SUBJECT:  Yahweh's rest

QUESTION:  What is the meaning of this phrase?

ANSWER:

Simply put, it means the “Kingdom of God”.

Notice these key verses

Hebrews 3:8-11

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.)

Note:  A clear reference to the children of Israel and how they were not allowed into the Promised Land.  However, the verses continue into Chapter 4 and the spiritual application or meaning of “rest”.

Hebrews 4:1-11

4:1 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:  Here, Paul is clearly talking on a spiritual level to baptized church members.  Notice the commentary:

Hebrews 4:9

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

[There remaineth, therefore, a rest] This is the conclusion to which the apostle comes. The meaning is this, that according to the Scriptures there is "now" a promise of rest made to the people of God. It did not pertain merely to those who were called to go to the promised land, nor to those who lived in the time of David, but it is "still" true that the promise of rest pertains to "all" the people of God of every generation. The "reasoning" by which the apostle comes to this conclusion is briefly this:

(1) That there was a "rest"-called "the rest of God"-spoken of in the earliest period of the world-implying that God meant that it should be enjoyed.

(2) That the Israelites, to whom the promise was made, failed of obtaining what was promised by their unbelief.

(3) That God intended that "some" should enter into his rest-since it would not be provided in vain.

(4) That long after the Israelites had fallen in the wilderness, we find the same reference to a rest which David in his time exhorts those whom he addressed to endeavor to obtain.

(5) That if all that had been meant by the word "rest," and by the promise, had been accomplished when Joshua conducted the Israelites to the land of Canaan, we should not have heard another day spoken of when it was possible to forfeit that rest by unbelief.

It followed, therefore, that there was something besides that; something that pertained to all the people of God to which the name rest might still be given, and which they were exhorted still to obtain. The word "rest" in this verse-sabbatismos (NT:4520)-"Sabbatism," in the margin is rendered "keeping of a Sabbath." It is a different word from sabbaton (NT:4521)-"the Sabbath;" and it occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and is not found in the Septuagint. It properly means "a keeping Sabbath" from sabbatizoo (NT:4520)-"to keep Sabbath." This word, not used in the New Testament, occurs frequently in the Septuagint; Ex 16:30; Lev 23:32; 26:35; 2 Chron 36:21; and in 3 Esdr. 1:58; 2 Macc. 6:6. It differs from the word "Sabbath." That denotes "the time-the day;" this, "the keeping," or "observance" of it; "the festival." It means here "a resting," or an observance of sacred repose-and refers undoubtedly to (the kingdom of) heaven, as a place of eternal rest with God. It cannot mean the rest in the land of Canaan-for the drift of the writer is to prove that that is "not" intended. It cannot mean the "Sabbath," properly so called-for then the writer would have employed the usual word sabbaton (NT:4521)-"Sabbath." It cannot mean the Christian Sabbath-for the object is not to prove that there is such a day to be observed, and his reasoning about being excluded from it by unbelief and by hardening the heart would be irrelevant. It must mean, therefore, "’the kingdom of’ heaven"-the world of spiritual and eternal rest; and the assertion is, that there "is" such a "resting," or "keeping of a Sabbath" in heaven for the people of God. ~from Barnes' Notes

(Note: as most commentaries believe that heaven is the reward of the saved, I have inserted “the kingdom of” in the commentary excerpt above as God’s kingdom on earth is the real reward of the saved.)

Note:  We see that the “rest” being referred to here is the Kingdom of God.  Notice some addition verses describing this rest:

Revelation 7:14-17

14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Revelation 21:4

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Revelation 14:13

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

 
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