"3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his."
Hebrews 4:3-10
This is a difficult passage, and understanding is not made easier by the AV rendering of some of the verses. The NEB or the RSV will help greatly here. The 'if' in 3 and 5 is certainly wrong, and the phrase ought to read, 'They shall not enter….' We should read 7 as in the RSV, 'Again He sets a certain day', 'Today', saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, 'Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts'. 'Jesus' in 8 does not refer to our Lord but to Joshua. So much for details of interpretation. Now as to the meaning, there are those who take the passage to refer to the higher realms of Christian experience, but this is to misunderstand the message. The general context should make it clear that the Apostle is using the idea of rest as an illustration of God's salvation, as he has used other ideas in previous chapters. What he is saying is this: there is a rest, because God speaks of it in His Word. What is this rest? It is not merely the creation rest, nor is it the rest of Canaan. Both these were types of a deeper rest of faith which was offered to the people in the old dispensation. Psalm 95 - from which the quotations are taken - speaks of rest and since this was written after Israel entered Canaan, it cannot refer to the rest of Canaan, but to something later - later even than David who spoke of it as something to come. Always - in Old Testament times - there was this prophetic pointing forward until the day when the Son of God Himself came in the flesh and said, 'Come unto Me…. and I will give you rest'. Christ is therefore the fulfilment of the Old Testament promise of rest.