An Admonishment to the Hebrews.

• “For who were those having heard, rebelled, but not all those having come out of Egypt by the leading of Moses? And with whom was He indignant forty years, if not with those having sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they shall not enter into His rest, if not to those having disobeyed? And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.” Hebrews 3:16-19
• “Therefore, of the promise to enter into His rest left remaining, we should fear, lest ever any of you should seem to have fallen short. And indeed we are those having had the gospel preached just as they did; but the message of their hearing did not profit them, not having been united with the faith of those having heard.” Hebrews 4:1-2

This passage has been used as an admonishment for Christians not to fall into unbelief and sin. It can be viewed as how we have become hearers of the word and not doers. How we have stripped the bible of power, not being united in faith with those who heard and obtain promises. Rightly so, “Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, having been fully equipped toward every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 However the primary objective of this discourse is to address the original intent of the letter. As it was written to the Hebrews in a collective manner both for those who have believed and those who might be straddling the fence.

Paul addresses the Hebrews as addressing the elect of God, as those who have been brought near to God. “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” Hebrews 4:9 Therefore uses the perspective, of the fathers coming out of Egypt to show the similarities that remains even now. He is showing the fathers coming into the promise land is not the end of the fulfilment of the promise of God. He says if that was the case, Joshua would have given them rest, but the Holy Spirit through David, in whose hand and kingdom, the whole promise of the land of Israel was obtained, admonishes them saying “[Today] if you should hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” Psalm 95:7-8 In saying [Today], he says even now there still remains a rest yet to be obtained by the people of God.

So Paul gives them a warning, that they too are standing in the same place where their fathers once stood, by pointing at the fathers who failed to enter the promised land through unbelief. They failed to enter the physical land of Israel, but for us also remains an entry into the rest of God, by which we ceases from our works and rest in God through faith. The point he makes is, being “the people of God” is not a means of escape, for those who fail to enter into the heavenly Jerusalem. Therefore he says, “the message they heard did not benefit them,” though God Himself by His might and power rescued them out of Egypt, but because of their unbelief they died in the wilderness, at the very gate. So now, to you also the gospel of Christ is preached, by which you may enter into the promise of God, into the Spirit, the heavenly Jerusalem, therefore do not [harden yourselves] and fall short at the gate as they did through unbelief. The law which is written in stone is meant to be a shadow of the tree of life, but the substance is of Jesus Christ.

“Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to that law. Why? Because it was not by faith, but as by works. They stumbled over the stone of stumbling, as it has been written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and the one believing on Him will never be put to shame.” Romans 9:31-33

“For the end of Law is Christ, unto righteousness to everyone believing.”

Romans 10:4