We left off talking about the wilderness paradigm, where disciples of Jesus learn life lessons from the experience of Israel. They too were a covenant people who experienced God’s salvation by grace and were called to walk by faith, following him to that place of promised rest symbolized by the land of Canaan.

Faithfulness is a recurring theme we see as we progress in our journey through Hebrews.

Both Moses and Jesus are models of faithfulness. Yeshua, however, as a son, is in a more exalted position than the great figure of Moses. And God’s house, as spoken of here, is God’s people. The accompanying warning is appropriate—we need to be faithful, too: We are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope (3:6).

Typically, teachers and preachers lead us to believe the author’s purpose is to argue for the superiority of Christ and the New Covenant against and in contrast to Judaism and the first covenants. This an egregious error, one that obscures the author’s actual intention. He is trying to encourage God’s people to be faithful amidst whatever challenging life circumstances they face (13:22).

The point is not something vs. something else. It is a classic Hebraic way of reasoning from something good to something better. Temple sacrifices become embodied in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The High Priestly role becomes embodied in the one tested in every way, who can empathize with human weakness and has overcome death.

What were good gifts from the Father have become, in the New Covenant, good gifts in his Son!

The conventional way of interpreting these texts as a people returning to the Law, thereby denying the sufficiency of Christ for salvation, is flawed. Their falling away, so goes the logic, is a move back to keeping God’s commands to earn salvation. That is what scholars call an anachronism, something from a later time being read into an earlier time.

It is silly to say this first-century audience is in danger of returning to Judaism. They are already in it. I confess to you that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law [Torah] and written in the Prophets (Acts 24:14). The first hearers of Hebrews were, like Paul, Jewish believers who affirmed Jewish life and fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Torah in the power of the Spirit by the atonement of Yeshua.

Eternal security is a much-debated issue that theologians bring up when studying Hebrews.

For us to adequately address it, we must understand and be willing to step outside the theological controversy surrounding what is known in popular parlance as once saved, always saved. I am not seeking to defend or dispute the idea. Our shared goal is to hear the text as the author of Hebrews intended.

We pick up the train of thought from chapter three into chapter four. So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief (3:19). Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it (4:1).

There is a conditional character to our pilgrimage. Why else would the author give warnings in light of these glorious gospel revelations: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion (Heb 3:7, 15; 4:7; see Ps 95:7)? Because God is faithful to us, we must hold fast to him, persevere, and be loyal to the end.

Where have we heard this before? From Jesus himself: And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved (Mtt 24:12-13).

Using Psalm 95 to great effect, the picture in Hebrews 3 and 4 is unmistakable. Of Israel’s adult population who witnessed and experienced being saved out of Egypt, only two entered the Promised Land. The people let their ears grow dull of hearing; their hearts became hardened. They did not learn to respond with fidelity and obedience. Therefore, they failed to enter Canaan.

The author’s point is clear if we read the text as it is given without imposing our theological paradigms upon it.

Yes, they were faithless. But we are to see ourselves in the mirror of Israel’s story. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened (4:2). Rather than being faithful, they were fickle. How about us?

Notice, again, the conditional aspect of his appeal. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end (3:14). So what are we to do? Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (3:12).

Let me be clear. They believed YHWH was God. Acting on his instruction regarding the Passover lamb required belief and confidence. When they walked through the parted Red Sea, that required some serious trust. As they journeyed, they constantly saw signs and wonders: manna from heaven, water from a rock, and the Shekinah glory of divine presence leading them. The reality of God was quite evident to all of them. That is not the problem.

Are you being faithful to this God in whom you believe? That is the question.

We find this fascinating observation: For good news came to us just as to them (4:2). Isn’t that curious? Have you ever thought about Israel in the wilderness hearing the good news of God? Yet the message they heard was not profitable. Why? Because it was not joined by faith to the hearers. In other words, those who heard it did not combine it with their faithfulness. They heard in an auditory way, but not in the biblical, Hebraic way. To hear (shema) is to obey.

For we who have believed enter that rest (4:3). As I said before, believed is from the Greek word pistis, which is better translated here as faithful. We who are faithful to the good news in Messiah Jesus are entering that rest (Sabbath rest is the next subject we will explore). But first, he restates his main point: those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience (4:6). Disobedience and unfaithfulness go hand in hand, just like obedience and faithfulness.

The author reinforces all this by quoting from Psalm 95 for the third time: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (4:7). In light of the warning, he exhorts them: Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience (4:11). The word fall has also become thematic in these early chapters of Hebrews. Again, the picture is clear.

He now offers a glorious meditation on the Word of God which is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account (4:12-13).

The word of God that was given to Israel is the very word that is going to judge Israel. So it is with Jesus. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day (Jn 12:47-48).

If the good news that the Father gives in his Son—and that he gave to his children Israel in the wilderness—is not heard and obeyed, guess what? It becomes the bad news of your very judgment. Good news is only good news to those who receive it. To those who reject it, it is the basis of their judgment.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession (4:14).