Hebrews 4:9

9 Therefore the sabbath is left to the people of God. [Therefore rest is left to the people of God.]

Hebrews 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Ver. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.]
Not all mankind; nor the people of the Jews only; rather the people of God, both Jews and Gentiles, under the New Testament; the people whom God has loved with a special love, has chose in Christ, and given to him, with whom he has made a covenant in him, and whom Christ saves from their sins, and calls by his grace; and the rest which remains for them is not a new sabbath day, but a sabbatism: and this does not so mush design eternal rest in heaven; though the Jews often call that a sabbath; the 92nd psalm they say is a psalm for the time to come, (tbv wlkv) , "which is all sabbath", and the rest of eternal life ^F11: but rather this intends the spiritual rest believers have in Christ under the Gospel dispensation, which they now enter into, and of which the apostle had been treating; and as for the word "remaineth", this does not denote the futurity of it, but the apostle's inference or consequence from what he had said; and the sense is, it remains therefore, and is a certain fact, a clear consequence from what has been observed, that there is another rest distinct from God's rest on the seventh day, and from the rest in the land of Canaan; which were both typical ones of the present rest the saints now enjoy: so the Jews call the world to come the times of the Messiah, (lwdgh tbv) , "the great sabbath" ^F12.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Misn. Tamid, c. 7. sect. 4. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1, Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 16. 3. Massecheth Sopherim, c. 18. sect. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 3. 1.
F12 Zohar in Gen. fol. 31. 4. Shaare Orn, fol. 17. 1. Caphtor, fol. 64. 1.

Hebrews 4:9 In-Context

7 Again, he determineth some day, and saith in David, To day, after so much time of time [Again, he termineth some day, saying in David, To day, after so much of time], as it is before-said, To day if ye have heard his voice, do not ye harden your hearts.

8 For if Jesus had given rest to them, he should never speak of other after this day [after that day].

9 Therefore the sabbath is left to the people of God. [Therefore rest is left to the people of God.]

10 For he that is entered into his rest, [and he] rested of his works, as also God of his.

11 Therefore haste we to enter into that rest, that no man fall into the same ensample of unbelief [that no man fall into the same example of unbelief].