Hebrews 3:1 - 4:1-13
Key takeaway:
- Creation week, the Exodus, and the Conquest typify the Gospel.
- Believers are God's house, i.e., His people
OT passages referenced as applying to Christ and the Church
Psalm 95:7-11 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Genesis 2:2 - 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.
[1] And so, dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and are partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God's messenger and High Priest.
[2] For he was faithful to God, who appointed him, just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God's entire house.
[3] But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself.
[4] For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God.
[5] Moses was certainly faithful in God's house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later.
The Exodus and the Crossing of the Jordan are pictures of the Gospel.
[6] But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God's entire house.
And we are God's house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.
[7] That is why the Holy Spirit says,
"Today when you hear his voice,
That is, Christ's voice.
1 Corinthians 10:4 NLT - and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.
Psalm 95:1 NLT - Come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
[8] don't harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness.
[9] There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
[10] So I was angry with them, and I said, 'Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.'
[11] So in my anger I took an oath: 'They will never enter my place of rest.'" (Psalm 95:7-11)
[12] Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.
[13] You must warn each other every day, while it is still "today," so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.
[14] For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.
[15] Remember what it says: "Today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled."
[16] And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn't it the people Moses led out of Egypt?
[17] And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn't it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness?
[18] And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn't it the people who disobeyed him?
[19] So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.
Chapter 4
[1] God's promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it.
[2]
For this good news--that God has prepared this rest--has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn't share the faith of those who listened to God.
The Old Testament is about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
[3] For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, "In my anger I took an oath: 'They will never enter my place of rest,'" even though this rest has been ready since he made the world.
[4] We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: "On the seventh day God rested from all his work." (Genesis 2:2)
[5] But in the other passage God said, "They will never enter my place of rest."
[6] So God's rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God.
[7] So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: "Today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts."
[8]
Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come.
The Conquest of Canaan was only a picture of the Promise to Abraham.
[9] So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.
[10] For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world.
The Church is the inheritance that was promised.
Hebrews 11:10 NLT - Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
[11] So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.
[12] For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
[13] Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.
