Homily 6 — Hebrews 3, verse 7, to 4, verse 10

“So, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test, tried me, and saw my works for forty years. That is why I was grieved with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.” [a]

Paul has been speaking about hope, and has said that “we are his house, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of our hope firm to the end” (Hebrews 3, verse 6). Next he shows that we ought to look forward with steadiness, and he proves it from the Scriptures. But pay attention, because he has put this in a way that is somewhat difficult and not easy to grasp. So we must first state things in our own words, and when we have briefly explained the whole argument, then make the words of the letter clear. Once you have understood the apostle’s aim, you will not need us any longer.

His subject was hope: that we ought to hope for the things to come, and that those who have toiled here will surely have some reward and fruit and refreshment. This, then, he shows from the prophet. And what does he say? “So, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test, tried me, and saw my works for forty years. That is why I was grieved with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.”

He says there are three rests. One is the Sabbath, on which God rested from his works. The second is the rest of Palestine: once the Jews had entered it, they would rest from their hardships and labors. The third is the rest that is truly rest, the kingdom of heaven; those who obtain it truly rest from their labors and troubles. These are the three he mentions here.

And why did he mention all three, when he is dealing with only one? To show that the prophet is speaking about this one. The prophet did not speak about the first, he says — how could he, when that had happened long before? Nor about the second, the one in Palestine. How could he? For he says, “They shall not enter into my rest.” It remains, then, that he means the third.

But to make the argument clearer, we must also unfold the history. When they had come out of Egypt and made a long journey, and had received countless proofs of God’s power — in Egypt, at the Red Sea (compare Acts 7, verse 36), and in the wilderness — they decided to send spies to search out what the land was like. The spies went and came back. They admired the country and said it was rich in fine fruit, but they said it was also a country of strong men who could not be beaten. [b]

And the ungrateful, senseless Jews ought to have called to mind God’s earlier blessings: how, when they were hemmed in among the armies of so many Egyptians, he rescued them from their dangers and made them masters of their enemies’ spoils; and again how in the wilderness he split the rock and gave them water in abundance, and gave them the manna, and did the other wonderful things he did. When they ought, I say, to have remembered all this and trusted in God, they considered none of these things. They were struck with terror, as if nothing had been done at all, and said, “We want to go back to Egypt, for God has brought us out here to kill us, with our children and our wives” (compare Numbers 14, verse 3). So God, angry that they had so quickly thrown away the memory of what had been done, swore that the generation that had said these things would not enter into the rest; and they all died in the wilderness.

Then David, he says, speaking at a later time, after these events and after that generation, said, “Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” — so that you do not suffer what your forefathers suffered and lose the rest. Clearly he said this of some rest still to come. For if they had received their rest, he says, why does he say to them again, “Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts,” as your fathers did? What other rest is there, then, except the kingdom of heaven, of which the Sabbath was an image and a type?

Next, having set down the whole testimony — and it is this: “Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test, tried me, and saw my works for forty years. That is why I was grieved with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest” — he then adds:

Verse 12: “Take care, brothers and sisters, that there is not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”

For unbelief comes from hardness. In bodies, the parts that have grown callous and hard do not yield to the physicians’ hands; in the same way, souls that are hardened do not yield to the word of God. Besides, it is likely that some of them even disbelieved, as though the things that had been done were not true.

That is why he says, “Take care that there is not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” Since an argument from the future does not persuade as well as one from the past, he reminds them of the history, in which their fathers had fallen short in faith. If your fathers suffered these things, he says, because they did not hope as they should have hoped, you will suffer them much more. For this word is addressed to them as well: “Today,” he says, means “always,” as long as the world lasts.

