Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
The Ckrisliau's Eext Allained by Faith. HEBREWS IV. The PoKer of (luifs Word, lief. labour— Grce/r, "strive diligently." that rest— wliich is still future and so glorious. Or, in Alford'h translation of v. 10, "Tliat rest into which Chr i<it lins entered before" (v. 14; ch. 6.20). fall—witli the soul, not merely the body, as tlie rebel Israelites fell (ch. 3.17). after the i«aine example—Alfokd translates, "fall into the same example." The less prominent place of the " fall " in tlie Greek favours this. Tiie sense is, " lest any fall into such disobedience (so the Greek for 'unbelief means) as they gave a sample of." [Gkotiu.s.] The Jews say, "The parents are a sign (warning) to their sons."
en(rauce ir.tb that laud, have spoken (or speak [Alford]) of anoflier (future) (lay i)f eiilering the rest. 9. tUercfore — because God "speaks of aiiotlier day" (J\'ote, v. Sj. vcmaineth—still to be realized hereafter by the "some (who) must enter therein " (f. 6), t. e., "the people of God," tbe true Israel who shall enter into God's reM ("my rest," I'. 3). God's rest was a Sal)batism, so also will ours be. a rest—Greek, " Sablmtism." In time there are many Babbaths, but then there sliall be the enjoyment and keeping of a Sabbath rest: one perfect and eternal. The "rest" in v. 8 is GreeA; " catapausis;" Hebrew, "Noah;"
1-4. For—Such diligent strivi]tg (v. 11) is incumbent on us, FOK we have to do with a God whose "word" whereby rest from weariness, as the ark rested on Ararat after its tossings to and fro; atid as Israel, under Joshua, enjoyed at last re-st from war in Canaan. But tho " .eoi. ..i mis rfK oiidll be judged, is heart-searching, and whose eyes are all-seeing (v. 13). The <iualitios here attributed to the word of Ood, and the whole context, sliow that It p. 9 is the nobler and more exalted (Hebretv) "Sabbath" rest; lit., cessation: rest from work when fini.ihed (i\ 4), as God rested (Revelation 16. 17). The two {(leas of "rest" combined, give the perfect view of the heavenly Sabbath. Rest from weariness, sorrow, and sin; and rest in the completion of God's new creation (Revelation 21. 5). The whole renovated creation shall share in it; uolliing will there be to break the Sabbath of eternity; and the Triune God shall rejoice in the work of His hands (Zeplianiali 3.
Is regarded in its judici.\l power, whereby it doomed the disol)edient Israelites to exclusion from Canaan, and shall exclude unljelieving so-called Christians from the heavenly rest. The written woi-d of God is not the prominent thought here, though the passage is often quoted as if it were. Still the word of God (the same as that preached, v. 2), used here in the broadest sense, but with special relerence to its Judicial power, includes the word of God, tlic sword of tlic Spirit with double edge, one edge for convicting and converting some (u. 2), and the other for condemning and destroying the unbelieving (v. 14). Revelation 19. 15 similarly represents the Word's judicial power as a sharp sword going out of Christ's mouth to smite the nations. The same word wliich is saving to the faithful (v. 2) is destroying to the disobedient (2 Corinthians 2. 15, Ifi). The personal Word, to whom some refer the passage, is not here meant: for He is not the sword, but 7ias the sword. Thus reference to Joshua appropriately follows in r. S. qtnlcU —Greek, "living;" having living power, as " the rod of the mouth and the breath of the lips" of "the living God." powertnl— Greek, "energetic;" not only living, but energetically efficacious. sharper—"more cutting." twoe«lged—sharpened at both edge and back. Cf. "sword of the Spirit . . . word of God" (Ephesians 6. 17). Its double power seems to be implied by its being " two-edged." "It judges all that is in the heart, for there it passes through, at once piini«/ii»(; [unbelievers] and searching" [both believers and unbelievers]. [Chrysostom.] Piiii-o similarly speaks of "God passing between the parts of Abraham's sacrifices [Genesis 15. 17, where, however, it is a 'burning lamp' that passed between the pieces] with His word, which is the cutter of all things: which sword, being sharpened to the utmost keenness, never ceases to divide all sensible things, and even things not perceptible to sense or physically divisible, but perceptible and divisible by the word." Paul's early training, both in the Greek schools of Tarsus and the Hebrew schools at Jerusalem, accounts fully for his acquaintance with Philo's modes of thought, which were sure to be current among learned Jews everywhere, though Philo himself belonged to Alexandria, not Jerusalem. Addressing Jews, he by the Spirit sanctions what was true in their current literature, as l.e similarly did in addressing Gentiles (Acts 17.
