4:1
So we have had angels and Moses, now we get Joshua. Why Joshua? Because he did actually lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. But first the writer reminds the people of what all this is about. First, the promise of entering God’s rest still stands. Now we need to be careful here, for rest to us implies passivity, here it does not. It means the place of God’s rule, His chosen land. God still invites us to enter His chosen land. But as the history of Israel demonstrates, entering this land is not automatic, there is “no ticket to heaven”. We need to ensure that we live by faith.
4:2
The Israelites in Egypt had good news preached to them, freedom was proclaimed to them. Likewise good news has been preached to us. Yet most of the Israelites failed to enter the Promised Land because they failed to believe. For us too the message is of no value unless we combine it with faith. Notice the combination of obedience and faith, these two words go together a lot in the New Testament, yet so often we seem to think that they are opposed to each other! Faith is not a mere intellectual assent, it is not a mere emotional response, it is an active belief, one that leads to us basing our life on what we have believed in.
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