Talking Out Of Turn

Next in Hebrews 3 we come to a section which implores us to enter into our rest. Strangely, I have seen a few commentators take the result of this argument in Heb. 4:9 and claim that this passage supports the ongoing requirement of Christians to keep the Sabbath (in some sense that includes resting from labor and worshiping God on a specific day of the week; at the moment we are not considering whether this is Saturday or Sunday, nor when it starts or ends). But is that the point? Let’s walk through it:

Hebrews 3:7-11 Listen

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’” (ESV)

At the end of this quotation from Psalm 95:7-11, we see God speaking of the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for forty years and were never allowed to enter the Promised Land. We know that they observed the Sabbath in the wilderness (there were specific injunctions about not building the Tabernacle on the Sabbath, a report of people violating the Sabbath, and so forth), but the rest which they are being forbidden, because of their lack of faith, is a rest from wandering: it is the rest of coming to their promised home. It doesn’t make sense if it is suggesting that God wasn’t going to let them observe the Sabbath in the wilderness, in the context of the Old Testament quotation.

Hebrews 3:12-19 Listen

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (ESV)

This is a great passage, especially because I like the almost modern touch of the writer in saying, “As long as ‘today’ is called ‘today,’ it will be true that ‘today’ is the day that you must obey and believe.” Now is the acceptable time, clearly. And to what are we being called? To rest on the seventh (or first) days? No. We are being called to be obedient, to cling to Christ, to persevere, and not to be fooled by sin. This chapter finished by making it clear that the reason they did not enter into their rest is because of unbelief.

I would only further note at this point that Hebrews has quite a record as far as mashing the concepts of faith and obedience together; it is assumed that obedience will naturally proceed from faith. No cheap grace in this epistle. But can we get any more information about the “rest”?

Hebrews 4:1-5 Listen

4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,

“They shall not enter my rest.” (ESV)

Footnotes

[1] 4:2 Some manuscripts it did not meet with faith in the hearers

Now we get back to the Sabbath.

Verses 1-3 seem to be making our entering into His rest a passive thing, or at least a consequence of “believing” and “uniting in faith” with those who have heard. Then the focus turns to the nature of God’s rest specifically: He no longer “works” in the sense in which this passage is speaking, His works were done “from the foundation of the world.”

Verse 4, then, is the proof of this, quoting Genesis 2:2 to say that He rested on the seventh day from all His works. This is interesting if we contrast His works (to justify His people) with His rest (His people entering into the promise). The author of Hebrews might be telling us that in some sense His people were justified from the foundation of the world. But if we are merely speaking of His works (creating the world), to what are we comparing it? His Sabbath rest? The biggest problem with taking this passage literalistically is that I have to question why the Sabbath gets brought up now. Is it really the point of the author of Hebrews, in the middle of the big push to demonstrate the superiority of Christ over the Mosaic Covenant, to bring up the command to keep the Sabbath, or to argue for several verses that the Sabbath rest remains, before effectively abolishing the Aaronic priesthood and all ceremonial law?

When I say it like that, it almost makes sense — one specific instance of the Law being retained, before much of it is replaced by the New Covenant. But when I read the actual passages, it does not make sense.

Hebrews 4:6-7 Listen

6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.” (ESV)

So, some still have yet to enter God’s rest, and some failed to enter who had presumably heard and understood the good news because of disobedience. Again, remember that (a) the good news almost has to be the eschatological promise of rest, and not a law that requires us to rest on a certain day, to make sense, and (b) just as obedience is tied strongly to faith, so disobedience is tied strongly to unbelief. Does unbelief cause a person to break the Fourth Commandment, or does unbelief cause a person to go to hell? Perhaps both are true, but which is more likely?

And then we have the “slam dunk” as far as I can tell. The appointed day is a certain day. And that certain day is… “today.” Not Saturday. Not Sunday. Not even Friday night after sundown. The rest in this passage is the rest that we enter today, in belief, in not hardening our hearts. It is the rest that I called “eschatological” above, but like so many things in Hebrews, it is both “not yet” and “already.” From what is it a rest?

Hebrews 4:8-10 Listen

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (ESV)

Footnotes

[1] 4:8 Greek he

First, Joshua did not give them rest. Did he keep them from keeping the Sabbath? Of course not. But in fact, the rest that he gave them, that Moses did not give them in the wilderness, was the rest of the Promised Land, but as far as God is concerned, that was not “rest” enough to equal the rest of God. So, there is still a Sabbath rest (”Sabbath” because it is the rest of God from His works, already completed and memorialized in the Fourth Commandment) for the people of God, and that rest is described in verse 10. If we have entered into God’s rest, we rest from our works just as God did from His.

How can this fail to be a comparison between the works that do not save us, and God’s works that do? If we believe in His works, then we enter into His rest. Faith in the finished work of Christ in justifying sinners who repent and believe: this is the Sabbath rest which remains for us. We set aside our dead works (already) and look forward to the promise of rest in His land (not yet).

Hebrews 4:11-13 Listen

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (ESV)

We are told to “strive to enter that rest,” and the way we do that (in the context of the book) is to have faith in our High Priest, and in keeping with that faith, we will obey. This is followed by a warning (not a digression on the armor of God with which we are equipped, as some like to think) that the Word of God will demonstrate who has entered God’s rest, and who has not.

I think that the Fourth Commandment actually does remain, but it is fulfilled when we believe that nothing we can do will save us, and throw ourselves in faith on the mercy of Christ alone.

There are other, far better arguments for Sabbatarianism. I don’t have ready answers for some of them. But I’m getting a little tired of hearing Hebrews 4:9 trotted out all the time as an argument.