"LET us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." Verse 1. Whose rest is here referred to, by the expression "his rest?" To determine this, we must go back to chapter iii, where the subject is introduced. There God speaks of the apostasy of Israel in the wilderness, and says, "Wherefore I was grieved with that generation. . . . So I swear in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest." Verses 10, 11. The rest, then, is God's rest. Now what is God's rest, and from what point does it date? An answer to these questions will explain the allusions to the work of creation and the seventh-day Sabbath in chap. iv, 3, 4. The works [God's works in creation] were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day [Syr. Sabbath] on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works." God's rest is thus defined to be his rest after his creative work, on the first seventh day of time, and to date from that point. And we understand that allusion is here made to the Sabbath simply to show what God's rest is, and from what point it is to date. The Sabbath is not here referred to as a type of our future rest neither as the rest promised to the fathers, nor as that given by Joshua, nor as having been superseded by the "rest that remains." But there is a promise left us of entering into his rest. What is it for us to enter into the rest of God, and how is it to be accomplished, and when? The cases of certain ones who fell in the former dispensation are held up before us as warnings to us against cherishing within us an evil heart of unbelief, and as a spur to our faith. These persons came short of entering into some rest promised in the past. What rest was that? Answer. The rest of Canaan. When God foretold to Abraham the bondage of his seed in a strange land, he also foretold him that they should come forth and possess the land of Canaan. When Moses was raised up to lead Israel out of Egypt in accordance with this promise, God told him that his presence should go with him and he would give him rest. Ex. xxxiii, 14. And when they drew near to the promised land, and Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh desired their portion on the east side of Jordan, the Lord told them that they should pass over the river and assist their brethren till he should give them rest also. Moses not being permitted to enter the land, the people were led in by Joshua. And when they had displaced the inhabitants, whom on account of their loathsome abominations the land was compelled to spew out, Joshua assured his people that in the possession of Canaan which they had then acquired, the Lord had fulfilled all that he had promised the fathers concerning the occupation of that land, and that he had given them rest round about, according to all that he had sworn to this end. The land of Canaan, then, was called a rest. It was a rest promised to the seed of Abraham. It was the rest into which some could not enter on account of unbelief, and who consequently perished in the wilderness. But was that the full rest contemplated in the promise? God has promised his people that they shall enter into his rest. Joshua gave them all that was promised concerning the rest in Canaan. Yet says Paul in Heb. iv, 8, "If Joshua [margin] had given them rest," that is, the full rest embraced in the promise made of God to the fathers, "then would he not afterward have spoken of another day." If the rest given by Joshua was not the complete rest contained in the promise, it becomes at once certain that there "remaineth a rest," which will meet the provisions of the promise. What rest is this and when shall we enter upon it? This rest like the rest of Canaan, is preceded by a day of trial. David mentions it in Psalm, xcv. "To-day if ye will hear his voice." Paul says, "Again he limiteth a certain day saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts." And this is the other day or period that was "spoken of" or allotted, because the rest given by Joshua was not the full rest contemplated by the promise. The period that is meant by this language we learn from verses 14 and 15 of chap. iii: "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end, while it is said, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation." The provocation was the forty years of temptation in the wilderness, while Israel was journeying to the promised land, during which time Moses was faithful in all his house. The time covered by the expression, "To-day if ye will hear his voice," is the time during which Christ occupies the place of "a son over his own house, whose house are we." Verse 6. In other words it is the present, or what is commonly called the gospel, dispensation. Then what is the rest that remains for the people of God, and for which this dispensation is preparatory? If Canaan was not the rest contemplated in the promise, what is? Rom. iv, 15, tells us: "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Then the promise to Abraham was not only that his seed should temporarily possess the land of Canaan, but that he, and the nations that should be blessed in him, should ultimately possess the whole world; not, of course, in its present state, but when it shall have been renewed and freed from the curse forever. We need no plainer declaration, that the promise looks over into the new earth; and that that is the rest that remains to the people of God where they shall enjoy peace, and quietness, and assurance forever. From the contrast which Paul draws between the two rests