Hebrews 3:7 – 4:11

This passage recounts the Israelites in the desert wilderness. Their unbelief and hardness of heart kept them from entering into rest. The rest was the stepping into and possessing of the promised land (Ps. 95:7-11, Deut 12:9-10). Because of unbelief, they disobeyed God and remained in the wilderness. But the recounting takes a turn, and points towards Psalm 95:7, highlighting “TODAY if you would only hear my voice”. This brings the rest the Israelites did not enter into the present, and the partnership of it being with Christ. The writer is drawing from the previous history of the Israelites, saying do not let hardness of heart and unbelief keep you from entering into rest.

In chapter 4 verse 1, it says “the promise of rest was not exhausted with Joshua and remains open even now, but don't miss it! For we have the Good News announced to us, just as they did, but the message wasn't any good to them because they didn't combine it with faith”.

Further down it fleshes out for the reader. Just as those in the desert didn't enter rest because of unbelief, so those today will not enter if they have unbelief. Though it talks about their disobedience, their disobedience was because of the unbelief (Numbers 13-14) as we see surmised in Hebrews 3:19.

Then in 4:9-11, this is the fulfillment of the sabbath. What was once observed in the natural that was pointing towards the final fulfillment of rest, is now made available in Christ. The writer wasn't trying to get the church to be sure to have a day off, or to keep the traditional “Sabbath”. He was letting them know that the fulness of the rest had come, and to be sure not to miss it. This rest was the entering into the promised land or inheritance that had now come. The promised land, that was originally given to Abraham. The inheritance that was passed down to his descendants.

Hebrews 11:8-16 clues us in on a Truth we have seem to have lost today. Abraham pitched his tent as a sojourner in Canaan, the promised land, by faith. And this same land was where the Israelites eventually entered over 600 years later and took possession of. Some see this as the fulfillment of the promise. But Abraham understood it was only part of the journey, a sign for the greater yet to come. And the writer of Hebrews understood this too. Abraham was looking forward to a city with firm foundations, whose builder and maker is God. The natural Jerusalem that eventually was built, was the foreshadow of what Abraham saw by faith.

Hebrews 11:16 But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

The writer of Hebrews points this out, because it is written to the Jewish Christians, who had possession of Jerusalem already. The promised land was already established. The city already built. But this was not the promised land Abraham was looking for. And the writer did not want them to miss it, because they thought the promised land and rest had already come.

When we enter into rest, we take possession of the promised land. If we keep reading through to Hebrews 12:18-24, we see where the writer again addresses the final fulfillment in Christ. Mt. Sinai was where the creation of the corporate nation of Israel began. At Mt. Sinai, God recalled the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and this is where Hebrews 12 picks up. Verse 18: “For you have not come to something that can be touched...” (the mountain where God came to speak with Moses). Verse 22: But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem....”. Hebrews 11-12 is regarding the land of Canaan/ Israel as an earlier, incomplete realization of the inheritance whose greater and ultimate fulfillment is found in Jesus.

Jesus was the seed of Abraham. Jesus was the receiver of the inheritance that was promised.

Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. Scripture does not say, "and to the descendants," referring to many, but "and to your descendant," referring to one, who is Christ.

And all those in Christ are joint-heirs of that promise.

Galatians 3:29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise.

Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God's children.

17 And if children, then heirs namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ

So we become heirs with Christ, in His inheritance of the promised land. The land of the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly Realm, the body of Christ.

So this is where we enter rest. We can rest in the secure knowledge of receiving our inheritance. We can rest in the secure knowledge of being in possession of and inhabiting the promised land. We can rest in the secure knowledge of our inheritance. And in that place, all things flow to us and out of us.