Hebrews 4:3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For we who have believed Or, who believe, namely, in Christ, and the promises of rest made in the gospel, and are diligent in the use of the means appointed in order to the attainment of it; do enter into rest Are at present made partakers of the rest promised by Jesus to the weary and heavy-laden that come to, and learn of him, Matthew 11:28-29: the rest implied in peace with God, peace of conscience, tranquillity of mind, the love of God and of all mankind shed abroad in the heart, and lively hopes of future felicity. Or rather, as Macknight observes, the present tense is put for the future, to show the certainty of believers entering into the rest of God. For the discourse is not directly concerning any rest belonging to believers in the present life, but of a rest remaining to them after death, Hebrews 4:9. As he said Clearly showing that there is a further rest than that which followed the finishing of the creation; As I have sworn, &c., if they shall enter That is, they shall never enter; into my rest Namely, by reason of their unbelief. The apostle's argument is to this purpose: Seeing men are by the oath of God excluded from God's rest on account of unbelief, this implies that all who believe shall enter into his rest. Although the works were finished before, even from the foundation of the world So that God did not speak of resting from them. The proposition is, There remains a rest for the people of God. This is proved, (Hebrews 4:3-11,) thus: that psalm (the 95th) mentions a rest, yet it does not mean, 1st, God's rest from creating, for this was long before the time of Moses, nor the rest of the seventh day, which was instituted from the beginning. Therefore God's swearing that the rebellious Israelites in the wilderness should not enter into his rest, shows that there was then another rest to be entered into, of which they who then heard fell short. Nor is it, 2d, The rest which Israel obtained through Joshua, for the psalmist wrote after him. Therefore it Isaiah, 3 d, The eternal rest in heaven.