Hebrews 4:6

The writer now, in Hebrews 4:6-9, gathers up the argument, and reaches his conclusion that a Sabbatism remains for God's people. The argument briefly is, God has provided a rest for men and has promised it to them. This promise was not believed by those who formerly heard it, neither was it exhausted in the bringing in of the people to Canaan. For had it been so, it could not have been renewed long after, as it was. It remains, therefore, to be now enjoyed. “Since, therefore, it remains that some enter into it and those who formerly heard the good news of the promise did not enter, owing to disobedience.” ἀπολείπεται, there remains over as not yet fulfilled. In Hebrews 5:9. σαββατ. is the nominative, here τινας εἰσελθεῖν might be considered a nominative but it is better, with Viteau (256), to construe it as an impersonal verb followed by an infinitive. From the fact that the offer of the rest had been made, or the promise given, “it remains” that some (must) enter in. But a second fact also forms a premiss in the argument. viz.: that those to whom the promise had formerly been made did not enter in; therefore, over and above and long after (μετὰ τοσ. χρόνον) the original proclamation of this gospel of rest, even in David's time, again (πάλιν), God appoints or specifies a certain day (τινὰ ὁρίζει ἡμέραν) saying “To-day”. This proves that the offer is yet open, that the promise holds good in David's time. The words already quoted (καθὼς προείρηται) from the 95th Psalm prove this, for they run, “To-day, if ye hear His voice,” etc. They prove at any rate that the gospel of rest was not exhausted by the entrance into Canaan under Joshua, “for if Joshua had given them rest, God would not after this speak of another day”. The writer takes for granted that the “To-day” of the Psalm extends to Christian times, whether be cause of the life (Hebrews 4:12) that is in the word of promise, or because the reference in the Psalm is Messianic. “This ‘voice' of God which is ‘heard' is His voice speaking to us in His Son (Hebrews 1:1) and this ‘To-day' is ‘the end of these days' in which He has spoken to us in Him, on to the time when He shall come again (Hebrews 3:13). In effect God has been ‘heard' speaking only twice, to Israel and to us, and what He has spoken to both has been the same, the promise of entering into His rest. Israel came short of it through unbelief; we do enter into the rest who believe (Hebrews 4:3)” (Davidson). At all events, the conclusion unhesitatingly follows: “Therefore there remains a Sabbath-Rest for the people of God”. ἄρα though often standing first in a sentence in N.T. cannot in classical Greek occupy that place. Σαββατισμός, though found here only in Biblical Greek, occurs in Plutarch (De Superstit, c. 3). The verb σαββατίζειν occurs in Exodus 16:30 and other places. The word is here employed in preference to κατάπαυσις in order to identify the rest promised to God's people with the rest enjoyed by God Himself on the Sabbath or Seventh Day. [So Theophylact, ἑρμηνεύει πῶς σαββατ. ὠνόμασε τὴν τοιαύτην κατάπαυσιν · διότι, φησὶ, καταπαύομεν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων τῶν ἡμετέρων, ὥσπερ καὶ ὁ θεός, καταπαύσας ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων τῶν εἰς σύστασιν τοῦ κόσμου, σάββατον τὴν ἡμέραν ὠνόμασεν.] To explain and justify the introduction of this word, the writer adds ὁ γὰρ εἰσελθὼν … as if he said, I call it a Sabbatism, because it is not an ordinary rest, but one which finds its ideal and actual fulfilment in God's own rest on the Seventh Day. It is a Sabbatism because in it God's people reach a definite stage of attainment, of satisfactorily accomplished purpose, as God Himself did when creation was finished. ὁ γὰρ εἰσελθὼν, whoever has entered, not to be restricted to Jesus, as by Alford, εἰς τ. κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ, into God's rest, καὶ αὐτὸς κ. τ. λ. himself also rested from his (the man's) works as God from His.”

The salvation which the writer has previously referred to as a glorious dominion is here spoken of as a Rest. The significance lies in its being God's rest which man is to share. It is the rest which God has enjoyed since the creation. From all His creative work God could not be said to rest till, after what cannot but appear to us a million of hazards, man appeared, a creature in whose history God Himself could find a worthy history, whose moral and spiritual needs would elicit the Divine resources and exercise what is deepest in God. When man appears God is satisfied, for here is one in His own image. But from this bare statement of the meaning of God's rest it is obvious that God's people must share it with Him. God's rest is satisfaction in man; but this satisfaction can be perfected only when man is in perfect harmony with Him. His rest is not perfect till they rest in Him. This highly spiritual conception of salvation is involved in our Author's argument. Cf. the grand passage on God's Rest in Philo, De Cherubim, c. xxvi., and also Barnabas xv., see also Hughes' The Sabbatical Rest of God and Man.