Hebrews 3:7 – 4:13

Hebrews 3

Do Not Harden Your Hearts

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

¹² Watch out, brothers, so that there is not an evil, unbelieving heart in any of you that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become people who share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firmly until the end. ¹⁵ As it is said:

¹⁶ Who was it who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all those who left Egypt, led by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was God angry for forty years? Surely it was with the ones who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness, wasn’t it? ¹⁸ And about whom did he swear an oath that they would not enter his rest, if it wasn’t concerning those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

Some Will Enter God’s Rest

Hebrews 4

¹ Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be fearful that any one of you may be judged to have failed to reach it. ² In fact, we have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did. But the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united in faith with those who did listen. ³ Indeed, we who believe are going to enter his rest.

It happened just as he vowed when he said:

And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. ⁴ For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in this way:

⁵ And again in this statement:

⁶ Therefore, since it is still the case that some do enter this rest, and yet those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not enter because of disobedience, ⁷ God again set a certain day, namely, “today,” when he later said through David, as quoted before:

⁸ For, if Joshua had given them rest, then God would not have spoken later about another day.

⁹ So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God rested from his work. ¹¹ Therefore, let us make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.

¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to the point of dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, even being able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart. ¹³ And there is no creature hidden from him, but everything is uncovered and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we will give an account.