Hebrew 4:1-16

Hebrews 4:1-16
verse 4:1 Let us fear lest while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it..
4:3 This quote of Ps. 95:11 refers to the Exodus. So the writer is thinking of the illustration of the Israelites losing their promised privilege of entering into the promised land (rest) because of their disobedience. (Remember after God condemned them, in their embarrassment they tried to go in and do it on their own strength. And they failed miserably.)
On the other hand I was wondering how closely the “rest” of Exodus is closely analogous to heaven. The “rest” of the Israelites is actually going to be a whole lot of work. First they have to fight and kill all the present inhabitants. Then they will have to farm and reap the crops. They won’t grow themselves. They will get married and raise families. I’d like to think heaven will be like this too. We won’t be raising families in heaven but our “rest” in heaven will involve activity. It will be activity with a purpose. We will be occupied by rightful praise too.
Hebrew 4:7 also is quoting Psalm 95 referring to the Exodus. Psalm 55 is like a prophesy admonishing the Israelites to remember the disobedience of their ancestors and “don’t do it again!”. “Do not harden your hearts as a Meribah and Masseh. That is where they complained to Moss about not having water. God provided once and they did it again. Let us ask God with faith, believing He will do it. The Israelites did not have faith even after they had seen before. They did not trust God.
This chapter is beginning the development of a long argument explaining to converted Jews that they have done the right thing. The promise of Jesus is much greater than the promise made to Moses. These men are reconsidering their faith. Being a Christian is causing them a lot of persecution. They are pressured by their Jewish families and friends. They are pressured by Romans for while the Jewish religion has been given several important privileges the Christian religion has not.

So I am backing off of my (somewhat facetious) claim that Hebrews 3-4 are a proof text for Arminianism. I had a private question about that. In thinking through it more thoroughly I realized really I was trying to be jocular.

But now reading 4:1 again. It says “seem to come”. This is important because the writer is beginning a long argument comparing the new covenant of Jesus with the old covenant of Moses and Abraham. He may very well be implying here that you have not actually come short of it at all, despite your disobedience, because Jesus has brought us a greater promise. Because Jesus did all the work by becoming a man and dying on the cross you, have come to a much greater promise. I think the writer meant just that. The “seem to” is an important nuance that will get expanded on as we continue to read.