W. Robert Godfrey

The rest here is clearly the promised land.

And part of what's interesting in Hebrews 3 and 4 is the author moves in his discussion of rest from rest as a place, the promised land fulfilled in heaven, the new heaven and the new earth, and rest as a time, the Sabbath day fulfilled in the eternal rest of glory.

And as he's making this argument, there are several things that are fascinating.

One is, without any hesitation, he takes all of this said to Israel and applies it to the church.

He takes all of this said to Israel and applies it to the church.

So, it's the church that now is called to listen as Israel was called to listen.

It's the church that's called to believe as Israel was called to believe.

It's the church that's called to obey as Israel was called to obey.

And the church is warned that if it fails to believe and obey and listen, it will not enter the rest.

So this is a very serious warning.

Remember, Hebrews began by talking about the danger of Christians drifting away from the truth.

Hebrews seems to have been written particularly to Jewish Christians who have begun to conclude maybe life was better in Judaism than it is in Christianity.

Jews weren't persecuted.

Christians are being persecuted.

Jews had a magnificent physical temple.

Christians have no physical impressive place of worship.

Jews had a priesthood that was visible and gloriously attired.

We don't have a priesthood.

We're called constantly to believe in a heavenly temple and a heavenly high priest and a heavenly this and a heavenly that.

We're tired of heavenly.