Rest- Our Inheritance.

(Continued…)

'But the question is raised: If the everlasting inheritance is the subject of the argument, why does the writer introduce the seventh day, and also speak of another day? They who ask this question seem to think that the apostle is arguing concerning the weekly Sabbath, and its change to another day; but, surely, they never would gather such an idea if they carefully read or studied the connection.

Besides the facts which have been already presented, showing that the inheritance is the subject of the discourse, we notice.

1. If the Sabbath is “the rest” spoken of, then the Lord must have sworn in his wrath that they should not keep the Sabbath! So far from this, he had some put to death who refused to regard the Sabbath. But he declared that they should not go into the land of Canaan.

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2. They who fell in the wilderness did not come short of the Sabbath, but kept it on their journeyings. But they did not see “the rest” which was given to the survivors.

3. The rest which remains is the antitype of that which Joshua gave to them. But Joshua did not give them the Sabbath, he gave them “the rest and the inheritance,” to possess which they left Egypt.

Looking at it in every light we see but this fact, that the inheritance only is the subject of the argument.

In answer to the question we first remark, that the inheritance of the saints, and the kingdom which shall be given to them, are very closely related. So far as territory is concerned, they are identical. As Abraham, with his seed, is to be the heir of the world, and possess the whole earth, so the Son of David is to receive the kingdoms of the world and reign unto the uttermost parts of the earth; the kingdom and dominion “under the whole heaven” shall be given to the saints.

As this rest or inheritance was finished from the foundation of the world, so of the kingdom; it was prepared from the foundation of the world. Matt. 25:34.

Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world

And by the text in question Paul proves that it was finished from the foundation of the world. At the end of the work of creation “God did rest the seventh day from all his works.”

This proves that “all his works” were finished at that time, for rest is subsequent to work. This was “the dominion” given to Adam, which he lost by sin. It is to be redeemed and restored by the last or second Adam; but he will do it as the seed of Abraham, under a covenant or promise made to Abraham. This is the use, the only use, which Paul makes of the seventh day. It stands related to the promised rest to attest that the promise was not a matter of uncertainty; it related to that which was already made. And now we are prepared to appreciate the remark which he makes on Ps. 95.

It is on the record that the children of Israel received a certain rest, or possession, under Joshua; also that some who came out of Egypt provoked the Lord, and came short of that rest. But the Holy Spirit by David, some four hundred years afterward, exhorted the children of Israel who were then in the land of Canaan, not to follow in the ways of the rebellious ones who failed to enter into the rest. And the conclusion is drawn by Paul that if that land were in truth the

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inheritance intended in the promise, then those who lived in the days of David did not need the exhortation, seeing they were already in possession of it. Thus he speaks:— “Seeing therefore it remaineth that some should enter thereinto, and they to whom the good tidings were before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience, he again defineth a certain day, saying in David, after so long a time, To-day, as it hath been before said, To-day if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God.” Heb. 4:6-9, Revised Version.

As Paul spoke by inspiration this must be conclusive; and this rest which remains must bear the same relation to that which Joshua gave to the house of Israel that Christ bears to Joshua—the latter is the antitype of the former. It is the substance of the original “promise made of God unto the fathers.” And this proves that the house of Israel no more received the inheritance promised to Abraham and his seed, than that circumcision in the flesh, outward, is the real circumcision which God requires, or that an unconverted Israelite, one who rejects Christ, is of the seed of Abraham, an heir according to the promise. The only apparent difficulty presented in Paul’s argument on “the rest” in Heb. 4, is the change from the use of the Greek word katepausis, rest, to that of sabbatismos, literally “the keeping of a Sabbath,” or a sabbath rest, in verse 9. But there is no real difficulty when we consider that Sha-vath and noo-ah are interchanged as verbs. Katepausen properly represents the latter, yet in verse 4, Paul follows the Septuagint and uses katepausen in a quotation from Gen 2:3, where sha-vath is used in the Hebrew. Sabbatismos has a signification, according to the lexicons and the most judicious commentators, beyond literal Sabbath-keeping. Thus Greenfield says: “spoken of an eternal rest with God. Heb. 4:9.” Robinson the same : “in N.T. only of an eternal rest with God. Heb 4:9.” Dr. Smith, in Bible Dictionary, notices the opinions which have been offered that it refers to the Sabbath, and says: “The objections, however, to

