SUBJECT: Hebrews 3 and Psalm 95
QUESTION: Are these chapters talking about the
second death when God says that certain people will not
enter into His rest?
ANSWER:
First let us list the verses:
Hebrews 4:1-11
1 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.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them:
but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith in them that heard it.
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said,
As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my
rest: although the works were finished from the foundation
of the world.
4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this
wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter
therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not
in because of unbelief:
7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day,
after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear
his voice, harden not your hearts.
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not
afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased
from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Note: Hebrews 4 is
clearly an admonition to believe in God and to enter into
the Kingdom of God.
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful
noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and
make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all
gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength
of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the
dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before
the LORD our maker.
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in
the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and
said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they
have not known my ways:
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter
into my rest.
Now the commentary on verse 11...
Psalms 95:11
Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter
into my rest.
[Unto whom I sware in my wrath]
See the notes at Heb 3:11.
[That they should not enter
into my rest] Margin, as in Hebrew, "If they enter
into my rest." The "rest" here referred to was the land of
Canaan. They were not permitted to enter there as a place of
"rest" after their long and weary wanderings, but died in
the wilderness. The meaning is not that none of them were
saved, but that they did not come to the promised land.
Unbelief shut them out; and this fact is properly made use
of here, and in Hebrews 3, as furnishing a solemn warning to
all not to be unbelieving and rebellious, since the
consequence of unbelief and rebellion must be to exclude us
from the kingdom of heaven (on
earth), the true place of "rest."
~from Barnes' Notes
Note: This
commentary is essentially right. Psalm 95:11 is talking
about Canaan. Spiritually, it is stating that unbelievers
will not be allowed in the Kingdom of God, which means, yes,
they would experience death in the lake of fire.
Notice now how much of Psalm 95 is spoken of in Hebrews 3...
Hebrews 3
3:1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession,
Christ Jesus;
2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses
was faithful in all his house.
3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour
than the house.
4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built
all things is God.
5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a
servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be
spoken after;
6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are
we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the
hope firm unto the end.
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear
his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day
of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works
forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said,
They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my
ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my
rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day;
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of
sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the
beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not
all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with
them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his
rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of
unbelief.
Note: Verse 8-11
are just like Psalm 95:8-11 and has the same meaning. In
Hebrews 3 beginning in verse 12, we see the
admonition to believe and stay close to God. Then it
repeats of the wilderness sin again in verses 15-19 to make
sure
we get the point.
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