A Sabbath rest and a great high priest: Hebrews 4

Hebrews is an anonymous sermon (the 'word of exhortation' of 13:22), written probably in the 60s AD (it was known in Rome by about AD 96), to Christians who had suffered for their faith and were in danger of drifting away. Nothing certain is known of the author or the place of writing; the class on Hebrews 1 sets out the options. Chapter 4 must be read with the end of chapter 3, because the two form one unit. In 3:7-19 the author quotes Psalm 95:7-11, in which God, speaking through David, warns his people not to harden their hearts 'as in the rebellion' in the wilderness, and swears that those who did would never enter his rest.

The historical event behind the psalm is the refusal of the exodus generation at Kadesh to enter the promised land because of fear and unbelief (Numbers 13 to 14). That generation died in the wilderness. The author's readers face a similar choice: God has spoken a promise to them, and the question is whether they will trust and continue. Chapter 4 explains the 'rest', applies the warning to the readers, and then returns to the theme of Jesus the high priest, introduced at 2:17 to 3:1, which will govern chapters 5 to 10.

Hebrews 3 and 4 are an extended sermon on one text, Psalm 95:7-11. The author works like a Jewish preacher of his time, taking the psalm phrase by phrase: 'Today', 'harden your hearts', 'my rest'. He also uses a method called gezerah shavah, in which two passages that share a key word are used to explain each other. Here the shared word is 'rest' (katapausis), which appears in Psalm 95 and in Genesis 2:2, where God 'rested' on the seventh day. The author uses the psalm to show that God's rest is still open, and Genesis to show what the rest is.

Two things mark the passage.

• First, it is a warning passage. Hebrews has five, commonly counted as 2:1-4, 3:7 to 4:13, 5:11 to 6:12, 10:19-39 and 12:25-29, and each calls on the readers to persevere in faith. The way they relate to the assurance of salvation has been debated in the church for centuries, and the tradition note sets out the main views.
• Second, the author reads the Old Testament as a story that points beyond itself. The rest in Canaan was real, but it was not the end, because a later psalm in David's time still speaks of rest as a future promise. Each part of the passage should be read as a step in that argument.

The chapter changes mood at verse 12. The warning ends with the word of God and the judging eye of God, and verse 14 begins again with an encouragement. The passage on the high priest is not a change of subject; it gives the reason why the warning can be met with confidence.

Verses 1 and 2

'While the promise of entering His rest still stands' the readers must take care that none of them should fall short. The good news came to the exodus generation as it has come to the present readers, but the message 'was of no value to them' because they did not share the faith of those who listened. The promise is only as good as the faith that receives it.

Verses 3 to 5. 'We who have believed enter that rest.' The author quotes again God's oath, 'They shall never enter My rest' (Psalm 95:11), and then points to Genesis 2:2: 'on the seventh day God rested from all His works.' God's works 'have been finished since the foundation of the world', and his rest has been waiting since creation. The oath in the psalm therefore speaks of a rest that God has had from the beginning and wants to share. Those who disobeyed lost it, but the rest itself was not lost.

Verses 6 to 8. The promise is still open, because those who first heard it did not enter in because of disobedience, and God 'designated a certain day as Today' when he spoke through David 'a long time later': 'Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.' If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day. The argument is simple. Joshua did lead Israel into the land and the book of Joshua records that the LORD gave them rest (Joshua 21:44; 22:4; 23:1). Yet centuries later, in David's psalm, God was still saying 'Today' about a rest not yet entered. So the rest of Canaan was a sign, not the goal. In Greek the name of Joshua and the name of Jesus are the same, Iesous, and the verse is a quiet reminder that the first Joshua was not the one who finally gave rest.

Verses 9 to 11. 'There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.' The word the author uses, sabbatismos, is found nowhere else in the New Testament and means a keeping of the Sabbath. He explains: 'whoever enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.' The rest is a share in God's own rest, the completion of his purpose. Scholars differ on whether it is chiefly future (the final salvation in the heavenly city, as 12:22-24 suggests), present (a rest from works of self-justification, which believers enter now by faith, as verse 3 'we who have believed enter' suggests), or both, a rest entered in part now and in full later. The class follows the last view. The call that follows is paradoxical: 'make every effort to enter that rest', so that no one falls 'by following the same pattern of disobedience'.

Verses 12 and 13

'For the word of God is living and active.' The word is the message God speaks, which in this passage is the psalm and the promise. Sharper than a double-edged sword, it pierces 'even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow', which is a figure for how thoroughly it reaches the inner person, and need not be taken as a doctrine of human parts. It 'judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart'. Some early Christian readers heard the 'word' as Christ himself, but the context points to God's spoken message. Verse 13 moves from the word to God: nothing in creation is hidden from his sight, and 'everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account'. The wilderness generation could not hide its unbelief, and neither can the present readers.

Verses 14 to 16. The sermon now turns to encouragement. 'Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.' On the Day of Atonement the high priest passed through the veil into the Most Holy Place (Leviticus 16), and Jesus has passed through the heavens into God's presence. His name and his title are given together: Jesus, the human one, and the Son of God. The readers are to 'hold firmly to what we profess'. The author continues: 'we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.' He has known the pressure that the readers face (2:17-18; 5:7-8). Because he is sinless, he is a priest who does not need to offer for his own sin (7:26-27). Therefore the readers can 'approach the throne of grace with confidence', to 'receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need'. The throne is the place of God's rule, and for the readers it is a place of grace.

The first teaching of the chapter is that God's rest is both a gift and a goal. It begins in creation, when God rested from his works. It was pictured in the Sabbath and in the land of Canaan, and it remains for God's people. Rest is not idleness but the completion of God's purpose for his people. The same hope echoes in Jesus' invitation in Matthew 11:28-30, and the New Testament's picture of the final salvation as a city and a sabbath (Revelation 14:13; 21:1-4).

The second is the relation of faith and perseverance. The author warns that the exodus generation failed through unbelief, and applies it to the readers. Faith is the means of entering rest, and it is a faith that continues, trusting 'Today' while the voice is heard. The warning is meant to rouse the hearer and to be heeded.

• The third is the doctrine of Scripture: God speaks through David, through the psalm, and the word is living and active, searching the heart.
• The fourth is the priesthood of Christ, taken up in chapters 5 to 10: the Son of God is also a true man who was tempted, so that he can help.
• Finally, there is the throne of grace. Prayer and worship are access to God, which in the Old Testament was limited to the priests, and it is now open to all who come through the priest who has entered heaven.

The chapter contains one of the Bible's clearest statements of Christ's priesthood and humanity. Jesus is the Son of God and a great high priest; he has passed through the heavens; he is sympathetic, tempted in every way, and sinless. These statements hold together his full deity and full humanity, as the church later affirmed at Chalcedon.

The Old Testament connections are stated by the author himself. The hope of rest links Psalm 95, Genesis 2:2 and the book of Joshua; verse 8 puts Joshua (Iesous) in contrast with the greater Jesus, who gives the final rest. The high priest passing through the veil on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) is the pattern for Jesus passing through the heavens; Hebrews 9:11-12 and 9:24 develop it. That he was tempted in every way recalls the testing of Israel in the wilderness, where Israel failed; in the Gospels Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for forty days and did not fail (Matthew 4:1-11). In Psalm 110:4 God swears that the king is a priest for ever 'in the order of Melchizedek', which the author soon takes up (5:5-10; 7). The Son who sat at God's right hand in 1:3 is also the priest who sympathises, and the throne where he sits is for his people a throne of grace.