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Do Not Lose that Rest 4. 1-16:Summary

We still have the opening to enter into that rest. Let us be
careful not to lose it, as the ancient Hebrews once did. It was
lack of faith that caused them to lose it.

God has been at rest since the beginning, as Genesis says: "God
rested on the seventh day from all His work". So He is still
resting. It is into that rest that they could have entered, but
they failed as we learn from the line: "They shall not enter into
my rest." Hence the rest is still open, still available.

Since they failed by lack of faith, of obedience, he still sets a
day, that is "Today", after so long a time. For the rest, the
promised land, that Joshua had given them, was not the ultimate
rest, If it were, Scripture could not continue to speak of
something beyond that promised land.

A sabbath rest does remain open for us, the People of God. So we
should hasten to get into that rest and not fall into the same
pattern of lack of faith. For the word of God is effective, and
cuts more than any two-edged sword, reaching even to the division
of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and it knows the
thoughts and intentions of the heart. No creature can hide from
him, all are open and bare to His eyes.

But we can have confidence because our high priest has not just
figuratively, but actually gone into the heavens. He has
experienced our trouble, and so can be sympathetic to our needs.
With him we can have confidence in coming before God, who sits on a
throne of mercy.

Comments on 4. 1-16

The rest that was promised originally to the Jews was the land of
Canaan. But they failed to enter since they did not believe God--
instead they believed the lying spies who had gone into see the
land, and returned with impossible tales. They should have believed
God's promise. That faith would include also obedience to the
covenant. Hence the concept of faith here is really the same as
that found in St. Paul, who includes under that word: belief in
what God says, confidence in His promises, obedience to His
commands.

In the late part of the OT period some Jews began to reinterpret
God's promise of rest to mean the rest of eternal life in the
vision of God. St. Paul clearly takes it this way in Galatians 3.
15ff. But at the time of which this passage speaks, they thought
only of the rest of the land of Canaan, and they did not believe
God that He could and would bring them into there, nor did they
obey His covenant. Instead they murmured against Him so many times
over.

So the words 'His rest" could mean either "the rest He will give"
or,"the rest He Himself enjoys." The latter was hardly thought of
at the time of the desert wandering pictured here, for as we said,
it was only much later than God's promises were reinterpreted to
refer to eternal life with Him. Yet the author of Hebrews may well
be reinterpreting that word rest at this point.

as St. Paul did. The way he speaks of the fact that God Himself
rested as the model for their rest would tend to show that he had
this reinterpreted idea in mind, even though at the time of the
desert wandering it was hardly known to the Jews. Again, he says in
v. 8 that if Joshua had given them the true rest there would be no
talk of something further. Yet there is something further in
reality-- as the author here reinterprets things.

The fact that the OT records all their tragic misbehavior show the
honesty of the writers. The Pentateuch is probably something like
an epic, the story of the beginnings of a great people. Yet what
people would invent a tale in which they had for centuries been
slaves in Egypt, and after being so marvelously rescued from there,
would tell of their reiterated disobedience and ingratitude to God?

We note the dramatic stress on the word "Today" here, just as we
saw it in the comments above on 3. 13. God is as it were making His
promise and covenant not just with a past generation, but with the
present generation.

The last verse says that a "sabbath rest" is open for the people of
God. This might mean merely that there is a rest as complete as
that of the sabbath - or it is just possible that the author was
thinking of s schema of ages in which the previous time stood for 6
days, and then the time to come would be the seventh. St. Augustine
at the end of his great City of God speaks similarly of six ages -
without meaning to suppose there were only 6900 years to al
history. For the periods Augustine mentions are very uneven in
length, and not periods of a thousand years each.

Naturally, an exhortation follows: Get busy so you can enter into
this great rest. Do not think you can hide anything from God: His
word is sharp, penetrates everywhere. Everything lies open and bare
to His eyes. To Him all must given an account.

It is not likely that our author meant us to take strictly the
divisions he mentions, soul and spirit, joints and marrow. Thee is
in itself no difference between soul and spirit, just as the Word
of God does not literally cut through joints and marrow.

For our help we have a great High Priest, Christ, who has actually
penetrated into the heavens. He has had the experience of trial,
and so is in a position to be sympathetic to us. Therefore we can
come before the throne of mercy with confidence.

As to His experience of trials we will reserve comments for 5. 8
which even says He learned obedience from the things He suffered.
And as to the saying that He was tried in every way like we are--
we must remember that the genre of Hebrews is homiletic. We should
not conclude that He must have had various illness or that he was
lame, or that He was ignorant in His human mind (more on that point
later).

Chapter 5: Christ's Priesthood compared with that of Melchisedek:

Summary of 5. 1-14

A high priest is taken from among men, and is appointed for the
sake of humans in their responsibility to God, so that he may offer
gifts and sacrifices for sins. He needs to be able to deal in
considerate way with the ignorant and with those who err, since he
himself knows he is frail. As a result of this frailty, even he has
to bring a sin offering for himself as well as for the people.

No one has a right to take this office on himself - it is for those
called by God, as Aaron was.

Not even Christ exalted Himself to this dignity of the high
priesthood. He was raised to it by the One who said to Him: "You
are my Son, today have I begotten you". God also in another place
said of Him: "You are a priest forever, in the line of
Melchizedek".

[Just as ordinary priests make an offering for themselves, so
Christ, though He had no need of a sin offering for himself] did
make prayers and loud petitions with tears, to Him who could save
Him from death. He was heard because of His reverence to the
Father.

And even though He was the Father's Son, He still learned obedience
by suffering. Then, after being made perfect, He became the source
of eternal salvation to those who follow Him, He who was appointed
by God as high priest in the line of Melchizedek.

There are many things to say about this Melchizedek, much of which
is hard to understand, for you have become sluggish. Really, by now
you ought to be able to be teachers, yet, you are not able, for you
still need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's
words all over again. You have become such as to need milk, not
solid food. Now anyone who is fed on milk is not trained in the
matter of what is right, so he is an infant. Solid food is for
those who are mature, who by practice have had their senses trained
to tell good from evil.