Hebrews 3:7–4:11
Exposition of Psalm 95: Hearing God’s Word in Faith
3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,12
“Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks!13
3:8 “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness.
3:9 “There your fathers tested me and tried me,14 and they saw my works for forty years.
3:10 “Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering15 and they have not known my ways.’
3:11 “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’ ”16
3:12 See to it,17 brothers and sisters,18 that none of you has19 an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes20 the living God.21 3:13 But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none of you may become hardened by sin’s deception. 3:14 For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we hold our initial confidence22 firm until the end. 3:15 As it says,23 “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks!24 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”25 3:16 For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership?26 3:17 And against whom was God27 provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?28 3:18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient? 3:19 So29 we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.
4:1 Therefore we must be wary1 that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it. 4:2 For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in2 with those who heard it in faith.3 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’ ”4 And yet God’s works5 were accomplished from the foundation of the world. 4:4 For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,”6 4:5 but to repeat the text cited earlier:7 “They will never enter my rest!” 4:6 Therefore it remains for some to enter it, yet those to whom it was previously proclaimed did not enter because of disobedience. 4:7 So God8 again ordains a certain day, “Today,” speaking through David9 after so long a time, as in the words quoted before,10 “O, that today you would listen as he speaks!11 Do not harden your hearts.” 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God12 would not have spoken afterward about another day. 4:9 Consequently a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God. 4:10 For the one who enters God’s13 rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works. 4:11 Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.