Hebrews 4:1-5: Entering Into His Rest
2022-10-01
Hebrews 4:1
The Fear of the Lord
Many people believe fear is just being in awe of God. This is only part of the picture. To fear is also to be afraid. We should be afraid. He is the Lord of glory, who is all-powerful over everything.
Consider the fear of the Lord elsewhere in Scripture: “And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28).
If you are wise, you will fear the LORD. He has everything in His hands. To fear something else is to fear a subordinate and an inferior. If you follow the parallelism here, you see that fear is not just something internal; it causes a response: “to depart from evil.” If you truly understand your place before God and God’s sovereign power over all things, you will respond by running from evil.
The fear of the Lord also is demonstrated in following his commandments. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever” (Psalms 111:10).
The fear or the Lord results in the hatred of evil. “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Proverbs 8:13).
The fear or the Lord lengthens your life. “The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened” (Proverbs 10:27). This is very applicable to the subject at hand. The fear of the Lord leads to resting in Him, and trust in Him is salvation.
As a result, we have confidence when we fear the Lord and not another. “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge” (Proverbs 14:26). We have confidence, as we will see in Hebrews 4:16. If our confidence is in Christ, the rest of our circumstances should not matter.
The fear of the Lord is life, not death. “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:27). Again, “The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil” (Proverbs 19:23)
The churches of Israel had both the fear of the Lord and comfort in the Holy Spirit. “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied” (Acts 9:31). It is not a contradiction to fear the Lord and have comfort at the same time. As little children fear the parents because of the consequences of their potential actions, we fear the heavenly Father, but we have comfort in His provision and love.
Consider more about fear here.
Seem to Come Short of It
So why fear the Lord? Why be afraid? Why have terror in your heart? Because the Son of God should not be taken lightly. “Oh yeah, I went forward in some service at some time because the preacher told me to. I’m good.” Many think of conversion as something that we did at sometime in the past. Of course, our conversion happened at some point in the past. But what impact does it have in our lives now? If everything now is not contingent on our conversion then, then something is wrong.
The phrase “come short” is used elsewhere: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The truly unconverted “come short.” Playing church and playing Christianity, but not truly believing and being converted comes short just like any regular unbeliever that rejects Christ. In fact, such a one is worse off. Consider 2 Peter 2:20-22. One who has perfect knowledge of the way of salvation but remains unsaved is worse off than someone who never knew it. They have more responsibility because they have known the truth but had never truly believed it.
Hebrews 4:2
The Gospel (good news) was preached to us... and to them? The Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ per 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. When was that preached to the wilderness generation?
The promise of new life in a new land with the LORD as their king was good news. Rest from all their enemies, which were numerous, was good news. These are all aspects of what we have in Jesus Christ. However, that “rest” was not the same as our “rest” in Christ. Theirs was much inferior, and merely a picture of what is in Jesus Christ.
However, the principle for them is the same as it is for us. God declared promises to that generation in the wilderness. Consider Numbers 13:1-3. The Lord appointed spies, which we have discussed before. God said He would give them the land. However, only two of that generation had any inheritance in the land 40 years later. They did not believe that God was giving them the land. They believed their own eyes, which showed them fierce giant warriors. The promise did not benefit them without faith.
The same is with us. The preaching of the Word is the prerequisite for someone to believe. But not everyone who hears the Word of God believes. Instead, we rather see only a small subset of those hearers become believers.
Hebrews 4:3
We are not accustomed to challenges about being sure of our salvation. At least I am not. So when we get to this verse, after many verses of warning, we see part of that assurance of salvation. If you truly have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have entered into His rest. You truly are saved.
What is His rest? The rest is where the Lord dwells. Let us look at a few examples.
Zion was the Lord’s rest. “For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it” (Psalms 132:13-14). Zion was a fortress in Jerusalem but used as a synecdoche for the entire city. In the Old Testament, Jerusalem was the capital of the united Israel beginning about seven and a half years into the reign of David, then the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah after the division of Jeroboam and Rehoboam. However, the Temple was built there during Solomon’s reign. This is where the Lord made His home with His people.
However, the Lord also said, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isaiah 66:1-2). The Lord cannot be contained within His creation; He is greater than everything. He is infinite, and the creation is finite.
There is another Jerusalem, another Zion, and that is the ultimate place of rest of God, and it is the place where we will ultimately be with Him.
For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:25-26)
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. (Hebrews 11:9-10)
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:19)
Consider Revelation 21:1-3. There will be a new universe with a New Jerusalem. God’s rest will come down to humankind, and they will dwell together forever.
Consider all the endless wars over this earthly Jerusalem. The Crusades were fought because the “Christian” so-called people thought there was spiritual importance to it. Consider the modern Zionist movements that usurped land from innocent people. A former president moved the American embassy there from Tel Aviv. People keep focusing on this earthly kingdom that is going to flee away before the face of God. Even in Revelation, the Spirit will not even use the name Jerusalem for earthly Jerusalem, calling it Sodom and Egypt. Even in the kingdom Christ sets up, it will only be there for a thousand years. The Jerusalem from above is what matters. The land of God’s rest is in a city built by God himself. And it is not the city that should be pursued so much as the King of that city.
“...the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” We consider this more in the next verse. But consider this: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Those who are saved are written in the book of life. But it says this Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, was “slain from the foundation of the world.” Everything was completed, because when the Lord says that He will do something, it is as good as done. The Lord exists outside of time. The Lord saying something will be done has been done already.
Hebrews 4:4-5
As for God’s work being completed, Paul references the original Sabbath Day. Consider it in context:
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)
God completed everything in six days of creation. There was nothing else left to do, which is why He rested. God does not get tired. Now consider for a moment. Compared to the other six days, what is missing? “And the evening and the morning were the seventh day.” It is not there, while the phrase exists for the first six days. Why might that be? Likely because the sin of Adam interrupted that rest.
The window is still open for us to enter into that rest of God. “And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest” (Hebrews 4:5). Notice the verse changed from “They shall not enter into my rest” to “If they shall enter into my rest.” The window is open still for everyone “while it is called To day” (Hebrews 3:13).
Consider more about the Sabbath Day here.
If God completed everything from the foundation of the world, what is left to do? If everything is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, what else is there to look for? Enter into His rest.