Verse 13: So “encourage one another every day, while it is called today.” That is, build one another up, raise yourselves up, so that the same things do not happen to you. “So that none of you is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Do you see that sin produces unbelief? Just as unbelief gives birth to an evil life, so also a soul “that has come into the depths of evil grows contemptuous” (Proverbs 18, verse 3); and once it has grown contemptuous, it cannot bear even to believe, so that by this means it may free itself from fear. [c]

For “they said,” as Scripture puts it, “The Lord will not see, nor will the God of Jacob take notice” (Psalm 94, verse 7). And again, “Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” (Psalm 12, verse 4). And again, “Why has the wicked man provoked God to anger?” (Psalm 10, verse 13). And again, “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, and have become abominable in their doings” (Psalm 14, verse 1). “There is no fear of God before his eyes, for he acted deceitfully before him, to find out his wrongdoing and to hate” (Psalm 36, verses 1 and 2). Yes, and Christ also says the same thing: “Everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light” (John 3, verse 20).

Then he adds (verse 14), “For we have been made partakers of Christ.” What does “We have been made partakers of Christ” mean? We share in him, he means: we were made one, he and we, since he is the head and we are the body — “fellow heirs and of the same body; we are one body, of his flesh and of his bones” (Ephesians 3, verse 6; Romans 12, verse 5; Ephesians 5, verse 30).

“If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence” — or, as it can also be read, “the foundation of our existence” — “firm to the end.” What is “the foundation of our existence”? The faith by which we stand, and through which we have been brought into being and made to exist, so to speak.

Then he adds (verse 15), “While it is said, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” This is a transposition. The words “while it is said, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” must be read with what comes later, like this: [e]

Hebrews 4, verses 1 and 2: “Let us fear, then, that while a promise remains of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to have fallen short of it. For the good news was proclaimed to us as well as to them, while it is said, Today, if you hear his voice” — for “Today” means “at every time.”

Then he adds, “But the word they heard did not profit them, since they were not mixed by faith with those who heard.” How did it not profit them? Then, wanting to alarm them, he shows the same thing by what he says next:

Hebrews 3, verses 16 to 19: “For some, when they had heard, rebelled — though not all who came out of Egypt through Moses. And with whom was he grieved for forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest, but to those who did not believe? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” After repeating the testimony again, he adds the question too, which makes the argument clear. For he had said, he repeats, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” Whom does he speak of, he asks, as having been hardened? Whom as not believing? Is it not the Jews?

What he is saying comes to this. They also heard, as we hear, but no profit came to them. So do not imagine that you will profit just by “hearing” what is proclaimed, since they also heard but gained nothing, because they did not believe.

Caleb, then, and Joshua, because they did not go along with those who did not believe, escaped the punishment that was sent against them. And see how admirably he put it. He did not say, “They did not agree,” but “they were not mixed” — that is, they held themselves apart, though not in a factious spirit, when all the others were of one and the same mind. Here, it seems to me, a faction is hinted at as well.

“For we who have believed,” he says, “do enter into rest” (Hebrews 4, verse 3). How is this clear? He adds: “As he said, As I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest — although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” This, in fact, is not proof that we will enter in, but that they did not enter in. What then? So far he aims to show that, just as that rest does not prevent another rest from being spoken of, so neither does this one exclude the rest of heaven. Up to this point, then, he wants to show that the Israelites did not attain the rest. Because this is what he means, he says (verses 4 and 5), “For he has spoken somewhere of the seventh day in this way: And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again: They shall not enter into my rest.” Do you see how that rest does not prevent this one from being a rest? [f]

Verses 6 and 7: “Since, then, it remains,” he says, “that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first proclaimed did not enter because of unbelief, he again sets a certain day, saying through David, ‘Today,’ after so long a time, as has been said before.” But what does he mean? Since, then, he means, “some must” certainly “enter in,” and “they did not enter in.” And that an entrance is announced, and that “some must enter in” — let us hear how this is made clear. Because after so many years, he says, David says again, “Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Verse 8) “For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.” Clearly he says these things as of people who are going to attain some reward.

