God did give the Israelites a sampling of rest in the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua. Yet that rest did not last. Joshua 24:31 says, “Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the LORD did for Israel.” While that verse may sound pleasant, it is merely the calm before the storm. The book of Judges goes on to describe the ever-growing wickedness of Israel in the centuries following Joshua’s death. No, the rest that Joshua gave them did not last; therefore, another rest was needed.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said,
“They shall not enter my rest.”   
Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Hebrews 4:1-13 ESV
At the end of Israel’s forty-year wandering through the wilderness under the judgment of God, the exodus generation of men, including Moses, had all died off. Only Joshua and Caleb, the two faithful spies, would be the only two men over the age of sixty to enter the Promised Land. Under the leadership of Joshua, the book of the same name tells of how Israel took possession of Canaan by also acting as instruments of God’s judgment upon the pagan nations within that land. Their entering came with much striving, for they took the land by force. Yet by the end of the book in 21:43-45, we read:
Thus the LORD gave Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
As we noted last week, the exodus generation could have had those words spoken about them if they had only believed God’s word. Though Yahweh demolished the greatest nation on earth in order to rescue them from slavery, they refused to believe that the LORD would also defeat the Canaanites within the Promised Land. They heard the bitter complaint of the ten spies and resolved to return to Egypt. Only Joshua and Caleb lived to enter that blessed land because of their belief in God’s mighty hand of salvation. Thus, in 3:7-19 the author of Hebrews warned us against possessing a wicked, unbelieving heart like the exodus generation. Our present text is a direct continuation of that warning, still using Psalm 95 and the exodus generation as erroneous examples for us to learn from. Yet while last week’s text largely focused upon Psalm 95:7-8’s exhortation not to harden our hearts as we hear God’s voice today, these verses before us more focus upon Psalm 95:11’s recounting of God’s oath that that generation would not enter His rest.
ET US FEAR; LET US STRIVE // VERSES 1-11
Before we attempt diving into the particulars of these verses, we might find a word on their structure to be helpful. Verses 1-11 are bracketed by two exhortations that are essentially saying the same thing only with different words. Verse 1: Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. Verse 11: Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Verses 2-10 explain what that rest is (largely through five for statements in verses 2, 3, 4, 8, and 10) and exhort us again exhorts us not to harden our hearts (verses 6-7).
Right from the beginning, therefore in verse 1 ought to draw us back to the previous verse, 3:19, which reads: “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” By the context of chapter 3, we know that ‘they’ refers to the exodus generation and that they were unable to enter the rest that God was giving them through the Promised Land because of their unbelief. Now here in verse 1, the author turns that example upon us, saying, Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. This verse is the thesis and the summary of our entire passage; however, the author endeavors to make his point clear through the remaining verses. Particularly, he will explain what the rest that still remains for us today is. After all, under Joshua, the children of the exodus generation did enter the Promise Land and, after executing God’s judgment upon the Canaanites, were given rest from their enemies. But clearly the Promised Land was only a picture of a bigger reality that is still before us today.
Verse 2 begins the author’s explanation with our first for statement: For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. God declared good news to the exodus generation through liberating them from slavery and promising to bring them into the Promised Land, and we have received a similar and even greater good news since Christ, the greater Moses, came to liberate us from our sin and to give us life everlasting. However, the proclamation of that physical gospel did not benefit the exodus generation. While there is some debate on exactly how the final phrase about faith ought to read, Dennis Johnson summarizes the point: “hearing God’s voice brings wrath, not benefit, to those who refuse to receive the message with submissive trust.”[1]
But, as verse 3 notes, we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’
From all we have seen, it is clear that [the writer] is confident that those who truly believe will not come short of the promised rest. In fact, he here asserts that those who have believed are now entering into it (this is the implication of the present indicative of εἰσέρχομαι). In their case, this now actually is happening. They are not waiting to enter. They are entering. Here, in confirmation of this confidence, the writer cites again the divine oath against unbelief from Psalm 95: “As He has said: ‘So I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”’”[2]
But how is that oath against the exodus generation a confirmation of the rest that present day believers are already entering into? The writer is expecting us to make an inference from the contrary. Though the exodus generation had the promised rest before them, they failed to reach it because of their unbelief; therefore, unlike them, we who have believed are entering that promised rest.
