This chapter goes on to apply the ancient example to present conduct.
The Word, mixed with faith, brings the soul into immediate association with God. The record of the history of unbelief among God's people remains a somber example of warning to present generations. Only believers enter into God's rest.
The "rest" in Hebrews, which now has become the subject for consideration, is spoken of as yet future, after our works here on earth are finished. We shall have entered into rest only when the wilderness and the works of faith are a matter of history with us.
Reference is made to God's works of creation. After six days of work, He rested on the seventh.
Joshua spoke of another day, showing that although the people had entered Canaan, they did not have rest. They still had enemies and they still had work.
Even in the days of David, much later, no rest had been found.
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
We have seen that the subject of Hebrews is the Christian making his way to heaven and to the rest that remains for the people of God, rather than the subject of rest for the conscience or heart. It is supposed that there is rest of heart if the truth concerning the immutable character of the foundations is believed, and purification of sins has been made. What a rest for the heart to know that One who loves us and died for us is now our great High Priest on the right side of the throne of God as our Mediator.
Because the Christian is in a waste howling wilderness where there is no visible way except by faith, the exhortation is that we therefore use diligence to enter into that rest, that no one may fall after the same example of unbelief in not hearkening to the Word.
Today there is a mixed company as then. To the unbelieving professor the Word of God is not his guide, but reason is his guide. Reason begins in the heart. Such do not feel the need for a mediator and are not found in dependence but are quite self-sufficient. This results in the building again of ordinances and traditions to supply the answer for a religious heart that has made a profession of Christ, not knowing that the shadows are all past, and the true light is now shining.
Two things are necessary for the believer in order to enter the rest at the end of the road. The first of these is the Word of God. Here we have a revelation of God to the soul that makes us wise unto salvation, throws a light upon our path, and is a lamp for the feet (Psa. 119:105105NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. (Psalm 119:105)).
The Word of God penetrates man's being even to the "dividing asunder of soul and spirit."
The soul is the seat of the affections and desires. This is where reason could start and does, in unbelief. The spirit is that part of our being which reaches unto God if there is faith, also the means by which God communicates to man's conscience. It is by this channel that the soul realizes its responsibility to God.
The Word of God reaches the joints and marrow. These are the dark, hidden recesses of the heart that we cannot see, also the very beginnings of life (marrow). "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins" (Jer. 17:9,109The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9‑10)).
Thus, through the exercise of a purged conscience, subject to the Word, the soul gives evidence of a divine life, pressing on to the rest that remains for the people of God.
But to have the Word is not enough, for we are compassed with infirmities. We need divine power for the long trek through the desert.
Faith arises and goes to the throne for seasonable help.