Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

Hebrews IV. 8, 9. 397
not hy the mouth of David, shews plainly enough his intention, that
no weight at all should here be made to rest on the person of David.
In ver. 8 we have an extension of the proof contained in ver. 7, and,
with this, an explanation of ver. 7, in the clear and simple statement,
that such a reference to a future call of God and ivord of Ood
would not have been possible, if 'l-qaovg (i. e., in this context of
course Joshua) had already truly led the Israelites into the rest.
This, however, involves the inference that Joshua did not truly lead
the Israelites into the rest ; the earthly possession of the land which
was not even completely conquered under Joshua, which under the
Judges was oppressed by heathen kings, which had in Saul a bad
king, in David one who had little rest from war, in Solomon one
who fell from wisdom into folly, and which, after the death of Solomon,
sunk down from its high eminence of typical glory—that
earthly possession of the land such as was brought about by Joshua,
was not yet the true rest of God. Thus has the writer returned to
the thesis contained in ver. 6 : The Old Testament had no true rest,
and therewith to the thesis in vers. 1, 2 : We have still to ex'£)ect the
entrance into rest^ and that the true rest.
This last inference is now drawn in ver. 9. The author, however,
does not here say merely that there is still a KaTanavoig, a state of
rest to be looked for, but he denotes this KaTdnavoig by the higher
name aaj3[3aTLan6g (a word which occurs besides only in Plutarch de
superstit. 3), as the, celebration of a Sabbath. And thus he carries out
here an idea which he had indicated in ver. 4 ; he carries it out
here, after having in vers. 6-8 shewn, that the rest into which
Joshua led the Israelites was no true rest. Now he shews, on the
other hand, that the rest into which the people of God were to
be led at a future time, and therefore by Christ, is true, because
it bears the character of a Sabbatical rest, and thus truly corresponds
to the rest of God, after the work of creation was finished.
Sere, therefore, after having suitably prepared the way, the author
first brings out the idea which the commentators have thrust
into ve
reader.
God rested on the
finished
seventh day of the creation, because he had
his work not merely outwardly, but because his work was,
internally and qualitatively, a finished and perfect work (ver. 4).
But men could not in Moses', nay, even in Joshua's time, attain to
any rest from their activity, labour, pains, and exertion (ver. 8), because
their work and activity were internally imperfect, stained with
ein. The true rest lies in the future ; this must be the rest analogous
to the rest of God, a holy, a Sabbath rest; it must consist in
this, that man is able to rest from his works, in like manner and in
the same way, as God did from his, in other words, that man has