Verse 9: “So there remains a rest for the people of God.” How does this appear? From the exhortation, “Do not harden your hearts.” If there were no rest, these exhortations would not have been given. Nor would they have been urged not to do the same things as the Jews, so as not to suffer the same things, unless they were going to suffer the same. But how could those who were in possession of Palestine suffer the same things — being shut out of the rest — unless there were some other rest? [h]

And he concluded the argument well. For he did not say “rest,” but “Sabbath-keeping,” calling the kingdom “Sabbath-keeping” — giving it the fitting name, the one they delighted in and were drawn to. For on the Sabbath God commands people to keep away from every evil thing, and to do only what belongs to the worship of God — the things the priests used to perform — and whatever profits the soul, and nothing else. So it will be then as well. He does not put it in these words himself, though. How, then? (Verse 10) “For whoever has entered into his rest has also ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” As God ceased from his works, he says, so whoever has entered into his rest has ceased. Since he had been speaking to them about rest, and they were eager to hear when it would come, he concluded the argument with this.

And he said “Today” so that they would never be without hope. [i]

“Encourage one another every day,” he says, “while it is called today.” That is, even if someone has sinned, as long as it is “Today,” he has hope. So let no one despair as long as he is alive. Above all, he says, “let there not be an evil heart of unbelief” (Hebrews 3, verse 12). But even suppose there is, let no one despair; let him recover himself. For as long as we are in this world, the “Today” is still in season. But here he means not unbelief only, but grumbling too: “whose bodies,” he says, “fell in the wilderness.”

Then, so that no one would think they will simply lose the rest and nothing more, he adds the punishment as well, saying (Hebrews 4, verse 12), “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and it judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Here he is speaking of hell and of punishment. “It pierces,” he says, into the secrets of our heart, and cuts the soul through. Here it is not the falling of bodies, nor, as there, the loss of a country, but of a heavenly kingdom; and being handed over to everlasting hell, and to undying punishment and vengeance.

(Hebrews 3, verse 13) “But encourage one another.” Notice how gentle and mild the word is. He did not say “Rebuke,” but “Encourage.” This is how we ought to treat those who are hard-pressed by affliction. He says this also in writing to the Thessalonians: “Warn the unruly” (First Thessalonians 5, verse 14). But when he speaks of the fainthearted, he does not say that. What, then? “Comfort the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward everyone.” That is, do not stop hoping; do not despair. For whoever does not encourage someone hard-pressed by affliction makes him more hardened.

“So that none of you,” he says, “is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” He means either the devil’s deceit — for it really is deceit not to look for the things to come, to think we will not be held to account, that we will not pay the penalty for what we have done here, and that there will be no resurrection — or, in another sense, insensibility, or despair, is deceit. For to say, “What is left? I have sinned once and for all; I have no hope of recovering myself” — that is deceit.

Then he holds out hopes to them, saying (verse 14), “We have been made partakers of Christ.” He all but says: he who loved us so much, who thought us worthy of such great things as to make us his body, will not let us perish. Let us consider, he says, what we have been thought worthy of: we and Christ are one. So let us not distrust him. And again he hints at what is said in another place: “If we suffer, we will also reign with him” (Second Timothy 2, verse 12). For this is what “we have been made partakers” implies: we share in the same things Christ shares in. He spurs them on from the good things — “for we are,” he says, “partakers of Christ” — and then again from the grim ones (Hebrews 4, verse 1): “Let us fear, then, that while a promise remains of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to have fallen short of it.” For that is plain and acknowledged.

(Hebrews 3, verse 9) “They tried me,” he says, “and saw my works for forty years.” Do you see that it is not right to call God to account, but to trust him, whether he takes up our cause or not? For this is the charge he now brings against those people of old: that “they put God to the test.” Whoever wants proof of his power, or of his providence, or of his tender care, does not yet believe either that he is powerful or that he loves humankind. He hints at this also in writing to these Hebrews, who probably already wanted, in their trials, to get experience and plain evidence of his power and of his providential care for them. You see that in every case the rebellion and the angering of God come from unbelief.

