John Gill Commentary Hebrews 4:9

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

Ver. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God. ]

Not all mankind; nor the people of the Jews only; rather the people of God, both Jews and Gentiles, under the New Testament; the people whom God has loved with a special love, has chosen in Christ, and given to him, with whom he has made a covenant in him, and whom Christ saves from their sins, and calls by his grace; and the rest which remains for them is not a new sabbath day, but a sabbatism.

And this does not so much design eternal rest in heaven; though the Jews often call that a sabbath; the 92nd psalm they say is a psalm for the time to come, (tbv wlkv), "which is all sabbath", and the rest of eternal life^F11: but rather this intends the spiritual rest believers have in Christ under the Gospel dispensation, which they now enter into, and of which the apostle has been treating.

And as for the word "remaineth", this does not denote the futurity of it, but the apostle's inference or consequence from what he had said; and the sense is, it remains therefore, and is a certain fact and a clear consequence from what has been observed: there is another rest distinct from God's rest on the seventh day and from the rest in the land of Canaan. These were both typical of the present rest the saints now enjoy.

So the Jews call the world to come the times of the Messiah, (lwdgh tbv), "the great sabbath"^F12.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F11: Misn. Tamid, c. 7. sect. 4. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1, Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 16. 3. Massecheth Sopherim, c. 18. sect. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 3. 1.
• F12: Zohar in Gen. fol. 31. 4. Shaare Orn, fol. 17. 1. Caphtor, fol. 64. 1.