*7). Moses, the representative of the law, pould not lead
Israel into Canaan : the law leads us to Clirist, and there
Its office ceases, as that of Moses on the borders of Canaan : tt is Jesus, the antitype of Joshua, who leads us into the beaveuly rest. This verse indirectly estalilishes the obligation of the Sabbath still ; for the type continues until the antitype supersedes it: so legal sacrifices continued till the great antitypical Sacrifice superseded it. As tlien the antitypical heavenly Sabbatli rest will not be till Christ comes, our Gospel Joshua, to usher us into it, the typical earthly Sabbath must continue till then. The Jews call the future rest " the day whieli is all Sabbath." 10. For—Justifying and explaining the word " irest," or •'Sabbatisra," just used {Note, v. 9). he tliat is entered whosoever onee enters, his rest God's rest: the rfst prepared b}/ God for His people. [Estius.] Rather, His rest: the man't rest: that assigned to liim l)y God as his. The Greek is the same as tliat for " his own " immediately after, liath ceased—The Greek aorist is used of indefinite time, " Js !to7i< to cease," or rather, " rest:" rests. The past tense implies at the same time the certainly of it, as also that in this life a kind of foretaste in Christ is already given [Grotius] (Jeremiah 6. 16; Matthew 11. 28, 29). Our highest happiness shall, according to this verse, consist In our being united in one with God, and moulded into conformity with Him as our archetype. [Calvin.] from his own works—even from those that were good and suitable to the time of doing work. Lal)our was followed by rest even in Paradise (Genesis 2. 3, 15). The work and subsequent rest of God are the archetype to which we should be conformed. The argument is, He who once enters rest, rests from labours; but God's people have not yet rested from them, therefore they have not yet entered the rest, and so it must be still future. Alfoiid transUUet, "He that entered Into his (or else God's, but rather ' his ;' Isaiah 11. 10, ' His rest :' ' the joy of the Lord,' Matthew 25. 21, 23) rest (viz., Jesus, our Forerunner, v. 14; ch. 6. 20, 'The Son of God that is passed through the heavens:' In contrast to Joshua the tj'pe, who did not bring God's people <»Uo the heavenly rest), he himself {emphali-
28). plei Tclng Greek, "coming through." even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit— i. e., reaching through even to the separation of the animal soul, the lower part of man's Incorporeal nature, the seatof animal desires, which he has in common with the brutes; cf. the same Greek, 1 Corinthians 2.14, "the natural [animal Bouled] man" (Jude 19), from the spirit (the higher part of man, receptive of the .Spirit of God, and allying him to heavenly beings), and of the Joints and marrow rather, (reaching even TO) "both the joints (so as to divide them) and marrow." Christ "knows what is in man" (John 2.25): so His word reaches as far as to the most intimate and accurate knowledge of man's most hidden oal) rested from his works (v. i), as God (diil) from His own" (so the Greek, works). The argument, tliough generally applying to any one who has entered, his rest, probably alludes to Jesus in particular, the antitypical Joshua, who, having entered His rest at the Ascension, has ceased or rested from His work of the new creation, as God on the seventh daj' rested from the work of physical creation. Not that He has ceased to carry on the work of redemption, nay. He upholds it by His mediation ; hnt He has ceased from those portions of the work which constitute the foundation, the sacrifice has been onee for all accomplished. Cf. as to God's creation rest, once for all completed, and rested from, but now still upheld (Note, v. 4).
parts, feelings, and thoughts, dividing, i. e., distingu Uhing what is spiritual from what is carnnl a.rn\ animtd'm hio: the «pir(« from the soul: so Proverbs 20.27. As the knife of the Levltical priest reached to dividing parts, closely united as Uie joints of the limbs, and penetrated to the in-
11. Letua . . . therefore—Seeing such a promise Is before OH, which we may, like thein, fall short of through uube-