Charles Ellicott Commentary Hebrews 4

Let us therefore fear.—The emphasis rests upon “fear,” not upon “us.” It is noteworthy that the writer begins with “Let us,” though about to write “lest any of you;” he will have gained his object if he brings his readers to share his fear.

Lest, a promise being left us.—Rather, lest perhaps, a promise being (still) left. No word must be inserted here that can diminish the generality of the words; in what follows, the statement will be repeated with all possible clearness. Here it is simply said that such a promise remains unexhausted, waiting for complete fulfillment. No Hebrew Christian would doubt this.

As in Hebrews 1, the writer’s aim is not to establish a truth absolutely new, but to show that a received truth is contained in various Scriptures. Most of our earlier versions (following Luther and Erasmus) render this clause differently, which cannot be correct: “Lest any of you by forsaking the promise of entering in His rest.”

Any of you should seem to come short of it.—Rather, any one of you should be accounted to have come short of it. The difficulty here lies in the words rendered “seem” or “be accounted.” It appears impossible that the meaning can be “should even seem,” or “should think himself,” or “should show himself,” to have failed. It may be that the writer avoids positive and direct language when speaking of what lies beyond human understanding, and therefore reverently says, “should seem to have come short of it.” It is more probable that he is influenced by the figure contained in the next word, the falling short of a mark; and is thus led to refer to the judge who witnesses and declares the failure—“Lest any one . . . be held (or, be adjudged) to have come short of” the promise.

For unto us was.—Rather, for we have had glad tidings preached to us, even as they had. The object of these words is to support Hebrews 4:1, a promise being left. How fittingly the good news of the promise might, both in their case and in ours, be designated by the same word as the “gospel,” will appear later.

The word preached.—Literally, the word of hearing, i.e., the word which was heard (1 Thessalonians 2:13). But this does not mean the word heard by them. As in Isaiah 53:1 (where the same word is found in the Greek version), the meaning is “our message,” “that which we have heard from God,” so here the words signify what was heard by those who declared the promise to the people, especially the message which Moses received from God.

Not being mixed with faith.—A change of reading in the Greek, which rests on the strongest authority, compels us to connect these words, not with the message, but with the people: since they had not been united (literally, mingled) by faith with those who heard. For the word of Moses and those associated with him in declaring God’s promise (perhaps Aaron, Joshua, Caleb) to benefit the people, speakers and hearers must be united by the bond of faith. Here the margin of the Authorized Version preserves the true text, following the Vulgate and the earliest of the printed Greek Testaments (the Complutensian).

For we who have believed.—The emphasis is twofold, resting both on “believed” and on “we enter.” The former looks back to Hebrews 4:2, “by faith”—for it is we who believed that enter... The latter looks forward to the remainder of the verse, the purport of which is that the rest exists, and that “entering into the rest” may still be spoken of.

As I have sworn ...—Rather (as above), as I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest, . If in the Scripture (Psalms 95:8) God warns men of a later age not to imitate the guilt of those whom He excluded from His rest, it follows (see below on Hebrews 4:10) that the time for entering into the rest of God was not then past and gone.

Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.—And therefore the rest into which God will enter with His redeemed people is not that which succeeded the works of creation. This caution is added because the words used by the Psalmist (Psalms 95:11) are derived from Genesis 2:2-3; though the same words are used, yet, we are reminded, the thought is widely different. The next two verses simply expand and support the thought contained in this: “For whereas we read in one Scripture that God ‘rested’ on the seventh day, another records His sentence on the disobedient people, ‘They shall not enter into My rest.’”

For he spoke in a certain place.—Better, For he has spoken somewhere, another example of indefiniteness of citation. (See Note on Hebrews 2:6.)

The substance of the preceding verses may be expressed as follows: There is a rest of God, into which some are to enter with God. This rest was not yet entered at the time of the wandering in the wilderness and, therefore, was not the rest that followed the work of creation. Furthermore, it was a rest from which some were excluded because of unbelief.

These five particulars are repeated in substance in the present verse: “Seeing, therefore, it is (still) left that some should enter in, and those to whom the good news was formerly declared did not enter because of disobedience, He again,” and so on. “Disobedience”—though Hebrews 4:2 speaks of unbelief as the cause (see Note on Hebrews 3:18). In John 3:36, the transition from “believeth” to “obeyeth” is equally striking.