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. Mark 6:31
These external periods of restfulness have their spiritual parallel. When we feel secure and right with God, when we are conscious of the grace that surrounds us, we have an internal rest that coexists well even with intense work, even with external troubles.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:28-29
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Jeremiah 6:16
God’s Rest
God is not inactive. Neither does Deity die. Nor is our Lord perplexed by the multitude of cares. So the rest we have described so far hardly applies to Him. Nevertheless, the Bible speaks of God’s rest. God rests securely “in His love.” He is confident regarding his people when they have no such confidence regarding their own future.
The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:17
And the Bible story very early notes God’s rest. After six days spent creating the world God rested. From other Bible information we might even gather that this rest was far more significant than it appears. If men were the last of the created intelligences and earth the last of the created habitats, then God rested from a much larger work than the creation of the planet. He rested, rather, from having finished the making of “all the hosts” of the heavenly bodies.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Genesis 2:1-3.