Hebrews 4:1-13, especially vs. 1: "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it." In Hebrews 3:6, St. Paul encouraged us to "hold fast" our confidence in Christ. Our predecessors in the Household of God, the children of Israel, lost the Promised Land through unbelief in the desert. The Apostle desires that we not lose our way amidst the distractions and confused thinking of the world and miss the eternal rest of God. Hence, in today's reading, the Apostle expands our understanding of God's "great promise of rest."
At the start, St. Paul reminds us that a promise of entering God's rest "remains" (vs. 1). Thereby he is emphasizing the fact that God's promised rest still is an available reality. But the 'rest' that is presented is not merely a reference to the historic, territorial rest of the Promised Land. The Land was the principal objective of ancient Israel during their sojourn in the wilderness, and almost all of them failed ever to enter the land. Still the Apostle prompts us about the rest which he has in mind - "fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it" (vs. 1).
What then is this rest to which St. Paul refers? Observe: he recognizes that the great promised rest is contained in "the gospel," which "was preached to us as well as to them" (vs. 2). The rest has to do with the Kingdom of God, that which will only be fully revealed at the end of the age, but may be known in anticipation now by faith. What is required is an act of trust in God - something ancient Israel failed to risk at Kadesh Barnea (see Num. 13:1-14:23).
St. Paul's major thrust in today's passage is encouragement. We should not lose heart. We are members of God's Household through faith, "For we who have believed do enter that rest" (vs. 3). He refers three times in the lesson to the prophecy of David (in Psalm 94:7-11, LXX - see Heb. 4:3,5,7). His point is that God would not have given this latter prophecy through David, were not the great promise of rest still in force.
Note especially that St. Paul underscores the on-going nature of the promise by referring to God's rest following the creation of the world. "For [God] has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, 'And God rested on the seventh day from all His works'" (cf., Heb. 4:4; Gen. 2:2). What he presents for us to consider are three related 'rests': the rest in the Promised Land, the archetype of rest in the Creation Sabbath, and the antitype, or the great promised rest, of the age to come. Since both the archetype and the antitype are God's rest, and because the Lord is eternal from before time and forever, they are one and the same.
The Apostle draws these various points about God's rest together with the remark that hearkens back to the beginning of the passage: "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God" (vs. 9). The concluding verses after this statement continue his encouragement. "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest" (vs. 11). Let us not ignore early Israel's failure to enter the rest, nor ignore their "example of disobedience" (vs. 11). Remember Him with Whom we deal. He is "a Discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (vs. 12), One Who sees all and knows all. "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account" (vs. 13).
Orthodox worship offers the opportunity to experience by anticipation the great promised rest taught here. Sharing in the Orthodox Liturgy is to join the assembly of true and right belief, to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus our great High Priest (see vs. 14), to stand among the Saints "who have ceased from their works" (vs. 10), and to enjoy creation at rest with its Creator.
Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!