The final sentence of verse 3 through verse 5 now ties that promised rest not merely onto the land of Canaan but back to God’s inauguration of the Sabbath at the end of creating the world:
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
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Though eating certain foods and avoiding certain foods might have some health benefits, not all of the forbidden foods could be explained by hygienic concerns. Consider, too, that Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19). This declaration wouldn’t mean that we shouldn’t think about how foods affect us. This declaration does, however, confirm that the clean/unclean categories in the Old Testament were about ceremonial (and not primarily hygienic) matters.

There are instructions in Leviticus and Deuteronomy about certain foods the Israelites were to eat and certain foods they were to avoid. The main places in the Torah addressing Israel’s dietary laws are Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. The instructions pertain to food from the land, from the sea, and from the sky.
Certain foods were “clean” while others were “unclean.” Have you thought much about these instructions? In Mark 7:19, Jesus declared all foods clean, so these Old Testament food laws were temporary. But what can we know about them?
First, notice the timing of the instructions. The clean/unclean food laws (in Lev. 11 and Deut. 14) were given to the Israelites prior to the conquest of the promised land. Part of Moses’s preparation of the people, therefore, involved communicating these dietary regulations.
Second, the food laws were part of holy living. The Israelites were going into the land of Canaan to worship the one true God and to walk in obedience before him. Because the Lord gave these commands through Moses to the Israelites, the people were obligated to follow these commands. The food laws were not optional.
Third, the food laws would set apart the Israelites in the eyes of others. The Canaanites would have eaten certain foods which God prohibited the Israelites from eating. Living consecrated lives among the Canaanites, then, involved a menu that was unlike the land’s pagan inhabitants. The Israelites were to live differently from the Canaanites—and part of living differently involved eating differently.
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How do you get from London to Edinburgh? Even if you’ve never visited either city, you’ll likely know that there’s more than one answer to the question. Plug the destinations into a maps program and you’ll be offered a host of routes, and even those will be just the major ones. In reality, there are thousands of connections between the two capitals, an almost endless number of ways you can travel between them. Of course, some are more obvious than others, the large motorways cutting a clearer trail than the winding country roads. But the point remains: there are many ways to make the journey.
When it comes to Scripture, what links Genesis to Revelation? We know that the Bible is one book, giving a coherent, unified message. It is, ultimately, the product of one Author, revealing one way of salvation to mankind. But is there only one theme that binds the Bible together? The answer, surely, is no. Just as on any other journey, there are multiple paths we might follow as we trace God’s great redemption story. To change the image, Scripture is a book woven together by many threads, a rope of many intertwining cords. To search for “the one theme” of the Bible is a pointless exercise; rather, we can enjoy discovering dozens, perhaps hundreds, of different melodies that combine to create the final symphony.
Let’s consider some of the major roads. It’s sometimes noted that the Bible nowhere uses that common evangelical phrase “relationship with God.” This is not, of course, because there is no relationship with God. Rather, the Bible’s word for that bond between Jesus and His people is covenant. Unsurprisingly, therefore, covenant is a major road through the pages of Scripture. Beginning in the garden of Eden, God entered into a covenant with Adam. Although the explicit word covenant doesn’t appear in the text of Genesis 2, all the elements that make up a covenant are there: the two parties (God and Adam), the terms of the relationship (wholehearted obedience, expressed in the command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), penalties if the covenant is breached (death), and rewards if it is kept (eternal life, symbolized by the Tree of Life; Gen. 3:22). Indeed, Hosea later refers to this arrangement as a covenant (Hos. 6:7).