1 THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it.
2
For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to
us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news
of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard
did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the
leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and
confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe).
3
For we who have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on God)
do enter that rest, in accordance with His declaration that those [who
did not believe] should not enter when He said, As I swore in My wrath,
They shall not enter My rest; and this He said although [His] works had
been completed and prepared [and waiting for all who would believe] from the foundation of the world. [Ps. 95:11.]
4
For in a certain place He has said this about the seventh day: And God
rested on the seventh day from all His works. [Gen. 2:2.]
5 And [they forfeited their part in it, for] in this [passage] He said, They shall not enter My rest. [Ps. 95:11.]
6
Seeing then that the promise remains over [from past times] for some to
enter that rest, and that those who formerly were given the good news
about it and the opportunity, failed to appropriate it and did not enter because of disobedience,
7
Again He sets a definite day, [a new] Today, [and gives another
opportunity of securing that rest] saying through David after so long a
time in the words already quoted, Today, if you would hear His voice and when you hear it, do not harden your hearts. [Ps. 95:7, 8.]
8
[This mention of a rest was not a reference to their entering into
Canaan.] For if Joshua had given them rest, He [God] would not speak
afterward about another day.
9 So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God;
10
For he who has once entered [God's] rest also has ceased from [the
weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested from those
labors peculiarly His own. [Gen. 2:2.]
11 Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell].
12
For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it
active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any
two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life
(soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the
deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.
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