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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He is a sovereign God, and yet also a saving God. Some people might tend to pit John’s “God is love” (1 John 4:16) against Paul’s predestination. But they go hand in hand. If God were not love, we would be lost. Yet while we were still sinners, God loved us—God chose us.

A hurdle many Christians cannot seem to get over is accepting and embracing the doctrine of election, or predestination. By nature, we don’t like the fact that God is the one who does the choosing. We want to be the masters of our fate and the captains of our soul. Yet Paul seems to make the case very clearly in Ephesians 1:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,even as he chose us in himbefore the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In lovehe predestined usfor adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 1:3–5; emphasis added)

What brings Paul to doxology is distasteful to many. R.C. Sproul accurately describes the feeling of most people towards the concept:

The very word predestination has an ominous ring to it. It is linked to the despairing notion of fatalism and somehow suggests that within its pale we are reduced to meaningless puppets. The word conjures up visions of a diabolical deity who plays capricious games with our lives.[1]

Yes, this is a hard truth to come to terms with, but such a fatalistic view tragically eclipses the beauty of God’s work for undeserving and incapable sinners like you and me. To help us grapple with and grow to love this essential aspect of the gospel, consider the following three points about election.
1. Election is a biblical doctrine.
First, the doctrine is biblical. This should seem evident enough, as it is clearly spelled out in the section of Ephesians 1 quoted earlier. Nor is this the only place we run up against the concept in Scripture. Just a few verses later on Paul will say—even more bluntly—that we have been “predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). In Romans 8:29-30 we read,

For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he predestined, these he also called; whom he called, these he also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified.”

These are places in which these theological terms are used explicitly, but if we broaden our radar to also pick up allusions to and themes of choosing, predetermining, and electing, the list gets longer.
There are some out there who have a false notion of predestination and election, namely, that it was the invention of some ancient French madman named John Calvin. No doubt, Calvin would mourn the fact that history has dubbed this doctrine “Calvinism,” as though it somehow belonged more to him than to God.
Others who are more informed would recognize that the idea of election is not strictly Calvinist and is in fact a scriptural concept. Indeed, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, and so-called Calvinists all hold to different nuances of predestination.
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Habakkuk’s message is a definitive response to the problem of sin that so troubled the prophet. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ reveal both the certainty of God’s final victory over evil and the possibility of salvation through His Messiah. In light of these truths, we can celebrate God’s patience in withholding judgment and do our utmost to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth until His return (2 Peter 3:9).

Habakkuk’s deep desire for God-honoring justice and his strong negative reaction to its absence make his book all too relevant to contemporary readers. Inundated as we are with disturbing news and images from around the world, the sheer scale of the problem will appear overwhelming if we do not view it in light of the gospel. Furthermore, Habakkuk’s awareness of his own moral shortcomings and those of his compatriots show that the problem of sin is deeply rooted in human nature, and so includes all of us. But despite the gravity of the situation in Judah and beyond its borders, God’s answers to the prophet’s exasperated prayers bring him from a state of doubt and despair to one of firm faith and joy, even before anything has changed in Judah or abroad.
Three elements of this short book stand out for both their contribution to the prophet’s spiritual reorientation and their potential to guide our attitudes, actions, and expectations in a world that seems as unhinged and self-destructive as the ancient Near East in the late seventh century BC.
1. God is not indifferent to injustice in Judah.
This truth amounts to a direct rebuttal of what seems to be Habakkuk’s assumption at the beginning of the book. He does not go so far as to accuse God of injustice, but unless God does something, that conclusion appears to be inevitable (Hab. 1:2–4). God’s response to the prophet is patient and instructive. His commitment to bring judgment against sinful Judah (Habakkuk’s initial concern) shows that His covenantal commitment to His people does not guarantee their immunity to sin’s consequences. God is not indifferent to injustice.
But when God reveals to the prophet that He will use the Babylonians to punish Judah, Habakkuk is again mystified. Presuming that Judah is “more righteous” than Babylon (Hab. 1:13), he implies that if God were to allow this, this too would be to countenance evil (Hab. 1:13).
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