Chapter Four
Heb. 4:1. Therefore let us fear, lest, while a promise remains of entering into His rest,
Here is a return to the passage where it says: "today, if you hear His voice" (Heb. 3:7), and then in order: "let us fear," lest the same thing happen to us as well. The word "therefore" is placed to resume the discourse that was interrupted by a lengthy repetition.
Heb. 4:1. "none of you be found to have fallen short."
That is, lest they be completely deprived of the possibility of entering that promised rest. Softening and tempering his speech, he did not say "lest he be late," but "lest he be found to have been late."
Heb. 4:2. For unto us also was it proclaimed, as well as unto them; but the word which they heard did not profit them,
And we have received the good news concerning future blessings, just as they did prefiguratively about the promised land. But it will be completely useless to us if we likewise do not believe and do not lay aside all faintheartedness, just as hearing did not profit them either. Notice how in relation to us he called the matter "good news," that is, a promise of future blessings, and moreover ones that are given as a reward for victory; whereas in relation to them he called it "the word heard."
Heb. 4:2. Not mixed with faith in those who heard it.
That is, those not united through faith and not in agreement with those who heard, but rather having withdrawn from them. By "those who heard" he means here those who believed; for they truly can be called hearers. Saint John Chrysostom understood by "those who did not hear" the supporters of Caleb and Joshua, for they did not take part in the rebellion, did not mingle, did not revolt, and did not perish together with the rest of the rebels, who all shared one opinion. With whom then? With those who heard and received no benefit. So said this saint out of his great and profound wisdom, but to me, the unworthy one, he did not grant to understand in what sense he said this.
Heb. 4:3. For we who have believed do enter into rest, as He said: "I swore in My wrath that they shall not enter into My rest" (cf. Ps. 95:11),
From what is it evident that we who have believed will enter into rest? From the fact that God said that those who did not believe will not enter. This becomes clear from the contrast: just as for those who did not believe, the retribution for their unbelief was that they did not enter into rest, so, on the contrary, we who have believed will receive as a reward for our faith that we will enter.
Heb. 4:3. Though His works were completed from the beginning of the world.
Heb. 4:4. 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." (cf. Gen. 2:2)
Heb. 4:5. And again here: "They shall not enter into My rest." (Ps. 95:11)
It would seem that this speech is inconsistent, but in reality it is not: it speaks of the fact that no one can say that David is speaking of the Sabbath rest. For how can he speak of it, when it had long since passed and the world had received its ordering from the very beginning? It is clear that David speaks of some other rest. This rest pertains to the future, since obviously someone must enter it after this. And just as the Sabbath is called rest in Scripture, and nothing prevented the entry into the promised land from also being called rest after that; so too now nothing prevents the future rest from being spoken of after that ancient rest — I mean the Kingdom of Heaven, into which those who have not believed shall not enter.
Heb. 4:6. Since therefore it remains for some to enter into it, and those to whom it was formerly proclaimed did not enter because of disobedience,
Heb. 4:7. He again determines a certain day, "today," speaking through David after so long a time, as was said above: "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." (cf. Ps. 95:8, Heb. 3:8)
Heb. 4:8. If Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.
By all this he endeavors to show that Joshua could not have led them into that rest of which both David speaks and we now speak. Since Joshua did not lead them in, and David "after so long a time" again says: "do not harden your hearts," like the fathers who did not enter because of unbelief, he gives us grounds to conclude by contrasting argument that we shall enter if we believe. It is evident that this is a future rest, and it awaits us. For David was certainly not speaking of Palestine: they already possessed it at that time; nor is the seventh day meant: it had existed since the creation of the world. Consequently, there exists a certain third rest — the Kingdom of Heaven, into which the true Jesus leads, and faith in Him.
Heb. 4:9. There remains therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God.
He did not say "rest," but "sabbath-keeping," using precisely the kind of term that both delighted his listeners and was fully understandable to them. Thus he refers to the Kingdom of Heaven. For just as on the Sabbath the law commanded abstaining from all fleshly voluntary works, and the priests performed only works of service to God and works beneficial to the soul, so also then everything will be spiritual and divine — nothing fleshly, nothing burdensome, where there are neither sicknesses, nor sorrows, nor sighing. Listen to what he himself also says.
Heb. 4:10. He who has entered into His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His own.
He explains in what sense he called such rest "a sabbath." Because, he says, we too rest from our works, just as God, having rested from His works after the creation of the world, called that day the Sabbath. For here there is much toil for the righteous as well, and struggle, and every kind of effort in virtue; but there, there is no care or moral striving, there is immeasurable delight in God. And so, what they desired to hear — namely, that they would be delivered from their present labors — that is precisely what he said, in order to gladden them.
Heb. 4:11. Let us therefore strive to enter into that rest,
After having shown that there is also a third rest, he finally urges them to enter into it. He said well: "let us be diligent." For faith by itself is not sufficient to lead one into it, if a good life is not also joined with it.