What is the "rest" of Hebrews 4:11 speaking of?
@LoveYeshua = whom i love
Thanks for asking, let me show you through the Scripture and not just my own words, thoughts and ideas.
The rest in this verse was the land or inheritance they were to receive. There are two rests in Hebrews 4 and we see this plainly in the Greek words.
““Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, ‘The LORD your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land.’” — Joshua 1:13 (NKJV)
The land of milk and honey the inheritance was on this condition
that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged “Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you— ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates
“So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build” — Deuteronomy 6:3–10 (NKJV)
Their inheritance or rest that God was going to give the Israelites was on the condition they fear God, keep His commandments and love God with all their might, soul and heart.
Did they do this? No, many rebelled in the wilderness
“Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they despised My judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he shall live by them’; and they greatly defiled My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them in the wilderness, to consume them” — Ezekiel 20:13 (NKJV)
And because of this an entire generation lost their inheritance and God plainly spelled out why:
“So I also raised My hand in an oath to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands
because they despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols” — Ezekiel 20:15–16 (NKJV)
So an entire generation lost their rest, their inheritance their land full of milk and honey because they profaned God's Sabbaths and God related this to breaking another commandment idol worship as they are all interconnected breaking one we break them all even in the NT James2:10-12. God commanded us to keep the seventh day Sabbath holy Exo20:8-11 God wrote this He spoke it, there is no greater authority but when we lay aside the commandment of God for man-made traditions as Jesus taught its worshipping Him in vain or idol worship.
Why we are taught in the NT not to follow this
same example of disobedience to enter our rest Rev22:14
“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” — Hebrews 4:11 (NKJV)
This truly cannot be more plain.
No wonder why we are told:
“Therefore, 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 trial in the wilderness
Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years
Therefore I was angry 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 My rest.’ ”
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God
but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin
For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end
while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” — Hebrews 3:7–19 (NKJV)
God tells us everything we need to know, there is a reason Jesus who is God told mankind to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Mat 4:4 instead of deleting it and following the popular traditions of man.
no wonder why we are told in the NT there
remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God Heb4:9 and the rest in this verse literally means keeping the Sabbath
Original Word: σαββατισμός
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: sabbatismos
Pronunciation: sab-bat-is-mos'
Phonetic Spelling: (sab-bat-is-mos')
sabbatismos: Sabbath rest
Definition:
Sabbath rest
Meaning: a keeping of the Sabbath, a Sabbath rest.
We will all have to choose who we serve. God invited
everyone to serve Him Isa56:6 its on His terms, not how we want, but thats always been the issue, thinking we know better than a thus saith the LORD.
I pray this helps.
