Hebrews 3.7–11
“If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence [or, the principle of our subsistence ] steadfast unto the end.” What is “the principle of our subsistence”? The faith by which we stand, and have been brought into being and were made to exist, as one may say.
[5.] Then he adds (ver. 15), “When it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” This is a transposition, “when it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” [It must be read thus:]
(Ch. iv. 1, 2.) “Let us fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it; for to us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them when it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice” (for “To-day” is “at every time”).
Then [he adds] “but the word of hearing did not profit them, as they were not mixed by faith with them that heard.” How did it not profit? Then wishing to alarm them, he shows the same thing by what he says:
(Ch. iii. 16–19.) “For some when they had heard did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses: And with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see, that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” After again repeating the testimony, he adds also the question, which makes the argument clear. For he said (he repeats), “To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” Of whom does he speak (he says) [as] having been hardened? Of whom [as] not believing? Is it not of the Jews?
Now what he says is to this effect. They also heard, as we hear: but no profit came to them. Do not suppose then that by “hearing” what is proclaimed ye will be profited; seeing that they also heard, but derived no benefit because they did not believe.
Caleb then and Joshua, because they agreed not with those who did not believe, escaped the vengeance that was sent forth against them. And see how admirably he said, not, They did not agree, but, “they were not mixed”—that is, they stood apart, but not factiously when all the others had one and the same mind. Here it seems to me that a faction too is hinted at.
[6.] (Ch. iv. 3.) For “we who have believed,” he says, “do enter into rest.” From what this is evident, he adds: “as He said, as I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” This indeed, is not evidence that we shall enter in, but that they did not enter in. What then? Thus far he aims to show that as that rest does not hinder the speaking of another rest, so neither does this [exclude] that of Heaven. Up to this point then, he wishes to show that they [the Israelites] did not attain to the rest. For because he means this, he says (ver. 4, 5), “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into My rest.” Thou seest how that doth not hinder this from being a rest?
Ver. 6, 7. “Seeing therefore it remaineth” (he says) “that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: again he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it has been said before.” But what is it that he means? “Seeing then” (he means) that “some must” certainly “enter in,” and “they did not enter in.” And that an entrance is proclaimed, and that “some must enter in,” let us hear from what this is clear. Because after so many years (he says) David again says: “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (ver. 8), “For if Joshua had given them rest he would not afterward have spoken of another day.” It is evident, that he says these things, as of persons who are to attain some recompense.
[7.] Ver. 9. “There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.” Whence [does this appear]? From the exhortation, “Harden not your hearts”: for if there were no rest, these exhortations would not have been given. Neither would they have been exhorted not to do the same things [with the Jews] lest they should suffer the same things, unless they were about to suffer the same. But how were they who were in possession of Palestine about to suffer the same things [i.e. exclusion from the rest] unless there were some other rest?
And well did he conclude the argument. For he said not rest but “Sabbath-keeping”; calling the kingdom “Sabbath-keeping,” by the appropriate name, and that which they rejoiced in and were attracted by. For as, on the Sabbath He commands to abstain from all evil things; and that those things only which relate to the Service of God should be done, which things the Priests were wont to accomplish, and whatsoever profits the soul, and nothing else; so also [will it be] then. However it is not he who spoke thus, but what? (Ver. 10), “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from His.” As God ceased from His works, he says, so he that hath entered into His rest [hath ceased]. For since his discourse to them was concerning rest, and they were desirous to hear when this would be, he concluded the argument with this.
[8.] And [he said] “To-day,” that they might never be without hope. “Exhort one another daily,” he says, [“while it is called today,”] that is, even if a man have sinned, as long as it is “To-day,” he has hope: let no man then despair so long as he lives. Above all things indeed, he says, “let there not be an evil heart of unbelief.” (c. iii. 12.) But even suppose there should be, let no man despair, but let him recover himself; for as long as we are in this world, the “To-day” is in season. But here he means not unbelief only, but also murmurings: “whose carcasses,” he says, “fell in the wilderness.”
Then, lest any think that they will simply be deprived of rest only, he adds also the punishment, saying (c. iv. 12), “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful; and sharper than any two-edged sword, and pierceth even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow: and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Here he is speaking of Hell and of punishment. “It pierceth” (he says) into the secrets of our heart, and cutteth asunder the soul. Here it is not the falling of carcasses nor, as there, the being deprived of a country, but of a heavenly kingdom; and being delivered to an everlasting hell, and to undying punishment and vengeance.
(Ch. iii. 13.) “But exhort one another.” Observe the gentleness and mildness [of the expression]: he said not “Rebuke,” but “Exhort.” Thus we are required to bear ourselves towards those who are straightened by affliction. This he says also in writing to the Thessalonians, “Warn them that are unruly” (1 Thess. v. 14), but in speaking of the feeble-minded, not so, but what? “Comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men”; that is, do not cease to hope; do not despair. For he that does not encourage one who is straightened by affliction, makes him more hardened.
[9.] “Lest any of you,” he says, “be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” He means either the deceit of the devil (for it is indeed a deceit, not to look for the things to come, to think that we are without responsibility, and that we shall not pay the penalty for our deeds here, neither will there be a resurrection); or in another sense insensibility [or] despairing is deceit. For to say, ‘What is there left? I have sinned once for all, I have no hope of recovering myself,’ is deceit.