Hebrews 4:9

9 As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day.

Hebrews 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Ver. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.]
Not all mankind; nor the people of the Jews only; rather the people of God, both Jews and Gentiles, under the New Testament; the people whom God has loved with a special love, has chose in Christ, and given to him, with whom he has made a covenant in him, and whom Christ saves from their sins, and calls by his grace; and the rest which remains for them is not a new sabbath day, but a sabbatism: and this does not so mush design eternal rest in heaven; though the Jews often call that a sabbath; the 92nd psalm they say is a psalm for the time to come, (tbv wlkv) , "which is all sabbath", and the rest of eternal life ^F11: but rather this intends the spiritual rest believers have in Christ under the Gospel dispensation, which they now enter into, and of which the apostle had been treating; and as for the word "remaineth", this does not denote the futurity of it, but the apostle's inference or consequence from what he had said; and the sense is, it remains therefore, and is a certain fact, a clear consequence from what has been observed, that there is another rest distinct from God's rest on the seventh day, and from the rest in the land of Canaan; which were both typical ones of the present rest the saints now enjoy: so the Jews call the world to come the times of the Messiah, (lwdgh tbv) , "the great sabbath" ^F12.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Misn. Tamid, c. 7. sect. 4. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1, Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 16. 3. Massecheth Sopherim, c. 18. sect. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 3. 1.
F12 Zohar in Gen. fol. 31. 4. Shaare Orn, fol. 17. 1. Caphtor, fol. 64. 1.

Hebrews 4:9 In-Context

7 This is shown by the fact that God sets another day, which is called "Today." Many years later he spoke of it through David in the scripture already quoted: "If you hear God's voice today, do not be stubborn."

8 If Joshua had given the people the rest that God had promised, God would not have spoken later about another day.

9 As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day.

10 For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his.

11 Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of faith.