Hebrews 4:6-9 - Today, if you hear His voice

4:6,7

Let’s follow the argument carefully. The Israelites who came out of Egypt had the opportunity to enter God's rest but did not take it because of their unbelief and lack of obedience. God’s rest  still exists as does the opportunity to enter that rest. How do we know that opportunity still exists? Because hundreds of years after the failure of the first lot to enter His rest God spoke about it in Psalm 95, making it clear that the opportunity was still there and we should be careful not to neglect that opportunity. As an aside note the assumption that God spoke through David. As has been mentioned before, the New Testament is absolutely convinced that the Old Testament is the word of God.

4:8,9

So we need to pay attention. However, someone might say the Promised Land was God’s rest, and Joshua did take the people into the Promised Land. So the promise was fulfilled. This is where the general argument in Hebrews comes in, that the new covenant is vastly superior to the old, and that the old contains only a shadow of the true covenant. Specifically at this point the writer reminds them that God spoke about His rest in Psalm 95, a psalm written many years after Joshua had led the people into the Promised Land. So God certainly did not consider this to be fulfilment of all His plans!

So the conclusion is that there is a Sabbath-rest to be entered into. Life can be put so much better than it is now. As Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).