Hebrews 4

Hebrews 4:1-16 . THE PROMISE OF GOD'S REST IS FULLY REALIZED THROUGH CHRIST: LET US STRIVE TO OBTAIN IT BY HIM, OUR SYMPATHIZING HIGH PRIEST.

1. Let us . . . fear--not with slavish terror, but godly "fear and trembling" ( Philippians 2:12 ). Since so many have fallen, we have cause to fear ( Hebrews 3:17-19 ).
being left us--still remaining to us after the others have, by neglect, lost it.
his rest--God's heavenly rest, of which Canaan is the type. "To-day" still continues, during which there is the danger of failing to reach the rest. "To-day," rightly used, terminates in the rest which, when once obtained, is never lost ( Revelation 3:12 ). A foretaste of the rest Is given in the inward rest which the believer's soul has in Christ.
should seem to come short of it--Greek, "to have come short of it"; should be found, when the great trial of all shall take place [ALFORD], to have fallen short of attaining the promise. The word "seem" is a mitigating mode of expression, though not lessening the reality. BENGEL and OWEN take it, Lest there should be any semblance or appearance of falling short.

2. gospel preached . . . unto them--in type: the earthly Canaan, wherein they failed to realize perfect rest, suggesting to them that they should look beyond to the heavenly land of rest, to which faith is the avenue, and from which unbelief excludes, as it did from the earthly Canaan.
the word preached--literally, "the word of hearing": the word heard by them.
not being mixed with faith in them that heard--So the Syriac and the Old Latin Versions, older than any of our manuscripts, and LUCIFER, read, "As the world did not unite with the hearers in faith." The word heard being the food which, as the bread of life, must pass into flesh and blood through man's appropriating it to himself in faith. Hearing alone is of as little value as undigested food in a bad stomach [THOLUCK]. The whole of oldest extant manuscript authority supports a different reading, "unmingled as they were (Greek accusative case agreeing with 'them') in faith with its hearers," that is, with its believing, obedient hearers, as Caleb and Joshua. So "hear" is used for "obey" in the context, Hebrews 4:7 , "To-day, if ye will hear His voice." The disobedient, instead of being blended in "the same body," separated themselves as Korah: a tacit reproof to like separatists from the Christian assembling together ( Hebrews 10:25 , Jude 1:19 ).

3. For--justifying his assertion of the need of "faith," Hebrews 4:2 .
we which have believed--we who at Christ's coming shall be found to have believed.
do enter--that is, are to enter: so two of the oldest manuscripts and LUCIFER and the old Latin. Two other oldest manuscripts read, "Let us enter."
into rest--Greek, "into the rest" which is promised in the ninety-fifth Psalm.
as he said--God's saying that unbelief excludes from entrance implies that belief gains an entrance into the rest. What, however, Paul mainly here dwells on in the quotation is that the promised "rest" has not yet been entered into. At Hebrews 4:11 he again, as in Hebrews 3:12-19 already, takes up faith as the indispensable qualification for entering it.
although, &c.--Although God had finished His works of creation and entered on His rest from creation long before Moses' time, yet under that leader of Israel another rest was promised, which most fell short of through unbelief; and although the rest in Canaan was subsequently attained under Joshua, yet long after, in David's days, God, in the ninety-fifth Psalm, still speaks of the rest of God as not yet attained. THEREFORE, there must be meant a rest still future, namely, that which "remaineth for the people of God" in heaven, Hebrews 4:3-9 , when they shall rest from their works, as God did from His, Hebrews 4:10 . The argument is to show that by "My rest," God means a future rest, not for Himself, but for us.
finished--Greek, "brought into existence," "made."