What, then, does he say? (Hebrews 4, verse 9) “So there remains a rest for the people of God.” And see how he has summed up the whole argument. “He swore,” he says, to those earlier people “that they would not enter into” the “rest,” and they did not enter in. Then, long after their time, speaking to the Jews, he says, “Do not harden your hearts” as your fathers did — showing that there is another rest. We need not speak of Palestine, for they were already in possession of it. Nor can he be speaking of the seventh day, for surely he was not speaking about what had taken place long before. It follows, then, that he hints at some other rest, the one that is truly rest.

For that is truly rest, where “pain and sorrow and sighing have fled away” (Isaiah 35, verse 10); where there are no cares, no labors, no struggle, no fear that stuns and shakes the soul, but only that fear of God which is full of delight. There is no “In the sweat of your face you will eat your bread,” nor “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3, verses 19 and 18); no longer “In pain you will bring forth children, and your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3, verse 16). All is peace, joy, gladness, pleasure, goodness, gentleness. There is no jealousy, no envy, no sickness, no death, whether of the body or of the soul. There is no darkness and no night; all is day, all is light, all is bright. It is impossible to grow weary there, impossible to have too much: we will always go on desiring good things.

Do you want me to give you some picture of what it is like there? It is impossible. Yet, as far as it is possible, I will try to give you some picture. Let us look up at the sky when, with no cloud in the way, it shows its crown of stars. Then, when we have lingered long on the beauty of the sight, let us think that we too will have a floor — not like this one, but as much more beautiful as gold is than clay. Let us think of the higher roof that lies beyond it again; then of the angels, the archangels, the countless multitude of bodiless powers, the very palace of God, the throne of the Father. But words are too weak, as I said, to set out the whole. Experience is needed, and the knowledge that comes by experience. Tell me, what do you think it was like for Adam in Paradise? This life is far better than that, as much better as heaven is than earth.

But let us look for yet another picture. Suppose the man who now reigns were master of the whole world, troubled neither by wars nor by cares, but only honored and living in luxury, with large tributes, gold flowing in to him from every side, and everyone looking up to him. What do you think he would feel if he saw that all the wars in every part of the world had ceased? It will be something like this. Or rather, I have not yet reached the picture I am looking for, so I must look for another as well. [j]

Consider, I beg you. A royal child, as long as he is in the womb, has no awareness of anything. But suppose he suddenly came out from there and went up to the royal throne — not by degrees, but receiving possession of everything all at once. That is how it is with this present state and that future one. Or suppose some captive who had suffered countless evils were suddenly caught up to the royal throne. But not even so have I reached the picture exactly. For here, whatever good things a person may obtain — even if you were to say the kingdom itself — his desires are at full strength on the first day, and on the second, and on the third; but as time goes on he still has pleasure, though not as much. Whatever it is, it always fades as we grow used to it. But there, it not only does not diminish; it even increases. Think what a great thing it is that a soul, once it has gone there, no longer expects an end to those good things, nor any change, but only increase: a life that has no end, a life set free from all danger, from all dejection and care, full of cheerfulness and countless blessings.

When we go out onto a plain and see the soldiers’ tents pitched there with their hangings, and the spears and helmets and the bosses of the shields glittering, we are carried away with wonder. And if we also happen to see the king himself hurrying through their midst, or even riding in golden armor, we think we have everything. What do you think it will be like when you see the everlasting tents of the saints pitched in heaven? (For it is said, “They will receive you into the everlasting tents”: Luke 16, verse 9.) When you see each one of them shining brighter than the rays of the sun — not with bronze and steel, but with that glory whose flashes the human eye cannot look on? And this is said of the human beings. But what if one were to speak of the thousands of angels, of archangels, cherubim, seraphim, thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities, whose beauty nothing can imitate and which passes all understanding?

But how far will I go, chasing what cannot be overtaken? “For eye has not seen,” it says, “nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those who love him” (First Corinthians 2, verse 9). So nothing is more pitiable than those who miss these things, and nothing more blessed than those who attain them. Let us, then, be among the blessed, so that we may attain the everlasting good things in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom be glory, might and honor to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and forever and ever. Amen.