Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 4:9

"There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God." — Hebrews 4:9 (ASV)

There remaineth, therefore, a rest. This is the conclusion to which the apostle comes. The meaning is this: that according to the Scriptures there is now a promise of rest made to the people of God. It did not pertain merely to those who were called to go to the promised land, nor to those who lived in the time of David, but it is still true that the promise of rest pertains to all the people of God of every generation. The reasoning by which the apostle comes to this conclusion is briefly this:

1. That there was a rest called "the rest of God"—spoken of in the earliest period of the world—implying that God meant that it should be enjoyed.
2. That the Israelites, to whom the promise was made, failed to obtain what was promised because of their unbelief.
3. That God intended that some should enter into His rest—since it would not be provided in vain.
4. That long after the Israelites had fallen in the wilderness, we find the same reference to a rest, which David in his time exhorts those whom he addressed to endeavor to obtain.
5. That if all that had been meant by the word rest, and by the promise, had been accomplished when Joshua conducted the Israelites to the land of Canaan, we would not have heard another day spoken of when it was possible to forfeit that rest by unbelief. It followed, therefore, that there was something besides that; something that pertained to all the people of God, to which the name rest might still be given, and which they were exhorted still to obtain.

The word rest in this verse, sabbatismov (Sabbatism, rendered in the margin as keeping of a Sabbath), is different from sabbaton (the Sabbath). It occurs nowhere else in the New Testament and is not found in the Septuagint. It properly means a keeping Sabbath, from sabbatizw (to keep Sabbath).

This latter word, though not used in the New Testament, occurs frequently in the Septuagint (Exodus 16:30; Leviticus 23:32; Leviticus 26:35; 2 Chronicles 36:21). It differs from the word Sabbath. That denotes the time—the day; this, the keeping, or observance of it—the festival.

Here, it means a resting, or an observance of sacred repose, and undoubtedly refers to heaven as a place of eternal rest with God. It cannot mean the rest in the land of Canaan, for the writer's aim is to prove that this is not intended. It cannot mean the Sabbath, properly so called, for then the writer would have used the usual word sabbaton (Sabbath). Nor can it mean the Christian Sabbath, for the object is not to prove that there is such a day to be observed, and his reasoning about being excluded from it by unbelief and by hardening the heart would be irrelevant.

It must mean, therefore, heaven—the world of spiritual and eternal rest. The assertion is that there is such a resting, or keeping of a Sabbath, in heaven for the people of God. Learn from this:

1. Heaven is a place of cessation from wearisome toil. It is to be like the "rest" God had after the work of creation (Hebrews 4:4; see the comments on Hebrews 4:4), of which that was the type and emblem. There will be employment there, but it will be without fatigue; there will be the occupation of the mind, and of whatever powers we may possess, but without weariness.

   Here we are often worn down and exhausted. The body sinks under continued toil and falls into the grave. There the slave will rest from his toil; the man here oppressed and broken down by anxious care will cease from his labors. We know little of heaven, but we know that a large part of what now oppresses and crushes the frame will not exist there.

   Slavery will be unknown; the anxious care for support will be unknown, and all the exhaustion that proceeds from the love of gain and from ambition will be unknown. In the wearisome toils of life, then, let us look forward to the rest that remains in heaven. As the laborer looks to the shades of the evening, or to the Sabbath, as a period of rest, so let us look to heaven as the place of eternal repose.

2. Heaven will be like a Sabbath. The best description of it is to say it is an eternal Sabbath. Take the Sabbath on earth, when best observed, extend the idea to eternity, and separate all idea of imperfection from its observance—that would be heaven.

   The Sabbath is holy; so is heaven. It is a period of worship; so is heaven. It is for praise and for the contemplation of heavenly truth; so is heaven. The Sabbath is appointed so that we may lay aside worldly cares and anxieties for a little season here; heaven, so that we may lay them aside forever.

3. The Sabbath here should be like heaven; it is designed to be its type and emblem. As far as the circumstances of the case will allow, it should be just like heaven. There should be the same employments, the same joys, the same communion with God.

   One of the best rules for using the Sabbath correctly is to think what heaven will be, and then to endeavor to spend it in the same way. One day in seven at least should remind us of what heaven is to be; and that day may be, and should be, the happiest of the seven.

4. Those who do not love the Sabbath on earth are not prepared for heaven. If it is a day of tediousness to them, if its hours move heavily, if they have no delight in its sacred employments, what would an eternity of such days be? How would they be passed? Nothing can be clearer than that if we have no such happiness in a season of holy rest and in holy employments here, we are wholly unprepared for heaven.

   To the Christian, the anticipation that heaven is to be one long, unbroken SABBATH—an eternity of successive Sabbath hours—is the subject of the highest joy. But what, to a sinner, could be a more repulsive and gloomy prospect than such an eternal Sabbath?

5. If this is so, then what a melancholy view is furnished regarding the actual preparation of the great mass of people for heaven! How is the Sabbath now spent? In idleness; in business; in traveling; in hunting and fishing; in light reading and conversation; in sleep; in visiting; in riding, walking, lounging, ennui; in revelry and dissipation; in any and every way except the right way; in every way except in holy communion with God.

   What would the human race be if once translated to heaven as they are? What a prospect it would be for this multitude to have to spend an eternity, which would be but a prolongation of the Sabbath of holiness!

6. Let those who love the Sabbath rejoice in the prospect of eternal rest in heaven. In our labor, let us look to that world where wearisome toil is unknown; in our afflictions, let us look to that world where tears never fall. When our hearts are pained by the violation of the Sabbath all around us, let us look to that blessed world where such violation will cease forever.

   It is not far distant. A few steps will bring us there. Of any Christian it may be said that perhaps his next Sabbath will be spent in heaven—near the throne of God.