AND TO WHOM DID HE SWEAR THAT THEY SHOULD NOT ENTER HIS REST: tisin de
omosen (3SAAI) me eiseleusesthai (FMN) eis ten katapausin autou: (11;
Numbers 14:30;
Deuteronomy
1:34,35)
Swear (3660)
(Omnuo) means to affirm the truth of a statement by
calling on a divine being to execute sanctions against a person if the
statement in question is not true (in the case of a deity taking an oath,
his divine being is regarded as validating the statement). In this case
God's Own Divine being is regarded as validating the statement.
Omnuo is repeated in this middle section of Hebrews...
Hebrews 3:11 (note)
As I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'"
Hebrews 3:18 (note)
And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those
who were disobedient?
Hebrews 4:3 (note)
For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, "As I swore
in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest," although His works were finished
from the foundation of the world.
Hebrews 6:13 (note)
For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one
greater, He swore by Himself,
Hebrews 6:16 (note)
For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as
confirmation is an end of every dispute.
Hebrews 7:21 (note)
(for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through
the One who said to Him, "The Lord has sworn And will not change His mind,
'Thou art a priest forever' ")
This verb omnuo is
used in the
Septuagint (LXX)
of God swearing to keep His covenant to bring Israel into the
land (Dt 1:8, 35, 2:14, 4:21, 31, 6:10, 18, 23, 7:8, 12, 13, 8:1, 18, etc >
30x in Deut.)
See discussion of
Rest in Hebrews 4
Rest (2663)
(katapausis from katá = intensifies meaning, "down" ~
permanency + paúo = make to cease) means to desist from one activity,
give oneself to wholly new enterprise but has no reference whatsoever
to sleep or slumber.
English rest and Greek katapausis
have similar meanings. The basic idea = ceasing from work or from any kind
of action--stop doing what you are doing. Action, labor, or exertion is
over. Applied to God's rest = no more self-effort as far as
salvation is concerned. End of trying to please God by feeble, fleshly works
(End of rebelling against His clearly revealed will like {Israel did in
wilderness). God's perfect rest = rest in grace of His indwelling,
transforming power
That wonderful place where we
desist from our futile fleshly efforts to please God and submit willingly and
wholly to His Spirit's control/filling, finding our adoption and acceptance in
the Beloved (see note
Ephesians 1:6).
BUT TO THOSE WHO WERE DISOBEDIENT: tois apeithesasin (AAPMPD):
(Numbers
14:11;
20:12;
Deuteronomy
1:26-32;
9:23;
Psalms
106:24-26)
To those who were
disobedient...were
not able to enter because of
unbelief
-
Alexander Maclaren comments on the relationship between disobedience
and unbelief writing that...
Important lessons are given by this alternation of the two ideas of faith
and unbelief, obedience and disobedience. Disobedience is the root of
unbelief. Unbelief is the mother of further disobedience.
Faith is voluntary submission within a person’s own power. If faith is not
exercised, the true cause lies deeper than all intellectual reasons. It lies
in the moral aversion of human will and in the pride of independence, which
says, “who is Lord over us? Why should we have to depend on Jesus Christ?”
As faith is obedience and submission, so faith breeds obedience, but
unbelief leads on to higher-handed rebellion.
With dreadful reciprocity of influence, the less one trusts, the more he
disobeys; the more he disobeys, the less he trusts...
Trust brings rest because it sweeps away, as the north wind does the banded
clouds on the horizon, all the deepest causes of unrest.
Disobedient
(544)
(apeitheo
from a = without + peítho = persuade)
literally describes one who refuses to be persuaded and who disbelieves
willfully and perversely.
Apeitheo means not to allow oneself to be persuaded; not to comply
with and to refuse or withhold belief (in the truth, but elsewhere in
Christ, in the gospel)
Apeitheo speaks of a stubborn,
stiff-necked attitude. It speaks of disbelief manifesting itself in
disobedience. It is opposed to
pisteuo,
the verb translated "believe".
In studying apeitheo it is
important to understand that the stem peith- (pith-, poith-) has the
basic meaning of trust (cf. Latin fido, fides). Trust can refer to a
statement, so that it has the meaning to put faith in, to let oneself be
convinced, or to a demand, so that it gets the meaning of obey, be
persuaded. The active meaning of the verb stem peith- then is to convince
and persuade and is especially characteristic of Greek thought. In secular
Greek it interesting to note that "Peitho" (art of persuading) was even
regarded as a goddess! (see
Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of
NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan))
Marvin Vincent in discussing
apeitheo in
John 3:36
writes that..
"Disbelief
is regarded in its active manifestation, disobedience. The verb
peitho
means to persuade, to cause belief, to induce one to do something by
persuading, and so runs into the meaning of to obey, properly as the result
of persuasion...Obedience, however, includes faith. (Ed Note: See discussion
of phrase "obedience of faith" at
Romans 1:5)."
(Vincent, M. R. Word studies in the New Testament Vol. 2, Page 1-109)
From the above comments, it should not
surprise you to discover that in the New Testament the word group translated
disobey, disobedience, etc (apeitheo and related words) does
not stand in contrast with obedience but in contrast with faith!
Disobedience equates with
unbelief in the next verse (Hebrews 3:19) and vice
versa.
They were of that non-persuasible type that will not listen to reason,
stiff-necked, obstinate. (See these parallel Scriptures: Nu 14:30-35: note who gets to go in
and in Nu 14:33 "unfaithfulness". Nu 14:11, 20:12, Dt 9:23; Ps 106:24,25)
But surely most of those who came out of Egypt were not lost? See what God
says about the behavior of His beloved in Eze 23:8 “She did not forsake her
harlotries from the time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her,
and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her."
In Romans Paul writes...
Do you not know that when you present
yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one
whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting
in righteousness? (See note
Romans 6:16)
><> ><> ><>
Disobedience and Unbelief - Important
lessons are given by this alternation of the two ideas of faith and
unbelief, obedience and disobedience. Disobedience is the root of unbelief.
Unbelief is the mother of further disobedience. Faith is voluntary
submission within a person’s own power. If faith is not exercised, the true
cause lies deeper than all intellectual reasons. It lies in the moral
aversion of human will and in the pride of independence, which says, “who
is Lord over us? Why should we have to depend on Jesus Christ?” As faith is
obedience and submission, so faith breeds obedience, but unbelief leads on
to higher-handed rebellion. With dreadful reciprocity of influence, the less
one trusts, the more he disobeys; the more he disobeys, the less he trusts.
(Alexander Maclaren)
