Hebrews 4:8-10 - There remains a Sabbath-rest

 4:8

Having talked about Moses, the writer now turns to Joshua. Moses did not lead them into the Promised Land, but Joshua did lead them in. So what about him? But while Joshua did lead them into the Promised Land, he did not give them rest.  The later history of Israel demonstrated this, but the fact that the words of David quoted from Ps 95 talk about not entering His rest also demonstrate this. The Promised Land was not God’s rest. Some people today seem to attach far too great an importance to the physical land of Israel. It is not the land that will give them rest, but faith in Christ.

4:9,10

The writer then moves the argument on. First he reemphasises the point that “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God”. Then that if we enter this rest we have rested from our own works, drawing a parallel with God resting from His works after the sixth day. There is also a difference. God’s works in creation were good, we cannot do the works of God to the required standard. There is a clear point from Hebrews, and indeed the whole of the New Testament, that resting from our works does not mean we do nothing!