Some have used statements in Hebrews 4 to argue that the Seventh-day Sabbath is no longer binding. Let's look at the text. I'll divide it into sections interpreting the main thoughts. Then we will comment and draw conclusions.
But Christ is a son over his
own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, [quoting
loosely from Psalm 95]
To day if ye will hear his
voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation
in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw
my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation,
and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my
ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) — 3:6-11
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We are Christ's house if we remain faithful and enter God's rest. [The
house of Christ was to replace the "house of Israel" (Ex. 40:38) or "nation
of Israel" in which the Jewish people had felt secure.] God had said that
the Israelites had evil hearts and did not know Him, so He would not let
them enter the land of promise.
Take heed, 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 To day; lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. — 3:12, 13.
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Don't leave God like they did but hold each other accountable while it
is today, not being deceived by sin
For we are made partakers
of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the
end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts, as in the provocation. — 3:14, 15
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To
receive the blessings with Christ we must hold on tight not hardening our
hearts.
For some, when they had heard,
did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with
whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned,
whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should
not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that
they could not enter in because of unbelief. — 3:16-19
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Sin
and unbelief kept some from entering the promised-land rest.
Let us therefore fear, lest,
a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem
to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto
them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it. — 4:1, 2.
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We
(the Hebrew Christians) are in the same situation. We have heard the same
gospel as those who did not take advantage of it.
For we which have believed
do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall
enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this
wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this
place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered
not in because of unbelief: — 4:3-6
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We
may enter rest because: (a) Believers will enter because God promised rest
and unbelievers have not entered it. (b) The rest of God is the seventh-day
rest after He finished His work. (c) We are still to enter it, although
God finished his works and rested, long ago on the seventh day of creation.
Again, he limiteth a certain
day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day
if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus [or Joshua]
had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another
day. — 4:7, 8.
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(a) Do not harden
your hearts because, just as the Seventh day of rest is specific, David's
statement specifies a day, "today." (b) Because Joshua [who brought the
people into Canaan] didn't give them [who sinned and died in the wilderness]
rest, the call was made by David to enter it on another specific day --
today.
There remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his [God's]
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let
us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the
same example of unbelief [or "disobedience" or "obstinance"]. (4:9, 10,
11).
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(a) The people of
God are still called to enter rest. Those who have accepted it rest from
their own works [from seeking salvation by right doing, ignoring the righteousness
Christ offers]. This is the pattern of God at the time of creation. (b)
Strive to attain that rest, not falling into the same stubbornness
as did the children of Israel.
The situation
of the times
The book of Hebrews
was written to urge the Jewish Christians not to return to their old religion.
Jesus had not come back as expected and they were getting discouraged.
Their situation is summarized
in 10:35-37. "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great
recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have
done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while,
and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry."
The Jewish religious practice
of the time should not have been works based. Their ancestors (as well
as they themselves) had heard the gospel (good news of salvation) but had
fallen into a pattern of feeling that God would save them from the Romans
if they would not sin. Thus a multitude of rules God had not given were
forced on the people.
The rest they were now being urged to enter
was spiritual rest in Christ.
That rest requires faith,
verse 2; decision, verse 7; obedience or co-operation, verse 11; right
motives, verse 13; and confidence in Jesus, verse 16.
Was the Sabbath
no longer important?
We might get that impression
from a casual reading of verses 4 to 7. The specific day of Sabbath rest
was used to illustrate the broader spiritual rest that the disobedient
ones had not entered. Later David called for a day that they should enter
(today) and the writer (I believe, Paul) was making the point that it was
specific just as the seventh day is. Tomorrow would not do. Without following
the logic pattern we might get the idea that any worship day was then okay.
Let's look at another example
of this complex reasoning, then we will return to look at other reasons
to believe that the seventh-day Sabbath was still valid. One of the most
obvious such reasoning is the story of Melchizedek in chapter 7 ge14.
Melchizedek was a priest
to whom Abraham paid tithe. The Genesis story does not report his genealogy,
not even who his father and mother were. The writer was not teaching about
Melchizedek but was using what we know about him as an example. He says
in verse 3 that he had no genealogy, but means that none was recorded,
because in verse 6 speaks of his untraced genealogy. The point was to show
that Christ was a priest of more importance than Abraham whom Jews of the
day essentially worshiped. This helps us understand why the Sabbath was
used as an illustration.
The importance
of the Sabbath was not in question
It seems easier to show the
continuing importance of the Sabbath, from the text, than to deny it, although
I don't see either as the writer's point. He was writing to people who
had grown up with the Sabbath and simply assumed their faith in it. The
Sabbath rest remained (verse 9). It would be the same spiritual rest as
received by responding "today" to the call to faithfulness.
The book of Hebrews was written
before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Jesus had said spoken of
that time with the counsel, "But pray ye that your flight be not in the
winter, neither on the sabbath day" (Matt. 24:20).
Verse 11 in our chapter calls
for diligence or striving. Those who died in the wilderness had sinned.
Verse 12 emphasizes the power of the "word of God" which would have been
the Old Testament then.
We certainly do not get a
picture of a changing God (13:8). Mount Sinai where the law of God was
given is used in chapter 12 as an illustration of an even more important
encounter with the living God in the heavenly Jerusalem (12:22).
May we enjoy the blessings of the day God has blessed as we enter more deeply into the divine rest.
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