Hello 1stcenturylady,
It is very coincidental that you post something on Hebrews 4. I have recently finsihed a study on Heb 3-4 on REST that I will post up as well that you might find interesting. Hope it is a blessing to you as it was to me.
GOD'S SABBATH REST
Hebrews 3
8, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9, When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10, Why I was grieved with that generation, and said,
They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11, So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.
12, Take heed, brothers, lest there be in any of you
an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13, But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day;
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14, For we are made partakers of Christ,
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end;
15, While it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16, For some, when they had heard, did provoke: however, not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17, But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
18, And to whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19, So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
WHAT REST ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE?
Hebrews 4
1, 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.
2, For to us was the gospel preached, as well as to them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3, For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn
in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world.
4, For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5, And in this place again, If they shall enter into
my rest.
NOTE: CONTEXT is God's REST from the SEVENTH DAY SABBATH REST OF CREATION (v4-5) and those who BELIEVE and FOLLOW GOD's WORD enter into God's SABBATH REST as GOD did on the SEVENTH DAY of the week. CONTEXT is GOD's SEVENTH DAY SABBATH REST and those who believe or do not believe God's WORD and enter into that rest.
6, Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached
entered not in because of unbelief:
7, Again, he limits a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
8, For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
9, There remains a SABBATH REST to the people of God.
10, For he that is entered into
his rest (v9 SABBATH REST), he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11, Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the
same example of unbelief (Heb 3).
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Now let's compare the GREEK WORDS for REST in Matthew 11:28-30 with Hebrews 4.....
Mattehew 11
28, Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
29, Take my yoke on you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and
you shall find rest to your souls.
30, For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
STRONGS GREEK
REST meaning; G373 ἀναπαύω anapauo (a-na-pav'-ō) v.
1. (reflexively) to repose, to rest.
2. (literally or figuratively) to be exempt, to remain.
3. (by implication) to refresh.
[from G303 and G3973]
KJV: take ease, refresh, (give, take) rest
Root(s): G303, G3973
G303 ἀνά ana (a-na') prep.
1. (properly) up.
2. (by extension, used distributively) amidst or severally, etc.
3. (by implication, as a prefix) (it often means) repetition (again), intensity, reversal, etc.
4. apiece.
5. (of combined motion) back.
6. (with G3319) through (the midst).
G3973 παύω pauo (pav'-ō) v.
to stop, i.e. restrain, quit, desist, come to an end.
{transitively or intransitively}
[a primary verb (“pause”)]
KJV: cease, leave, refrain
CONCLUSION: This is the Gospel rest of BELIEVING and FOLLOWING God's WORD; v29 Learn of me; v30 my burden (doing) is light. This agrees with
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the
gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. No one enter God's Sabbath rest if they do not BELIEVE God's WORD or follow it.
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Now compare this GREEK word used here to the one used in Hebrews 4:9...
Hebrews 4:9, There remains a SABBATH REST to the people of God.
The GREEk Word used here for REST is different.
STRONGS GREEK
REST meaning of Hebrews 4:9;
G4520 σαββατισμός sabbatismos (sab-ba-tiz-mos') n.
1. a “sabbatism.”
2. (figuratively) the repose of Christianity (as a type of heaven).
[from a derivative of
G4521] σάββατον sabbaton (saɓ'-ɓa-ton) n.
1. the Sabbath (i.e. Shabbath).
2. a day of weekly repose from secular avocations.
3. the observance or institution itself.
4. (by extension) a week, i.e. the interval between two Sabbaths.
5. likewise the plural in all the above applications.
[of Hebrew origin (
H7676)]
שַׁבָּת shabbath (shab-bawth') n-e.
1. intermission, a period of temporary rest.
2. (specifically) the Sabbath, the seventh day being the day of rest.
[intensive from
H7673]
H7673 שָׁבַת shabath (shaw-ɓath') v.
to
repose, i.e. to cease from exertion.
{used in many implied relations (causative, figurative or specific)}
[a primitive root] KJV: (cause to, let, make to)
cease, celebrate, cause (make) to fail,
keep sabbath, suffer to be lacking, leave, put away (down), (make to)
rest, rid, still, take away.
CONCLUSION: As you can see from the different GREEK words used in Matthew 11:28 and Hebrews 4:9 both words are indeed different and have a different application but both are linked to each other because in order to enter into God's SABBATH REST we must enter the Gospel rest of BELIEVING and FOLLOWING God's WORD. Short version of Hebrews 3-4 is; NO GOSPEL REST = NO SABBATH REST.
Both are similar referring to rest but the word REST in Hebrews 4:9 in is reference "Sabbatismos" which is the "REST" specifically found in God's Sabbath the 4th Commandment
that refers right back the Hebrew WORD used for rest in Genesis 2.
Let's look at the origin of the Sabbath and God's 4th Commandment...
Genesis 2
1, Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of them.
2, And on the
seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he
rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3, And
God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it: because that in it he had
rested from all his work which God created and made.
[intensive from
H7673] H7673 שָׁבַת shabath (shaw-ɓath') v. to
repose, i.e. to cease from exertion.{used in many implied relations (causative, figurative or specific)} [a primitive root] KJV: (cause to, let, make to)
cease, celebrate, cause (make) to fail,
keep sabbath, suffer to be lacking, leave, put away (down), (make to)
rest, rid, still, take away.
The above HEBREW meaning is the base root of Sabbatismos from the GREEK word used in Hebrews 4:9 which is referring right back to the origin of God's Sabbath in Genesis 2 and God's 4th Commandment in Exodus 20:8-11.
CONCLUSION: The meraning here is the REST that comes specifically from BELIEVING and OBEYING Gods WORD. The REST being referred to here is the SABBATH REST of the 4th Commandment which can only be entered into by BELIEVING THE GOSPEL (the WORD of GOD). This is the SABBATH rest according to the commandment.
......................
Those who have no peace because are those who do not
BELIEVE and FOLLOW God's WORD. We ONLY have rest in Christ if we BELIEVE and FOLLOW Jesus. Those who are still in their SINS do not KNOW God and are like the troubled see that have no peace.
Isaiah 57
20, But the
wicked (SINNERS)
are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21, There is
no peace, said my God,
to the wicked.
1 John 2
3, And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4, He that said, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Those who
CONTINUE in KNOWN UNREPENTANT SIN will
NOT enter into the KINGDOM of HEAVEN.
................
SIN is the breaking of God's Commandments (
James 2:9-11;
Romans 7:7;
1 John 3:4)
Those who CONTINUE in UNREPENTANT SIN will NOT enter into the KINGDOM of HEAVEN.
................
God's 4th commandment is one of the ten (
Exodus 20:8-11) If we knowingly break it when God asks us not to we stand guilty before God of committing sin (
James 2:8-12). If we do not seek him in repentance and forgiveness we are in danger of the Judgement (
Hebrews 10:26-27)
Sunday worship is a tradition and teaching of man that has led many to break the commandments of God. Jesus says that if we follow the traditions of man that break the commandments of God we are not following God (
Matthew 15:3-9)
There is not one scripture in all of God's Word that says that God's 4th Commandment is now ABOLISHED and we are now commanded to KEEP Sunday as a Holy day.
Who should we follow the teachings and traditions of men or the Word of God? Who should we believe the Words of men or the Word of God?
In times of ignorance God winks at but now ,<when a KNOWLEDGE of the truth has come> calls all men everywhere to REPENT (FOLLOW) (Acts 17:30-31).