4:3
The Israelites failed to enter the Promised Land because of their lack of faith. We have faith, so we enter God’s rest. Notice how it says “just as God has said”, and then quotes a rather negative verse. He does this because the verse illustrates a principle, as he stated in the previous verse. Having faith is the key. So if not having faith means you do not enter His rest, the converse is also true, if you have faith then you will enter His rest.
Then we get a reference back to Genesis 1, where it speaks of God resting on the seventh day. So what are we to make of this? When God created the world it “was good”. God has not changed, His rest has always been available, what changed was man’s sin.
4:4,5
So the writer is drawing a comparison between God resting on the seventh day, and the disobedient, unbelieving Israelites being denied entry. What this means is that the unbelieving will never be part of God’s kingdom. There is only one way into God’s kingdom, only one way to live in the kingdom, and that is by faith. Remember that the writer is writing to Hebrews who were at least considering other ways, eg worshipping angels, holding on to Old Testament concepts like the priests and sacrifices. These things were seen as a means of gaining access to God’s presence, but the writer has shown that it is faith that gains us access. Unbelief will most certainly deny us access.
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