Hebrews 4

== Hebrews 4 ==
=== Hebrews 4:1 ===
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Therefore refers back to the context of chapter 3 wherein the writer says that the Israelites that left Egypt were not allowed to enter the promised land due to unbelief (disobedience).  This is given as an example to Christians of the first century, a look at the nature of God and His justice, as well as understanding the need to complete the journey begun out of bondage into the promised land for the church.
In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel began after the type of immersion crossing the Red Sea.  When they went down into the midst of the waters, they were slaves.  When they came up out of the water on the other side, they were free and a new nation.  But many of them did not last long before they began to whine, to look back to their bondage and say that it was good.  They began to worship idols and eventually, when spying out the promised land, they lacked faith that God would provide what they needed to obtain it.
In the New Testament, the Christian nation began at the cross with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.  When individuals were immersed into Christ (first recorded in Acts 2) they were added to this nation, this body and freed from the bondage/slavery under the Old Law (those added for the first couple of decades were all Jews).  Later on, Gentiles were added.  However, the church still suffered in a wilderness of persecution.  Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 10 of this allegory for the church, how the Israelites wandering was a type pointing to what was going on in the first century.  Many wanted to go back into slavery (they wanted to go back to the law of Moses, give in to the Judaizing influence).  Others wanted to go back to worshipping idols.  Many lost faith before the wilderness of persecution ended and the promised land of the new heavens and new earth (see my article on 2 Peter 3) was achieved after the destruction of the Jewish State.
The writer of Hebrews is warning them not to falter as the Israelites did and come short of that rest from persecution at the hands of the Jews once that wandering period ended and the church was fully established.
=== Hebrews 4:2 ===
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
The gospel was preached to the faithful, but also to those who had first believed but fell away in unbelief, those who did not make it to the end of the persecution and establishment period.  To those who heard the gospel, first obeyed it, then turned their back on God in unbelief and disobedience, the gospel does nothing for them.  They are no longer saved, no longer covered by the blood of Christ.  A person who does not continue in obedient faith their whole life is the same as one who hears the gospel and does not ever believe in the first place.  They are lost.
The concept of eternal security is once again debunked by scripture.
=== Hebrews 4:3 ===
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Christians who maintain their faith will enter into this rest, this cessation of struggle akin to the Israelites in the wilderness.  They will make it to the otherside of the 'Jordan' where there is no more persecution from the Jews once the Jewish state has ended.  God had sworn in His wrath that those without belief (particularly the faithless Jews of the first century in this context) would not enter into His rest.  The KJV does not translate the passage well, setting up a negative as a condition.  Here, the faithless Jews would not partake in the new heavens and the new earth.  Their system would be destroyed.  This was the plan from the beginning of time.  When God spoke to Eve about her seed bruising the head of Satan, God already knew that Messiah would come through the Israelites, knew they would murder Him and persecute His bride, the church, and knew that they would in turn be destroyed by the Romans.
=== Hebrews 4:4 ===
4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
The writer here refers back to the foundational type referring to rest in Genesis 1-2 of the seven days of Creation, how God ceased from His labor on the 7th day.  The next type of rest was the Jewish sabbath enacted through the Law of Moses for the Israelites in Exodus 20:8-11 (and later the Jews)
=== Hebrews 4:5 ===
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
The Hebrew writer is quoting Psa 95:11.
These types pointed to the New Testament antitype of rest, the end of the labour of setting up the church.  At the cross, the church was founded.  For the next 40+ years, the apostles and Christians worked to establish the church as a spiritual nation.  Once the Jewish State was terminated and the new heavens and the new earth were installed, the 'creation' work was completed and those laboring to create it could cease working on that project.
=== Hebrews 4:6 ===
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
At the writing of Hebrews, there were still a few Jews who God knew would obey the gospel and convert to Christianity.  This would happen before the judgement against Jerusalem and the Jewish State.
=== Hebrews 4:7 ===
7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
The writer here quotes the Psalm of David (Psa 95).  Once the Israelites were in the promised land, David prophesied of another, future time, when the antitype of entering the promised land would happen.  In that time, there would be Jews who needed to repent and turn to God for good or be destroyed forever.  God has set a certain time frame in the first century for the Jews to repent and enter the kingdom of Christ before God's longsuffering ended and wrath came upon them.
=== Hebrews 4:8 ===
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
The KJV translates Yeshua here as Jesus, which is common, but this is actually Joshua in the book of Joshua who followed Moses and actually led the people into the promised land after the wandering in the wilderness ended.  Joshua brought them to their rest from labor in the wilderness, but spoke again of another rest looking forward.  If his rest in Canaan had been the final rest for the Jews, he would not have spoken of a further rest to follow.  This then shows that the rest of Canaan was a type pointing to the antitype the writer of Hebrews and Paul spoke of regarding the church after the labor of establishment was done.
=== Hebrews 4:9-10 ===
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.  10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
This rest, moving forward, for the Jews-as-Christians and the Christians as a whole, was still in the future but not far.  It would be a cessation from the Creation work of the new heavens and the new earth, of the establishment of the church and an end to the suffering in the wilderness of persecution.
This does not mean that Christians today don't have to work, to preach the gospel and save the lost.  It means that they ceased from that specific work of creation, the establishment of the church and enduring the wilderness of persecution.
=== Hebrews 4:11 ===
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
So the writer here encourages them to labor on, to finish this work and not fall into unbelief/disobedience as the Israelites before them.  If they had patience and endurance and continued to work until the creation job was finished, they would reap the reward of their work.
=== Hebrews 4:12 ===
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
So many times I've heard this passage used outside of the context of the whole passage.  While this does not change its meaning, it does reduce the effect it can have.  The labor of Christians during this time is to preach the gospel which was mighty to complete the work.  During this time, the gospel was being delivered to them.  It was the power of God unto salvation.  This meant it is also the power of God unto Creation.  In the sense of the individual, it was recreation of the old man into the new (Romans 6).  In the sense of the world order, it was a destruction of the 2nd heavens and earth (the Jewish State) and a recreation of the world as a new heavens and new earth (the Christian spiritual nation).
=== Hebrews 4:13 ===
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
God is omniscient and though there are those who would attempt to hide, to avoid the judgment that was coming while still disobeying the gospel and rejecting the Messiah, they would still be addressed.
=== Hebrews 4:14 ===
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
Jesus is our high priest.  He became so the moment He ascended into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God as king.  (See my article on the Kingdom of God/Christ/Heaven).  Because Jesus is our King, our champion who would destroy the number one adversary of the church, the Jewish state, the first century Christians (firstfruits) needed to keep on with the work they had been commissioned to complete.
=== Hebrews 4:15 ===
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus understood what they were going through.  He bore the first brunt of Jewish persecution during His ministry.  He was murdered for His teachings, for speaking of the kingdom He was there to establish, the church.  While He walked the Earth, Jesus was tempted in every way all other humans are tempted, specifically under the Law of Moses, and He never sinned.  Jesus understands and is our example.
=== Hebrews 4:16 ===
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Now, under the New Covenant, the Christians had a higher work, and in some ways an easier work.  They had obtained and preached true salvation found in Christ, not the condemnation of sin and death under Moses.  It was the gospel that saved them and gave them the claim, by Christ, to come to the throne of God and ask for help against their adversary, the Jews.
This is the book of Hebrews.  It is a practical version of Revelation, a precursor to the events described in it, a deliniation between the lesser, flawed system of Moses that could only condemn, and the better, perfect system of Christ that can save.
In Truth and Love.