Chapter four of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrew (Israelite) converts could be called the “rest” chapter in that it references both God’s commanded weekly Sabbath and His promised eternal Sabbath for those who keep His 7th day Sabbath in this life, provided they also keep the other nine commandments which, together, constitute the entire Bible in miniature.

In verse one Paul uses the word “fear” relative to the salvation seeker’s relationship with God.  I cannot remember ever hearing a sermon on fearing God.  Is it important to Him that His people fear Him?  I counted 115 times we are told to fear God in the Old Testament and 15 times in the New Testament.  This does not count the times the words fearest, fearful, feared, fearfully, fearing and fears are written in reference to man’s attitude toward God.  Now notice what Paul was telling CHURCH PEOPLE TO BE AFRAID OF: NOT ENTERING GOD’S ETERNAL REST (SABBATH) IN PARADISE.  WITHOUT FEAR OF GOD ONE WILL NOT OBEY HIM.  WITHOUT OBEDIENCE TO HIM NO ONE WILL ENTER PARADISE.  Neither man in general nor religious man in particular fears God.  The fear of God is the BEGINNING of wisdom (Prov. 1:7).  Wise men fear Him.  Without such fear men will not study God’s Word in search of His Truth in order to become wise.  In Isaiah 28:9-13 God tells us whom He can teach knowledge and give understanding (and wisdom)–those who study His Word precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”  He tells us this twice within five verses.

In order to fully understand the significance of Paul’s epistle relative to salvation (entering into God’s rest), we must know for certain to whom Paul is writing.  He tells us in 3:1: “Wherefore, HOLY BRETHREN, PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING, consider the Apostle and High Priest of OUR profession, Jesus Christ,”  Paul includes himself with the people to whom he is writing.  He is reminding them, himself and us of the Truth he is sharing while writing under the power of the Holy Spirit.  Notice that Paul’s “holy brethren” have a “calling” from God to obey Him and therefore qualify for eternal life.  Recall Christ’s warning that “… many are CALLED but few are chosen” for having answered His Call.  Paul is saying that his “holy brethren” are called but not yet chosen.  The choosing comes at the end of the world when Christ returns to gather those whom He has chosen to Himself (Mat. 10:22) because they answered His call.

In 4:2 the apostle refers to those whom God killed off while wandering in the Sinai Desert for 40 years because of their refusal to believe and obey Him.  In verses 8-12 he reminds his readers of how those people PROVOKED and TEMPTED Him (Jesus Christ–the God of the Old Testament (Acts 7:38).  This was the same God Who brought the Israelites (Hebrews) out of Egypt (1 Cor. 10:1-12).  Read The God of the Old Testament.  Key word–Old.  In Hebrews 3:1-12 Paul reminds the Hebrews of how their ancestors had hardened their hearts, tempted and provoked Christ for 40 years.  By not believing  and obeying Him, they were guilty of “departing from the Living God.”  We cannot DEPART from somewhere we have never been.  These people had been with God both spiritually and physically.  Believing (faith) in Jesus without (works of) obedience is dead faith (Jam. 2:10).  In Hebrews 4:2 Paul is warning his readers, and us, that by not believing and obeying God they, we and Paul himself will fail to enter into God’s eternal rest by departing from Him.

In verses three and four Paul tells the Hebrew Christians that in order to enter into God’s eternal Sabbath (rest) they must observe His weekly rest (a work) in this life.  True believers do in fact observe (enter into) God’s 7th day rest: “God did rest (refreshed Himself) on the seventh day from all His works” (Exo. 31:17).  He swore in His wrath that those who did not rest on that day, which He called “My holy day” (Isa. 58:13), would not enter into His eternal rest (in the Kingdom of God).  As He warns in Heb. 3:12, those who refuse to obey Him will have “departed from the living God.”  In 4:6 Paul again makes it clear that those who fell in the desert did not observe His 7th day Sabbath (rest) because they did not believe Him.  For that reason they failed to enter the Promised Land God had promised their forefather Abraham.

In 4:7-11 Paul again warns the people about not observing God’s 7th day Sabbath by having hardened their hearts against Him.  In verse 9 and 10 Paul writes that true “people of God” will cease from their labors on that day as God ceased from His.  In verse 11 Paul tells them and us to “labor therefore to enter into THAT REST (DAY), lest any man fall short” as did the Hebrews who fell in the wilderness of Sinai.

In verse 12 Paul reminds us of the source of our faith–the WORD OF GOD: “For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul (body) and spirit, and of the joints and marrow and (the Word) is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (mind).”  All things, he tells us in verse 13, are made manifest unto the Lord as He compares our lives to His Word.  The Apostle Peter reminds us that judgment (comparing our lives to God’s Word) is ongoing in God’s church, and that only the righteous (those whose lives match God’s Word) will be saved (at Christ’s return)–1 Pet. 4:17,18.

In verses 14-16 Paul reminds the Hebrew Christians that there is One who serves as a Mediator between God and man–“the MAN, Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2:5).  Notice that the One who now mediates is a MAN, who is also a GOD.  Those who walk as Jesus walked on this earth (1 Jn. 2:6) and overcome Satan as He did (Rev. 3:21) will also be both men and gods upon being born again and entering the Kingdom of God.  Indeed, “… we will be LIKE HIM, for we will see Him AS HE IS” (1 Jn. 3:2).  Think about it.  Because the Man Jesus was tempted, tested and tried as we are, yet without sin, He can and will help those who truly desire to “walk as He walked” and “overcome (Satan) as He overcame him.”  This is the only goal of the true saint.  All other things in this life pale into nothingness when compared to that one desire.  In Matthew 11:12 Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven (the true church) experiences violence, and “… the violent (Gk.-hiazo-forceful) take it by force.”  We must force our way through Satan’s temptations to sin.  We must not allow him or his servants (devils, false prophets, friends, relatives) to prevent us from becoming one with God in Whom “there is NO DARKNESS (SIN) AT ALL” (1 Jn. 1:5).  Having lived in and ministered in such religious darkness for many years, I can tell you that the pull of Satan and his counterfeit church system is powerful.  We must resist and overcome the lure of professing Christendom.  Let us live in the light as Christ is in the light (God’s Word).  Let us be as a candle in the darkness.  We are a beaconing light to the heathen around us.  But as Jesus shows us, only a few will come to our light.  Recall that, after all He did for “great multitudes” of people, only about 120 of them were with Him at the end.  I can count on one hand the number of people that I know of who have joined me in service to God.  Jesus warned that only a few would enter His gate (church) and walk His way (obey His Law).  L.J.