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this exposition are many and great, and most commentators regard the passage as having no reference to the weekly Sabbath.” The “Bible Commentary” says:— “There remaineth.—Or, v. 6, ‘there still remaineth,’—is still to be looked for hereafter, over and above that rest in the land of Canaan. This inference follows, since the Holy Ghost speaks in the Psalms to us. A rest.—Rather a Sabbath rest; lit. ‘a keeping of sabbath;’ when the people of God, the ‘Israel of God,’ Gal. 6:16, shall obtain rest from all that trouble them; 2 Thess. 1:7,  and when all enemies shall be put under the feet of Jesus, the Captain of the Lord’s host. Then, at last, the faithful shall ‘enter into the joy of their Lord.’ (Matt. 25:21, 23).” The Cyclopedia of M’Clintock and Strong has the following: “Sabbatism (sabbatismos, Heb. 4:9, A. V. rest), a repose from labor like that enjoyed by God at creation; a type of the eternal Sabbath of Heaven. See Rest.” And of “rest,” it says: “Rest also signifies a fixed and secure habitation;” and refers  to the  texts quoted on that subject. The great difficulty in referring Heb. 4:9 to a weekly Sabbath lies in this: it leaves the apostle’s argument without any logical conclusion. Although the verse begins with the word “therefore” (in the Greek), if it refers to the weekly Sabbath, it has no logical connection with the argument preceding; certainly no relation to the declaration in verse 8, that if Joshua had given them rest—implying the rest of the promise—he would not afterward have spoken of another day—for receiving it. And this is the view taken by most authorities. Dr. Clarke says:— “The apostle shows that, although Joshua did bring the children of Israel into the promised land, yet this could not be the intended rest; because, long after this time, the Holy Spirit, by David, speaks of this rest; the apostle therefore concludes—verse 9, ‘There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.’ It was not, 1. The rest of the Sabbath; it was not, 2. The rest in the promised land, for the psalmist wrote long after the days of Joshua; therefore there is another rest, a state of blessedness, for the people of God.”

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Dr. Barnes speaks at length on this subject, and marks clearly the relation of argument and conclusion. We quote briefly. On Heb. 3:11, he says:— “The particular rest referred to here was that of the land of Canaan, but which was undoubtedly regarded as emblematic of the rest in Heaven. Into that rest God solemnly said they should never enter.” And on chap. 4:8, 9, he says:— “The object is to prove that Joshua did not give the people of God such a rest as to make it improper to speak of a rest after that time. If Joshua had given them a complete and final rest; if by his conducting them to the promised land all had been done which had been contemplated by the promise, then it would not have been alluded to again, as it was in the time of David. Joshua did give them a rest in the promised land; but it was not all which was intended, and it did not exclude the promise of another and more important rest. . . . “There remaineth, therefore, a rest. This is the conclusion to which the apostle comes. The meaning is this, that according to the Scriptures there is now a promise of rest made to the people of God. It did not pertain merely to those who were called to go to the promised land, nor to those who lived in the time of David, but it is still true that the promise of rest pertains to all the people of God of every generation. The reasoning by which the apostle comes to this conclusion is briefly this: 1. That there was a rest called ‘the rest of God’—spoken of in the earliest period of the world,—implying that God meant that it should be enjoyed. 2. That the Israelites, to whom the promise was made, failed of obtaining that which was promised, by their unbelief. 3. That God intended that some should enter into his rest—since it would not be provided in vain. 4. That long after the Israelites had fallen in the wilderness, we find the same reference to a rest which David in his time exhorts those whom he addressed to endeavor to obtain. 5. That if all that had been meant by the word rest, and by the promise, had been accomplished when Joshua conducted the Israelites to the land of Canaan, we should not have heard another day spoken of when it was possible to forfeit that rest by unbelief. It followed, therefore, that there was something besides

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that; something that pertained to all the people of God to which the name rest might still be given, and which they were exhorted still to obtain. The word rest in this verse, sabbatismos, sabbatism, in the margin is rendered ‘keeping of a Sabbath.’ It is a different word from sabbaton—the Sabbath; and it occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and is not found in the Septuagint. . . . It means here a resting, or an observance of sacred repose, and refers undoubtedly to Heaven, as a place of eternal rest with God. It cannot mean the rest in the land of Canaan, for the drift of the writer is to prove that that is not intended. It cannot mean the Sabbath, properly so called, for then the writer would have employed the usual word sabbaton, Sabbath. It cannot mean the Christian Sabbath, for the object is not to prove that there is such a day to be observed; and his reasoning about being excluded from it by unbelief and by hardening the heart would be irrelevant.” This is a very fair statement of the case, though the writer appears almost to lose sight of the object of the promise in referring it to Heaven. He is certainly correct when he says: “If Joshua had given them a complete and final rest; if by his conducting them to the promised land, all had been done which had been contemplated by the promise, then it would not have been alluded to again.” It must be kept in mind that the promise which was not exhausted in their possession of Canaan, was “the promise made of God unto the fathers,” especially unto Abraham and to his seed, and embraced “the land of promise,” which according to the New Testament, was “the world,” or “the earth,”—the whole earth, or as the angel said to Daniel, “under the whole heaven.”

And here we rest the argument on this point, believing that it is abundantly proved that the children of Israel “according to the flesh,” were not all “the seed of Abraham;” that their circumcision in the flesh was not all that was intended in that ordinance; and that a temporary possession by Abraham’s natural descendants of the land of Palestine, was not all that was meant in the promise that he and his seed should inherit it for an everlasting possession. The promises to Abraham will be fulfilled only when “the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”

(To be continued)

(Excerpt from-) THE ATONEMENT PART SECOND:

THE ATONEMENT AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE

 (1884)

BY   ELDER J. H. WAGGONER