“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.”
After Moses led the Israelites in the desert and failed to enter the Promised Land, his successor Joshua took over. It was Joshua that finally led them into the land God had promised to their forefather Abraham after they had wandered in the desert for 40 years. I would imagine that after 40 years of wandering around hungry and thirsty in a desert, the Promised Land seemed like the fulfillment of everything God had for his people.
If the Promised Land had been all there was, then God’s promise of rest would have been fulfilled right then and there. But God has much more in store. Anyone whose heart is turned toward God will enter this eternal rest. Let’s not forget that the author of Hebrews has taken great pains to explain that Jesus is God himself. Therefore, accepting Jesus’ divine status is central to entering God’s rest.
In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the way. He is the path that leads to this rest that God is talking about. The Israelites wandered around in the desert for 40 long years. They rebelled against God at many points and their hearts kept hardening. They needed to stay soft, trust God, and follow his lead. Today, we have a path that God has laid out for us: Jesus. Believing in Jesus and seeking him is how we will find God’s rest.