Study Desk

You must warn each other every day, while it is still "today," so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.

And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn't it the people Moses led out of Egypt?

And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn't it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness?

And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn't it the people who disobeyed him?

For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn't share the faith of those who listened to God.

For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, "In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,'" even though this rest has been ready since he made the world.

We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: "On the seventh day God rested from all his work."

But in the other passage God said, "They will never enter my place of rest."

So God's rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God.

So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: "Today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts."

Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come.

So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.

For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world.

So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins.