Fr. Stephen: Chapter 4 verse 1: “Therefore” – see, we get “therefore” after “therefore.” “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.” So, what’s the promise at the end of the Psalm quote he gave? It’s the inverse of the curse, “None of you will enter my rest.” But then that next generation does. And so, what this is saying in 4 verse 1 is, “This is the promise to us, too, to enter into God’s rest. It’s not just the curse, it’s not just, ‘Hey, you don’t want your corpse to fall in the wilderness’ ” – he just said the negative. This is the positive. The positive is, there’s also, even though there’s still this danger, there’s also still this promise. Of entering into his rest.

And I’ll talk about that now, what’s going on with the word “rest,” because it’s going to be important as we read through the rest of this chapter. So, we tend to read “rest” as “Ahh…” Right? “Calgon take me away.” [laughter] We finally – vacation, we don’t have to go to work, we can lay around and do nothing. That may be just my bias, I guess other people like to go do fun things; I like to do nothing. But we don’t have anything to do, we can relax, we can sleep as long as we want: rest. That’s not what we’re getting at here.

When God talks about the people “entering his rest”—and this is going to be made explicit as we move forward in the chapter—it’s referring to the rest of the seventh day of creation. The beginning of Genesis chapter 2, the first couple verses. When God rests – we already talked about this a little, I think, last time. But when God rests at the end of that, that’s him being seated on his throne. That’s him enthroned over the creation. And so, entering into his rest means coming into his kingdom, coming into his domain, into his rule; becoming part of his heavenly council. All of that is what it means to enter into his rest.

And so, that’s the real promise. We’re not just talking about having a nice stretch of land in Palestine, as nice as that is. The only country there without oil. We’re not just talking about that, clearly; we’re talking about, again, this relation – having this particular relationship with God the Father.

Interlocutor 1: Hasn’t this distorted our whole concept of what happens when we die, when we say “rest in peace” and “he’s now at rest” – it’s sort of like, “Wow, phew, life was exhausting. Now I get to rest from all that.”

Fr. Stephen: Yeah. Some of the “rest in peace” stuff, I think, comes from blessings that your grave would not be disturbed, that your remains would remain in peace. But yeah, we have that idea. Like, “Goodnight, sweet prince.” “Let flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” Y’know, when he’s trying to decide whether to kill himself, “to sleep, perchance to dream.” But it’s all about “I want to sleep” – that’s what death is going to be, “I’m finally going to be able to sleep. I’m going to finally be able to rest.” Yeah, we have that distorted thing. In some political circles now they like to say “rest in power,” which is actually closer to–

Interlocutor 1: Well yes, that is.

Fr. Stephen: …if you understand sainthood. [laughter] We would mean it differently than them, but yeah, the idea that it’s somehow this passive state of just enjoyment, sitting on a cloud, strumming a harp or what have you – yeah, that’s not the image of the blessings promised to us by God in the Gospel. It’s more about participating in the Kingdom. And we’ve already talked about that a little. So, that’s – again, that’s a way of talking about that promise, not just about, like, “Hey, everybody wants a couple days off.”

4 verse 2: “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” So, the Gospel was preached to us as well as to them. Meaning, they received these same promises. They saw the victory of God over the gods of Egypt; they were delivered, they received a kind of salvation. And indeed, they could have received the same kind of salvation had they been faithful. But it didn’t profit them. So, this isn’t a question of, “They didn’t know any better.” So, there is – this is – it’s good that you brought up the parable of the sower, because this is a comparable kind of idea. So, the Gospel’s like the seed. So, “We’ve received it, they received it; with them, it didn’t profit them. With them, it didn’t bear fruit. We need to make sure it does bear fruit with each of us.” But what that means is, that means that it doesn’t sort of just bear fruit on its own; once again, you’re not forced to receive – God doesn’t force his blessings on people. So, that seed of the Gospel – the Gospel has to be met with something.

And then we have this sort of bollocksed translation. And I was hoping, when I saw the little “a” there by “not being mixed with faith in those who heard” – I was hoping when I saw that little “a” and when I looked over to the footnote that the footnote might have a better version, but not much: “did not profit them since they were not united by faith with those who heeded it.”

Interlocutor 1: That’s even less clear.

Fr. Stephen: Right, right. And what “faith in those who heard” – they were supposed to have faith in the people who heard the Gospel?

Interlocutor 1: They are the people who heard it.

Fr. Stephen: Right. So, the idea here is that – the other translation is a little better. “…they were not united by” – let’s go ahead and translate it “faithfulness.” “…they were not united by faithfulness with those who heeded it.” So, what it’s saying is that you, as an individual who hears the Gospel, you need to unite yourself with those who are faithful to the Gospel by being faithful yourself. Because remember, he talked about the house. We’re in the same chapter. Or, not in the same chapter, but we’re in the same section here. We’re talking about the house, the household, Moses in the household. So, there were those who heeded it then. Who were they? Moses, Joshua, Caleb. Who heeded it. And any of the people who had been faithful would have been united with them as those who constitute the house. But they didn’t. Their faithlessness cut them off, not only from God but from the faithful.

So, this not only is talking about faithfulness, not just belief – and what would that even – let’s explore this. What would that even mean in this context? They’ve been delivered from Egypt; they’re out in the desert. What are they supposed to believe? The problem wasn’t that they had a wrong opinion or belief about something. The problem was they were actively rebelling. They were actively disobeying the commandments. That was the problem. Not what they thought in their heads. It’s not like, God told them they needed to be monotheists and they were all polytheists. Right? There weren’t a bunch of dogmas in the Torah that they were– So, that doesn’t even make sense in the case of Moses. The problem was their faithlessness, again, which is what he was just talking about. And so, faithfulness not only unites you to Christ, but faithfulness also unites you with the faithful, with the house which Christ oversees.

Interlocutor 1: So that’s with the Church and with the Saints.

Fr. Stephen: Right. Because, again, this is another one of those presuppositions, that gets read into it by the translators, of individualism. That it’s about whether an individual believes or not. But here in Hebrews we aren’t talking about an individual; we’re talking about a whole people. We’re talking in the plural. We’re talking about “us,” “we,” and “them,” this group. So, when we receive the Gospel, we need to respond with faithfulness, and that unites us with the rest of the faithful. And it’s the rest of the faithful who help us continue that faithfulness, which we need to continue from beginning to end, throughout our lives, in order to become partakers of Christ.

Verse 3: “For we who have believed” – “who have believed.” In the past, at some point, I guess. [laughter] “…do enter that rest, as He has said: ‘So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest.” ’ ” – “For we who are faithful do enter that rest, as He has said: ‘So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest,” ’ ” the faithless ones will not, so the faithful do. “…Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

Next verse: “For”—“because”—“He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His works’; and again in this place: ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” So, in case you didn’t believe me earlier–

Interlocutor 1: Q.E.D.

Fr. Stephen: [laughter] Right? Here it’s made explicit. So, God’s rest was established at the foundation of the world. God’s enthronement, God’s authority. His Kingdom is already established. The question is, will we enter into it? And we enter into it by being faithful, and by joining ourselves with the faithful who are part of that kingdom, that house.

Interlocutor 1: Well, there’s another translation problem, I guess, because it says, “He rested on the seventh day from all his works”; that sounds like he’s exhausted, he’s [inaudible]

Fr. Stephen: Right, and that’s – the word that’s translated “works” there means, like, “his doings” or “his makings.”

Interlocutor 1: Okay.

Fr. Stephen: Because he was making things all the previous days, so on the seventh day he stopped making things.

Interlocutor 1: He stopped making things. Okay.

Fr. Stephen: Because that was complete.

