God's Rest, Your Rest

October 28th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 4:4-8 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.” 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.

Genesis 2:1-3 says that God rested after creating the world, Hebrews 4:4 saying that God is still at rest. Of course this does not mean that God is inactive, for though He rested from creating, He daily sustains His creation, interacts with it and us, and is thus still working (John 5:17). This is true of Christians too, for we rest from our worthless works, yet the fruit of our faith is works. The Hebrews author uses this to make his point, once again citing Psalm 95 by saying “and again in this passage.” Quoting this Psalm for the fourth time, he shows the distinction between those who have not united their knowledge of Christ with faith, and who hence continue in worthless works, with God who rests. They thus have not entered God’s rest.

Now having made his point from two OT passages, the Hebrews author draws his conclusion beginning in v. 6. He explains that entering God’s rest is still a possibility for anyone who hears his words: “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me” (v. 7; cf. 3:15). This means that God’s rest continues to be available to all who will call upon Him for salvation, uniting their intellectual knowledge of God with faith in Christ. While Israel served as a negative example of those who failed to believe and thus forfeited God’s rest, the author had greater hope for his audience that they would not make the same mistake.

In God’s grace He has fixed another day—“today,” for believers to enter into His rest. Lest his audience argue that the Israelites under Joshua found rest in Canaan in the second generation after Israel’s exodus, the author emphasizes this by dating the words of Psalm 95 to the time in which Joshua brought Israel into Canaan. He says that if Joshua had brought Israel to rest in 1406 BC by bringing them into the Promised Land, then David would not have spoken of God’s future rest 400 years later when he penned Psalm 95. So, although the author of Hebrews steers clear of human names in his epistle when he references OT passages in order to be clear that God is the ultimate author of Scripture—even keeping his own name anonymous, he speaks of Joshua and David as writers of Scripture in order to make his point that David would not have written about God’s rest 400 years after Joshua if Joshua had truly brought Israel into God’s rest.

So, God’s eternal rest is still available for Israel and all who are willing to trust in Christ. Rest is offered to the weary soul, the very same rest that God eternally enjoys. This rest for us comes simply by trusting in Christ for salvation—a cessation of merit-centered salvation.

Food For Thought
The Sabbath day in the OT was given by God to Israel as a sign of the Mosaic Covenant (Exod. 31:13) and as a symbol of the coming rest they would have in their Messiah. When Jesus arrived, He fulfilled the Sabbath and gave us His rest. Since Jesus is Rest, the symbol is now useless. Consider Colossians 2:16-17: “Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” If you are in Christ, your entire life is a Sabbath, for your body and spirit are at rest from useless works. Now our current rest is merely a precursor to the eternal rest we will have in Christ’s Kingdom, which awaits us.