Hebrews 4:1-12

The passage focuses on God’s word to His people (vv. 1, 2, 6, 12) and their responsibility to believe it. Historically, God’s people haven’t believed and thus have failed to enter His rest (3:18-19; 4:3, 6), so the appeal in this chapter is to believe God’s word and to thus enter His rest.

The point is clear: what God expects from his people is belief in His word. Enter the great enemy: unbelief. But why would people not believe God’s word? The answer is from yesterday’s reading: the hardening effects of sin’s deceitfulness (3:12-13). Sin builds up layers of resistance to God’s point of view, making it impossible for us to believe.

So what’s the solution? God’s word (v. 12). The word of God is both the object of my belief and the means to my belief. It cuts deep, slicing through the layers of unbelief and deceit, laying open the deepest impulses and longings of my heart. So I need the word in me. I have got to have God’s thoughts slicing through sin’s deceitfulness and exposing my heart. And when this miraculous work of the word happens in me, belief results and I enjoy God’s rest in my soul.