Not sure what the big purple declaration was meant to suggest but how about we look At Hebrews 4 in context and see what the whole passage has to say....?
Hebrews 4:1-10....
4 Therefore, since a promise of entering into his rest remains, let us be on guard for fear someone among you seems to fall short of it. 2 For we have also had the good news declared to us, just as they had; but the word that they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have exercised faith do enter into the rest, just as he has said: “So I swore in my anger, ‘They will not enter into my rest,’” although his works were finished from the founding of the world. 4 For in one place he has said of the seventh day as follows: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,” 5 and here again he says: “They will not enter into my rest.”
6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter into it, and those to whom the good news was first declared did not enter in because of disobedience, 7 he again marks off a certain day by saying long afterward in David’s psalm, “Today”; just as it has been said above, “Today if you listen to his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had led them into a place of rest, God would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 So there remains a sabbath-rest for the people of God. 10 For the man who has entered into God’s rest has also rested from his own works, just as God did from his own.”
Now, since this was a follow on from the final verses of chapter 3, we read...
“For who heard and yet provoked him to bitter anger? Was it not, in fact, all those who went out of Egypt under Moses? 17 Moreover, with whom did God become disgusted for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest? Was it not to those who acted disobediently? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of lack of faith.”
So what did God mean by “entering into his rest”? This was not the Sabbath rest that the people of Israel were commanded to observe but something that was figurative of a much larger meaning.
In the Genesis account, there is a declaration at the end of each creative “day”.....the sixth day even ended as “very good” in God’s estimations of his work thus far.....but on the seventh day God “rested”, not that he was tired but that his creative work was complete at the end of the sixth “day”.
Nowhere does the account say that these creative “days” were 24 hour periods....and science confirms that the earth and its extinct creatures are way older than a mere 6,000 years. The Hebrew word for “day” is like our own, it can mean more than just a 24 hour period. If I speak of my grandfather’s “day”, I am not talking about a 24 hour period, so with the Hebrew “yohm”.....it doesn’t just mean a 24 hour period, but can be a period of undetermined length. The YEC’s have got it all wrong....embarrassingly so.
So the seventh day began a period where God had rested from his creative works but as Jesus said, ‘he and his Father have kept working’ and will continue to work until his purpose in connection with mankind on this beautiful planet, is brought to a completion.
The seventh day was not a 24 hour period that has passed, but it is still in progress. “Entering into God’s rest” was then living in a time that God had allotted for all that he had put in place to play out as he intended. It would be a time for free will beings to make their choices and reap what they had sown, learning the lessons of where disobedience would take them...and also learning about the blessings of obedience, which unfortunately were not as numerous as the penalties for disobedience among his people, (as Hebrews 4 highlights.)
Disobedient ones will never benefit from the lessons of the seventh day.....those will not enter into God’s rest...only the obedient ones will.
Hebrews 4:9-10 in context now make sense....
“So there remains a sabbath-rest for the people of God. 10 For the man who has entered into God’s rest has also rested from his own works, just as God did from his own.”
Right from the beginning, Jehovah indicated his solution to the rebellion in Eden. (Genesis 3:15) This first prophesy was not really understood until Messiah came and explained in more detail the way his ransom sacrifice would would involve him suffering a “heel” wound, (from which he recovered,) but he would finally deal the devil a fatal “head” wound...in the future.
So Jesus has featured all the way through God’s “rest” day.
The Weekly Sabbath was a day of rest for God’s people and they were forbidden to do any work, but only to concentrate on spiritual pursuits. This guaranteed that at least one day in the week, they would remember their God and devote a day to reminding themselves of his provisions. It was a way to keep thankful.....but the wider Sabbath...the important one was the rest day that God has almost now brought to a completion. Only when Christ has judged the world and cleansed it of all who are disobedient, will he bring in the rule of the final 1,000 years of God’s rest day, under the rule of his kingdom. Only when everything is again back to the way God wants his earth to be will, the declaration be made at the conclusion of the seventh day......everything will again be “very good”.
Jesus is “Lord of the Sabbath” because he has been appointed by his God and Father to guide and direct matters here on this earth during that time, and to make the necessary sacrifice to redeem those whom the devil has taken off course. What an incredible act of love on his part.....and on the part of his Father in giving him such trust and responsibility.
Free willed beings can use use this quality to either obey God as Jesus always did, or to disobey him as Satan chose to......we are all making our choices too....so may we all choose well as Jesus is about to return as judge and to cleanse this world of all who oppose the incoming Kingdom of God. (1 Thessalonians 1:6-10)
