Re: Naked Bible 182: Hebrews 4:1-13
Let’s remind ourselves of a recurring theme here: God rested after Creation. He calls us to enter into that Sabbath rest. That was echoed at the call to enter the Promised Land rest, also echoed in the Sabbath rest of Covenant in Christ. Eternal life is provided by God, so it is His rest into which we are allowed to enter by the Cross.
The writer of Hebrews warned that Israel failed to enter into God’s rest at Kadesh, and most of Israel failed to enter it again after the Cross. Rejecting the Cross is the same as rejecting the Promised Land, rejecting the Sabbath, etc. The original promise still stands. He also echoes the theme of holding fast to the word of promise by faith. They didn’t violate the Torah at Kadesh; they broke faith with God, they betrayed their Lord personally.
What I noticed is that, while Israel camped in the Wilderness of Paran, waiting for the spies to return, who could have imagined going back into Egyptian slavery? Oddly enough, once they had the report of the spies, they were ready to stone Moses and return to Egypt. This is the imagery the writer of Hebrew uses for his audience to warn them that it should be unimaginable for them to return to the slavery of the Talmud. There was nothing there for them. Refusing to enter fully into Christ and His Covenant, along with all the risks of conquering the Nephilim, would be a slow, pitiful death in the wilderness.
In the sense of “already but not yet” we find the writer of Hebrews pointing out that the Sabbath Rest was always available. The space-time object to which it was associated might change often enough, but God’s rest was always a spiritual situation, not a time or place. One enters that rest by faith, not by space-time location. However, because we live within that space-time continuum, the doorway of God’s rest for us can close. Obeying Him always has real-world implications. “Today” is the day; don’t miss this moment. Thus, the writer warns his readers that their time is short, as if the moment of decision had already arrived.
Turning back now would be tantamount to turning to foreign gods. We dare not get entangled in any of the Three Rebellions. Think about the Covenant Law of Christ, living together in His love. This is the Eden we can taste right now. It’s what Eden would have been without the Fall. There’s nothing new about this, except that humanity has been away from it for such a long time. It’s going to seem all brand new, but it’s the original condition of humanity in Eden.
It’s not a physical rest, but a rest of the spirit. In Eden we were commissioned to cultivate the rest of the earth, enlarging the Garden of God. We’ll get a chance to return to that mission, the thing for which we were created. This is what Jesus meant about taking up His yoke to find rest.
Finally, we come to the part about the Living Word like a sword. If you and I slice into joints, we will destroy the life there. No cutting instrument we can make will discern between soul and spirit; it would only bring death. Only the Word of God can do vivisection, discerning between flesh and spirit. Without the Word living in your heart, you cannot hope to nail your fleshly nature to the Cross, because you cannot recognize the problems on your own. (Heiser takes a different tack on this.)
The point the writer of Hebrews makes here is pleading with his audience to turn to the Word again (not the Talmud) and see if Christ is not there. He’s the living sword, the one who will help you escape the fleshly nature that longs to return to the slavery of Egypt under her pagan gods.