of Heb. iii, and iv, and between Moses and Christ, Joshua and Christ, the house of Israel and the household of faith, we understand at once the relation that exists between them: It is that of type and antitype. As Moses and Joshua were types of Christ, and the house of Israel a type of the household of faith, so the rest of Canaan was a type of the glorious rest of the new earth, yet in store for the redeemed. But if the rest that remains is yet future, it may be asked how Paul can say in verse 3, "For we which have believed do enter into rest?" We reply that it is very evident that the rest is yet future; for it is promised only on condition that we hold fast to the end. Chap. iii, 6, 14. It is set forth as an object to be sought after. "Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest." Chap. iv, 11. Let us fear lest finally we come short of it. We have been accustomed to argue in reference to immortality, that the fact that we are exhorted to seek for it, shows that we do not now have it; for God would never counsel us to seek for that which we already possess. We may apply the same reasoning to the promised rest of Heb. iv. If, then, verse 3 is to be taken in the present tense, we must understand it the same as those texts which declare that we have eternal life; and that we have redemption through Christ's blood. John vi, 54; Eph. i, 7; Col. i, 14; 1 Jno. v, 18. The righteous are not yet in reality in possession of these blessings; but they have them by faith; that being the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. And in no other sense can we be said in the present tense to enter into that rest. It is sure to us if we hold fast our belief, and are steadfast unto the end. But some translations give this a future meaning. Wakefield translates it, "For we believe are to go into that rest." Translating it in this manner, the idea cannot be mistaken. A more literal rendering of the Greek, would perhaps be, "We, having believed, enter into the rest;" which carries the same idea, namely, that we are not to enter into the rest till the time of our probation, or the period in which we are to exercise belief, is accomplished. A query may arise on verse 10: "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath entered from his own works as God did from his." To whom does this refer? We think to the believer. And this language, whether it was spoken for this object or not, does most effectually cut off the idea that this rest is to be enjoyed in this present state. For so long as a person is engaged in "working out his salvation with fear and trembling," so long as he is laboring to enter into this rest, so long he is not enjoying the rest for which he is seeking. But this work and labor is to continue on our part till the end; consequently till then we do not enter into that rest. But after our race is run, and our warfare accomplished, then, just as God rested from his creative work, and was refreshed, and took delight in the result of his labor, so the believer rests from all the labors of his probationary pilgrimage, and enters upon the full fruition of his hope. But why does Paul in speaking of the rests that remains, use a word that signifies according to the margin, the keeping of a Sabbath? Verse 9. Answer. On account of the allusion to the Sabbath at the beginning. God's rest, as we have seen dated from the completion of creation. And it was doubtless the purpose of God that man, in perfect communion of spirit with his Maker, should share in the joy and glory of rest from that time on. We understand this rest as synonymous with the kingdom, which though now future, Christ assures us was prepared from the foundation of the world. It was God's design that man should take the kingdom at that time. But man by sin lost dominion. Just as Israel by their rebellion against God were made to wander forty years in the wilderness, whereas if they had proved faithful and obedient, they might have journeyed direct to Canaan, so man by sinning at the beginning, was driven out of the rest prepared for him, and put upon a long period of 6000 years probation. But that round of years is almost completed. We are drawing near to paradise again; and then man shall be brought back to the kingdom, back to the rest, prepared for him at the beginning. We may not have noticed every query or difficulty that may exist with many in regard to this chapter; but to our own mind it is a clear and comforting portion of scripture. The thoughts which we have designed to offer may be summed up as follows: 1. The rest which we are promised, was, like the kingdom, prepared for us at the foundation of the world. 2. Man by sin was thrown out of it for 6000 years. 3. A type of it was given to us in the possession of Canaan by the Jews. 4. We occupy the same relation to the future heavenly rest, that Israel coming out of Egypt did to the rest of Canaan. 5. As those who fell in the wilderness came short of that rest through unbelief, so there is danger of our coming short of the future rest through the same means. 6. This rest will be given to us at the close of this dispensation; for Paul says, 2 Thess. i, 7, "And to you who are troubled," God shall recompense, or grant, "rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels." The more we contemplate this subject, the more fully do we enter into sympathy with the apostle's language. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest; and, let us fear, lest, a promise being left us, any of us should come short.