Verse 6: “Since therefore it remains that some enter it” – I don’t know why they put the word “must” there [the NKJV reads, “some must enter it”], since again, there’s no compulsion going on here; we’re getting warnings. “Since therefore it remains that some enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience” – notice again, now, the people delivered from Egypt are the ones to whom the Gospel was first preached. Why? That first Pascha. Now we’ve got the second Pascha. These things are being drawn together in parallel: Old Covenant through Moses; New Covenant in Christ, this parallel here. So, those, did not enter it because of diso– because of what? Because of unbelief? No, because of disobedience. Not because they believed the wrong things.

“…again, He designates a certain day, saying in David” – what’s important here? Who’s “he”

Interlocutor 1: God.

Fr. Stephen: God.

Interlocutor 1: Speaking through David.

Fr. Stephen: Right. And he quotes Psalm 95. Who did he say was speaking in Psalm 95 back in 3 verse 7?

Interlocutor 1: Holy Spirit.

Fr. Stephen: Holy Spirit. So, if you want another place in the Bible that says the Holy Spirit is God, here you got one. 

“…He designates a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today,’ after such a long time”—because David’s centuries later—“as it has been said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’ ” So, what’s the point of pointing out that this is through David a long time later? Well, this wasn’t just about them. This was still true for David, centuries later, and therefore it makes sense to say it’s still true for us now. You can’t just say – you get that sometimes, as people interpret the Old Testament, “Well, that’s just talking about stuff a long time ago; that’s not”– that’s the point here, “Well, look, centuries later David is saying, ‘Hey, today.’ In the tenth century B.C., instead of the thirteenth or fifteenth century B.C., this is still true.” And now, St. Paul in Hebrews is saying, “Today, in the first century, this is still true.”

Verse 8: “For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.” So, if this “rest” that we’re talking about was just going into the land of Canaan – “trip starts when we leave Egypt; it ends when we get to the land, [audibly dusts hands off] okay.” If that were true, if that were the correct way to understand it, if that’s what rest was—if it was about the land, strip of land in Palestine—then David, who’s sitting in Jerusalem, who’s the King of Israel would not have said, “Today this is true.” So, the fact that David said that means there’s some – this rest is this thing he’s been talking about. God’s rest on the seventh day; something that goes beyond just the land, that the land is a sign of and a pointer to. This experience with Moses in the wilderness with the people is a pointer to something greater – guess what that greater thing is going to be. He’s already kinda tipped his hat, that this is what comes in Christ, that greater thing.

Verse 9: “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” So, you are now in the state that God is in. So, here, “cease from his works” – and he’s using “works” here to talk about that, again, obedience. That faithful obedience, and then you have reward.

Verse 11: “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” Nothing to do with belief, what you believe; it’s about whether you obey or not.

Verse 12: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Now, that verse got yanked out of context and taught to all of us as little kids in Sunday school. And we were all lead to believe that this verse is talking about the Bible. That’s what it was, the Bible; “This is why the Bible’s so good. The Bible! You read the Bible, it’ll cutcha right to the heart. Convict ya of sin,” all those things. Not to say that the Bible can’t do that. Bible’s great. Not saying anything negative about the Bible. Obviously; this is a Bible study. I consider it somewhat important and have the student loan bills to prove it. But let’s look at context. Notice in verse 13, we won’t read the whole thing – “And there is no creature hidden from His sight.” So, the Word of God [whispering] is a “he.” Greek has a neuter. Greek can say “it.” So the Word of God is a “he.” It’s the Word of God, it’s Christ that’s being compared to Moses.

Interlocutor 1: So “word” should’ve been capitalized.

Fr. Stephen: Yes. Christ is living and powerful.

Interlocutor 4: I see Protestants capitalize “Word of God” referring to the Bible.

Fr. Stephen: Referring to the Bible, yeah. Referring to the Scriptures. Right. So, there was no Bible [laughter] at the time this was written. There were the Scriptures, the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Old Testament; those Scriptures were out there. They hadn’t been collected together yet, but they’re out there floating around. But what does it mean to say that they’re “alive”?

Interlocutor 1: I always thought that was pretty weird that it was referring to the Bible.

Fr. Stephen: Right. Whereas, what does it mean to say that Christ is alive?

Interlocutor 1: Makes more sense.

Fr. Stephen: That makes a whole lot more sense. Christ “is living and powerful, and is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” When you put it all together, all of a sudden it’s pretty obviously Christ. And this “sword” imagery is attached to Christ, for example, in Revelation 19, where Christ is the rider on the horse who has a sword coming out of his mouth, that gets used to hack up the enemy armies and the beasts. So, this is talking about Christ.

This is talking about Christ, meaning what? We’re talking about obedience and disobedience. So, especially in the context of the argument, like, “Hey, we need to make sure that we’re obedient; we need to make sure we remain faithful, because otherwise the Bible will find out.” No, we need to be obedient because Christ knows. Christ can pierce right to the core of us; he knows what’s going on in our heart. He knows whether we’re obedient and faithful in our heart, or not. It’s not just how we act externally, or what we might say. He knows. And therefore, we need to remain faithful; we need to keep that confession from beginning to end if we’re going to enter into rest. There’s no reason to have a weird digression about the Bible here. It doesn’t make sense.

Verse 14: “Seeing then” – so, “then”. “Seeing then”–

Interlocutor 1: That’s almost a “therefore.”

Fr. Stephen: Right. So, this is, “Based on what we just said about Christ”—not the Bible—“that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” So, “Let me talk about the Bible for a second. Okay, now back to Christ.” Again, kinda preposterous. “…let us hold fast to our confession.”

Verse 15: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points”– I like “points.” It’s just inserted. “All things.” Now they have the word “tempted.” “–as we are, yet without sin.” So, we’ve already commented on the fact that “tempted” being used about Christ, it should really be the same word, it can equally well be, and here better be, translated “tested.” Christ was tested in all ways during his life, without sin. “Tempted” in our modern English implies he was sitting there, “Oh, I dunno, I kinda want to do it, but I shouldn’t.” That’s not – anybody who starts psychologizing Christ, this is a sure tipoff. If you’re listening to someone talk about the Bible or talk about Christ in general, and they start talking about what he was thinking or feeling like they know what God thinks and feels, that’s someone not to listen to, and to watch very closely. Because they are sus. That’s not anything that you want to be involved with.

So, this is “tested.” We’re tested, and all too often we fail. Christ was tested in all the same ways we’re tested, but he never failed. But so, he knows what we’re going through. This is the flip side, so, on one hand we have this image of Christ as this sword who knows what’s going on; we’re not going to hide our sin and our rebellion from him; we’re not going to fool him; he’s the judge. He’s also the high priest. These things are set in parallel. He’s the one who intercedes for us when we fail. He’s the one who defends us when we fail; he’s the one who brings us healing and restoration when we fail. So, it’s not just, “You better look out because you blow it once and that’s it.” We need to strive all the more because we have Christ who’s here to help us. Who’s here to restore us when we fail, who’s here to help us get back on the path that leads to entering into his rest.

Verse 16: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So, whenever we need it, we’re able to go before the throne of mercy, the mercy seat; this is Temple language, because he’s the high priest. We can receive – that is available to us. And so, it’s not just, again, a question of, “Either you have perfect obedience or – corpse in the desert.” We not only have that, but we have Christ, now, who intercedes, who gives his grace, meaning he acts upon us, he actively heals us, restores us, strengthens us. That’s all available to us when we repent. So, both of those things go together. We struggle against sin, to not do it, but then when we do fail, we have the same Christ, who is the judge, who is also our intercessor. So, if you find out your defense attorney is also the judge, you’re in pretty good shape for the trial, as long as you don’t…

Interlocutor 1: Fire him.

Fr. Stephen: Fire him. Abandon him, tell him to buzz off. That’s the kind of imagery we’ve got here. And we’ll pick up, Lord willing, next week, at the beginning of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 5. So, thanks everybody.