Yes let's look at it, - Misunderstood in many ways.
" while a promise remains of entering His rest,"
Where is that promise located?
"For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,
“As I swore in My anger,
They certainly shall not enter My rest,”
And what exactly was that 'rest' he was speaking of?
Found here in Psalms 95 - It is word for word, give cred for that.
For we who have believed enter
that rest, just as He has said,
“As I swore in My anger,
They certainly shall not enter My rest,”
Let's look at Psalm 95, you can go look up the whole but this is the focused part.
Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested Me;
They tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
To sum that up David is speaking of the time in the wilderness which is made explicit speaking of the 40 years. Those were the ones who cause them to wander around for 40 years instead of going into the Promised land. There they were to be given rest from their enemies, all they had to do was to keep His commandments.
'My rest' is His rest in safety and security every day, not one day.
The word translated 'rest' there in the Psalms is 'menuchah' which means a 'resting place' not a Sabbath rest.
At the dedication of the New Temple, Solomon, among others things, said this:
1 Kings 8:
54And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. 55And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,
56 Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel,
according to all that he promised:
there hath not failed one word of all his good promise,
which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.
While the writer of Hebrews is making Psalms 95:11 seem the same rest as Genesis 2:2 (And on the seventh day
God ended His work which He had done, and He
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.) However it is not.
The word 'rested' in Genesis וַיִּשְׁבֹּת֙ way·yiš·bōṯ
* --which means to 'cease to work'. It is not the same as 'Menuchah'
which is a
resting place. That same is what King Solomon spoke of saying it was the Menuchah that God promised through Moses.
That was the
'Promise' that Hebrews is speaking of by not in the correct way.
Lets look at what the writer is calling it "while a promise remains of entering His rest" a promise that remains, like it never happened which David extols in the Psalms backed up at the Dedication of the Temple written of by King Solomon , his son. 2 witnesses that the promise was made and kept.
* The same as here --- from Joshua - 'The manna
ceased on the day after'
