Hebrews 3:11

King James Version (KJV)

So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

So I sware in my wrath - God's grief at their continued disobedience became wrath at their final impenitence, and therefore he excluded them from the promised rest.

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Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

So I sware in my wrath - God is often represented in the Scriptures as “swearing” - and usually as swearing by himself, or by his own existence. Of course this in figurative, and denotes a strong affirmation, or a settled and determined purpose. An oath with us implies the strongest affirmation, or the expression of the most settled and determined purpose of mind. The meaning here is, that so refractory and perverse had they showed themselves, that he solemnly resolved that they should never enter into the land of Canaan.

They shall not enter into my rest - Margin, As in the original, “if they shall enter.” That is, they shall not enter. The word (אם ‛im) “if” has this negative meaning in Hebrew, and this meaning is transferred to the Greek word “if;” compare 1 Samuel 3:17; 2 Samuel 3:35; 2 Kings 6:31. It is called “my rest” here, meaning that it was such rest as God had provided, or such as he enjoyed. 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. They had been rebellious. All the means of reclaiming them had failed. God had warned and entreated them; he had caused his mercies to pass before them, and had visited them with judgments in vain; and he now declares that for all their rebellion they should be excluded from the promised land. God speaks here in the manner of human beings. Men are affected with feelings of indignation in such circumstances, and God makes use of such language as expresses such feelings. But we are to understand it in a manner consistent with his character, and we are not to suppose that he is affected with the same emotions which agitate the bosoms of people. The meaning is, that he formed and expressed a deliberate and solemn purpose that they should never enter into the promised land. Whether this “rest” refers here to heaven, and whether the meaning is that God would exclude them from that blessed world, will be more appropriately considered in the next chapter. The particular idea is, that they were to be excluded from the promised land, and that they should fall in the wilderness. No one can doubt, also, that their conduct had been such as to show that the great body of them were unfit to enter into heaven.

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Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary

Days of temptation are often days of provocation. But to provoke God, when he is letting us see that we entirely depend and live upon him, is a provocation indeed. The hardening of the heart is the spring of all other sins. The sins of others, especially of our relations, should be warnings to us. All sin, especially sin committed by God's professing, privileged people, not only provokes God, but it grieves him. God is loth to destroy any in, or for their sin; he waits long to be gracious to them. But sin, long persisted in, will make God's wrath discover itself in destroying the impenitent; there is no resting under the wrath of God. "Take heed:" all who would get safe to heaven must look about them; if once we allow ourselves to distrust God, we may soon desert him. Let those that think they stand, take heed lest they fall. Since to-morrow is not ours, we must make the best improvement of this day. And there are none, even the strongest of the flock, who do not need help of other Christians. Neither are there any so low and despised, but the care of their standing in the faith, and of their safety, belongs to all. Sin has so many ways and colours, that we need more eyes than ours own. Sin appears fair, but is vile; it appears pleasant, but is destructive; it promises much, but performs nothing. The deceitfulness of sin hardens the soul; one sin allowed makes way for another; and every act of sin confirms the habit. Let every one beware of sin.

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SDA Bible Commentary (limited)
Volume 1-7

11. Wrath. Gr. orgÃ„â€œ (see on Rom. 1:18; 2:8). For comment on the “wrath,” or “anger,” of God see on 2 Kings 13:3.

They shall not enter. God had promised Abraham that his descendants would return to Canaan “in the fourth generation” (Gen. 15:16). His only purpose in bringing the Hebrew people out of Egypt had been to lead them into the land He had promised them. But when, in utter perversity, they refused to learn the lessons they must learn before He could take them into Canaan, God eventually had no alternative but to abandon them to their own ways. It would have been futile for Him to give them possession of the Promised Land, for, on the basis of their performance in the wilderness, they would have frustrated the very purpose He had in giving them that land. God had borne long with the people, and there was nothing more He could do for them. Compare God’s promise to give them “rest” (Ex. 33:14) with His “breach of promise” at Kadesh (Num. 14:34).

Rest. Gr. katapausis, “[settled] rest,” “[place of] rest.” The fundamental concept of katapausis is cessation from labor or other activity, together with the state of inactivity that follows cessation. Katapausis appears altogether eight times in chs. 3 and 4 (chs. 3:11, 18; 4:1, 3 [twice], 5, 10, 11), and the related verb katapauÅÂ three times (ch. 4:4, 8, 10 [“hath ceased”]). In each instance katapausis is definite, specifying a particular “rest,” God’s “rest.” Where katapausis appears in the LXX it is usually the translation of the Heb. menuchah, “resting place,” “rest,” from nuach, “to settle down,” “to remain [in a place],” “to rest,” that is, after previous activity. In the LXX katapausis is used of the permanent abode of the ark in Canaan, after the wilderness wanderings (Num. 10:36), and of the inheritance of Israel in Canaan, after the 430 years of sojourn (Deut. 12:9). The related verb katapauÅÂ is commonly the translation of the Heb. nuach or shabath, both of which mean “to rest.” In Gen. 2:2, 3; Ex. 34:21; 31:17, katapauÅÂ is used five times of the Sabbath “rest.” Like katapausis, katapauÅÂ represents cessation from any kind of activity and may also include the “rest” that follows cessation. See on Heb. 4:9.

Careful attention to the four different applications of the words katapausis and katapauÅÂ is essential to an understanding of the argument set forth in chs. 3 and 4:

1. In chs. 3:11, 18; 4:3, 5, reference is to the promised literal occupation of the land of Canaan by the generation of Israelites that had been delivered from Egypt. The promise was not fulfilled because of the rebellion at Kadesh-barnea (see on ch. 3:7-11). The fact that the next generation did enter into this aspect of “rest” is evident from such passages as Deut. 3:18, 20; Joshua 21:44; 23:1.

2. It is evident, however, that the entrance of Israel into literal Canaan is only one aspect of the “rest” God had in store for His people. Once they were established in the Promised Land, He purposed to qualify them, as a nation, to be His chosen messengers of salvation to the world (see Vol. IV, pp. 26-30). But centuries later, in the time of David, they had not entered into this aspect of God’s “rest” (Heb. 4:7, 8); in fact, they never entered into it (see Vol. IV, pp. 30-34). Throughout its history Israel repeatedly made essentially the same mistake as that made by the generation whose probation, as a group, closed at Kadesh. Thus God finally barred them, as a nation, from ever entering into His spiritual “rest,” as He had formerly barred the generation at Kadesh from entering literal Canaan (Vol. IV, p. 33). They forfeited their role as the chosen people (see on Matt. 21:43).

God’s renewed invitation in the time of David to enter into this spiritual aspect of His “rest” is evidence that Israel’s failure to do so in Joshua’s time and after, had notâ€”in David’s timeâ€”yet canceled His purpose for Israel as a nation. Furthermore, the renewal of the invitation in David’s time is evidence that Joshua had not given Israel the spiritual “rest” (ch. 4:8).

3. In ch. 4:4 (see comment there) God’s resting on the seventh day of creation week is used, in an illustrative sense, of the “rest” into which God would have Christians enter.

4. In ch. 4:1, 3, 10, 11 katapauÅÂ and katapausis refer to the Christian’s rest from the works of sin and from attempts to earn salvation by his own merits. Compare Christ’s personal invitation, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (see on Matt. 11:28).

The line of reasoning in chs. 3 and 4, which centers in the word “rest,” is essentially as follows:

1. God originally intended that Moses should lead Israel into the Canaan “rest,” but neither Moses nor the generation that left Egypt entered Canaan.

2. Joshua, however, did lead the next generation into Canaan but because of their unbelief he could not lead them into God’s spiritual “rest.”

3. In the days of David, God renewed the invitation to enter into His spiritual “rest” (see Vol. IV, p. 31). But it was obvious, by NT times, that Israel as a nation had not entered into God’s “rest.”

4. Nevertheless, God’s invitation and promise had not lapsed by default, for when God determines upon a certain objective He will, ultimately, achieve it despite human failures (see on ch. 4:3, 4).

5. Accordingly, since God’s people have not as yet entered into His “rest,” it is certain that “there remaineth Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ a rest to the people of God” (ch. 4:9).

6. If Christians will “come boldly unto the throne of grace” (ch. 4:16), where Christ ministers as “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession” (ch. 3:1; cf. ch. 4:14, 15), they will find One who can “be touched with the feeling of” their “infirmities” (ch. 4:15), and will “obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (v. 16). In so doing they will enter into God’s spiritual “rest,” the “rest” of soul He has provided for repentant sinners. Thus, explains the writer, the experience into which Israel had failed to enter in centuries gone by becomes the privilege of the sincere Christian today (ch. 3:13, 15).

7. “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (ch. 4:1, 11). Faith is the key to entering into God’s “rest” (ch. 4:2; cf. chs. 3:18, 19; 4:6; 11), and we should “take heed” lest there be in us “an evil heart of unbelief” (ch. 3:12).

Under the Levitical priesthood men were to perform certain “works” designed to help them understand and appreciate the plan of salvation in Christ Jesus. But under the ministration of Christ as high priest men are to go directly to Christ without the mediation of a human priest. They are to find “rest” in Christ, without the “works” required by the ceremonial system, or any other system. In chs. 3 and 4 the writer pleads with his Jewish Christian brethren to cease from these profitless “works” and to enter into the “rest” of simple faith in the atoning merits and ministry of our great High Priest in heaven. Compare Isa. 30:15; Jer. 6:16; Matt. 11:29.

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Ellen G. White
Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 281

We here read the warnings which God gave to ancient Israel. It was not His good pleasure that they should wander so long in the wilderness; He would have brought them immediately to the Promised Land had they submitted and loved to be led by Him; but because they so often grieved Him in the desert, He sware in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest, save two who wholly followed Him. God required His people to trust in Him alone. He did not wish them to receive help from those who did not serve Him. 1T 281.1

Please read Ezra 4:1-5: “Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel; then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose.” 1T 281.2

Ezra 8:21-23: “Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; but His power and His wrath is against all them that forsake Him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and He was entreated of us.” 1T 282.1

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