Yet, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, He still spoke of “ My rest” – demonstrating that God still has this rest. God finished His work of creation long before Israel came into Egypt or before David wrote Psalm 95 (Genesis 2:2). My rest: This quote from Psalm 95:11 demonstrates that this rest is God’s it is His rest. Unbelief keeps many out of God’s rest faith ( we who have believed) guides God’s people into this rest.ī. We who have believed do enter that rest: This is in contrast to the previously mentioned ones who did not enter into God’s rest. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works” and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”Ī. (3-5) The rest for God’s people is like God’s own rest.įor we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. They came short because though they heard God’s word, it was not mixed with faith. A wonderful promise was available but unattained. Think of the joy Israel had in coming out of Egypt and approaching the Promised Land – and then think of all the graves dug in the desert. Clarke on mixed: “It is a metaphor taken from the nutrition of the human body by mixing the aliment taken into the stomach with the saliva and gastric juice… so that on this process, properly performed, depend (under God) strength, health, and life itself.” It also shows that when there is more faith – more of the anticipation of blessing and favor from God – there is more blessing indeed. This explains why two people can hear the same message and one benefits while the other does not. Mixed with faith: One may hear God’s word and have spiritual experiences, but unless the work of God is mixed with faith it will do no good. Hearing gave them the opportunity, but the opportunity only profited if it was mixed with faith.ĭ. Ancient Israel heard the word but it did not profit them because they did not receive it with faith. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them: Hearing God’s word isn’t enough. Adam Clarke on come short: “It is an allusion, of which there are many in this epistle, to the races in the Grecian games: he that came short was he who was any distance, no matter how small, behind the winner.”Ĭ. It isn’t enough to almost enter His rest we don’t want to come short of it. Let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it: This place of rest is so wonderful it should concern us when others or we seem to come short of it. Rest means the rest that God Himself enjoys.ī.Rest means the freedom of worship according to the gospel.Rest means deliverance from the burden of Mosaic observance.

Rest means freedom from a servile, bondage-like spirit in the worship and service of God.The old Puritan commentator John Owen described five features of this rest for the believer: Unbelief will make us fall short of the rest God has for us. The promise remains of entering His rest, and we can enter into that rest by faith. Therefore: The idea is carried on without pause from Hebrews 3, that unbelief kept the generation that escaped Egypt from entering Canaan.

For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.Ī. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. (1-2) The warning is repeated: don’t miss God’s rest.

Word build vs word smith