What is spiritual rest? Hebrews 3 (quoting Psalm 95) discusses a rest for the people of God in the spiritual promised land. Are you looking for a sermon on spiritual rest? Try reading or listening to this chapter from Work and Rest God’s Way for a better understanding!

Table of contentsThe Promised Land and Spiritual RestRebellion with the Twelve SpiesUrgently Enter the RestUnbelief Is a Heart IssueMoving from the Physical Rest to the Spiritual RestAn Important WarningThe Need for FaithThe Gospel in the Old TestamentGod Preached the Gospel to AbrahamGod Preached the Gospel to Adam and EveCombining the Gospel with FaithA Continual RestA Spiritual Rest That Is Still AvailableGod’s Spiritual Rest Is Not about a Physical LocationFootnotes

John Eliot was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians, pastor of the First Church in Roxbury, and founder of the Roxbury Latin School in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He fulfilled his pastoral duties, including preaching biweekly into his eighties, while ministering to the Indians. He took up court cases for their property rights, pleaded for clemency for them, fought against them being sold into slavery, sought to secure lands and streams for their use, and established schools for them. He labored to consolidate Indians so they could enjoy a Christian society, and at one point, there were fourteen towns of “Praying Indians.” Eliot learned their tongue so he could translate sermon transcripts, the Bible, and twenty other books into their language.166

Eliot was busier than most of us can imagine. He seemed as though he lived the lives of many men. Why do many of God’s most faithful servants work the hardest, and yet are rested and at peace? The answer is there’s a rest that’s not physical. The most important rest is spiritual, and they experience it. Conversely, why do some of the laziest people, who do the least, seem overwhelmed and filled with anxiety? They experience physical rest, but they lack spiritual rest.

The Promised Land and Spiritual Rest

The clearest passage explaining spiritual rest is Hebrews 3:7–4:11. Rest is the theme of the verses as the word occurs twelve times. The author of Hebrews also references the Old Testament extensively in these verses. Unfortunately, sometimes people read the Old Testament and think, “What does this have to do with me? How can I learn from people who lived so long ago and whose lives are so different from mine?” These are unfortunate questions because the New Testament states the Old Testament provides us with examples and instruction:

“For whatever things were written [in the Old Testament] were written for our learning” (Romans 15:4).

“Now all these things happened to [the Israelites] as examples, and they were written for our admonition” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Often, the Old Testament provides a backdrop for New Testament instruction. One such example takes place as the author of Hebrews reveals that the Promised Land is a type and shadow of the spiritual rest God offers His people.

Rebellion with the Twelve Spies

We must be familiar with Israel’s rebellion on the border of the Promised Land. In Numbers 13 and 14, the twelve spies returned after spending forty days examining the land. They shared their report with the nation, that while the land was as wonderful as God said, it was also filled with enemies. Ten of the spies said Israel couldn’t defeat the enemies, but Joshua and Caleb said God would give them victory.

Tragically, the people believed the ten spies, so they didn’t believe God; therefore, God said the nation couldn’t enter. They would’ve received the land the next day, which means what was about to be a wonderful blessing for them, ended up being a moment of historic discipline. Israel was forced to wander in the wilderness for forty years—one year for each day the spies were in the land (Numbers 14:34). The generation of unbelief would die, but their children, whom they accused God of trying to murder, would enter the land (Numbers 14:3 cf. Numbers 14:31).

The author of Hebrews has this rebellion in view as he presents the Promised Land as a picture of spiritual rest. We will consider this passage piece by piece throughout this chapter.

Urgently Enter the Rest

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice” (Hebrews 3:7).

Psalm 95 records the rebellion as God saw it, and the author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95:7–11 in Hebrews 3:7–11. Although Psalm 95 was written by David as a wonderful affirmation of the inspiration of Scripture, it is attributed to the Holy Spirit. David was the human author, but the Holy Spirit is the true and greater Author of all of God’s Word.

To convey urgency, this is the first of four times the author uses the word “Today” (also in Hebrews 3:13, 15, and 4:7). Don’t put off entering God’s rest! Live as though you might not have the same opportunity tomorrow. The Israelites serve as a warning to us. They were to enter the Promised Land, but they rebelled and were told they couldn’t enter (Numbers 14:1-4). They attempted to enter but were chased out by the Canaanites (Numbers 14:39-45).

Unbelief Is a Heart Issue

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion (or at Meribah, which means, “tempting or testing”), in the day of trial (or at Massah, which means, “contention or quarreling”) in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways’ (Hebrews 3:8–10).

This is the first of three times the warning, “Do not harden your hearts” occurs (also in Hebrews 3:15 and 4:7). The author holds them responsible for their unbelief because belief and unbelief are not independent of people’s will. This is the first of four times the heart is mentioned because belief and unbelief are heart issues: “For with the heart one believes” (Romans 10:10; see Hebrews 3:10, 3:12, and 3:15). Hence, “They always go astray in their heart.”

“Tested” and “tried” describe Israel’s behavior in the wilderness, and it is always related to their unbelief.

They didn’t believe God would deliver them from the Egyptian army: “When Pharaoh drew near, [Israel] said to Moses, ‘Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?’” (Exodus 14:10–11).

They didn’t believe God would provide water for them: “[Israel] complained against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” (Exodus 15:24) and “[Israel] contended with Moses, ‘Give us water, that we may drink’” (Exodus 17:2).

They didn’t believe God would provide food for them: “Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness [saying], ‘Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger’” (Exodus 16:2–3).

They didn’t believe God appointed Moses as their leader: “[Israel] said, ‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?’” (Numbers 12:2).

When God is “tested and [tried]” by our unbelief, there is a point that His longsuffering comes to an end. We don’t know when that will be, but Israel learned it was when they believed the ten spies instead of God.

Moving from the Physical Rest to the Spiritual Rest

So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest” (Hebrews 3:11).

We would expect God to swear Israel could not enter the land, but He said they could not enter “My rest” (also in Hebrews 4:3). The Old Testament described the Promised Land as a place of rest: “Until the Lord has given rest to your brethren as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan” (Deuteronomy 3:20; see also Deuteronomy 12:9–10, Joshua 21:44, and 22:4).

This is the first time the author of Hebrews uses the word “rest,” looking beyond the physical rest in the Old Testament to the spiritual rest in the New Testament. Since the Promised Land prefigured a spiritual reality, it was always about more than a physical piece of land. John MacArthur said, “The application of this picture is to an individual’s spiritual rest in the Lord, which has precedent in the Old Testament.”167 We see the precedent in verses offering God’s people rest:

“Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you” (Psalm 116:7).

“To whom He said, ‘This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,’ and, ‘This is the refreshing’; yet they would not hear” (Isaiah 28:12).

An Important Warning

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:12–13).

Israel “[departed] so far from [God]” they accused Him of murder: “Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims?” (Numbers 14:3; see also Exodus 14:11–12 and 16:3). The author wants to prevent his readers from doing the same; therefore, he says, “Beware,” which is a word of warning, followed by “lest there be in any of you,” to make it personal.

He exhorts each of us to “exhort one another.” The Greek word for “exhort” is parakaleo, related to our word “parallel,” because exhorting means coming alongside someone else.

The phrase “deceitfulness of sin,” reminds us sin lies. We need brothers and sisters in Christ who exhort us with the truth. Christians outside of fellowship open themselves up to many dangers, including deception.

The Need for Faith

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest,