Hebrews 4
Hebrews 4:1
Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.
Hebrews 4:2
For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not mixed with faith by those who heard.
Hebrews 4:3
For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Hebrews 4:4
For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, God rested on the seventh day from all his works;
“The heavens and the earth were finished, and all their vast array. On the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work which he had created and made.”
Genesis 2:1-3
Hebrews 4:5
and in this place again, They will not enter into my rest.
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down. Lets kneel before HaShem, our Maker, for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice! Do not harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work. Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways. Therefore I swore in my wrath, They wont enter into my rest.”
Psalms 95:6-11
Hebrews 4:6
Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter therein, and they to whom the good news was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,
Hebrews 4:7
he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.
Hebrews 4:8
For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.
Hebrews 4:9
There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
Hebrews 4:10
For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:11
Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
“And the flaming sword…” (Genesis 3:24)” Rabbis said: ‘Sword’ refers to the Torah, as it is written, And a two-edged sword in their hand (Ps. 149:6).”
Genesis Rabbah 21:9, Soncino Press Edition
Hebrews 4:13
There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Hebrews 4:14
Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Yeshua, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession.
Avraham Abulafia made the statement,
“The more noble man in his species is Israel…and the most noble of Israel is Levi, and the most noble of Levi is the priest, and the most noble of the priest is the Messiah, who is the high priest, who is the greatest among his breathren, and knows the [divine] name and blesses the people of Israel by dint of the Explicit Name in the Temple…”
Avraham Abulafia, Sefer Chayyei Olam Haba 13a, Ms. Oxford 1582, cited in Messianic Mystics, Moshe Idel, Yale University Press, pg. 95
Perhaps this may reveal the seeming convergence of the King in Priest in Zechariah,
כֹּה אָמַר יי צְבָאֹות לֵאמֹר הִנֵּה־אִישׁ צֶמַח שְׁמֹו וּמִתַּחְתָּיו יִצְמָח וּבָנָה אֶת־הֵיכַל יי
ו֠הוּא יִבְנֶה אֶת־הֵיכַל יי וְהֽוּא־יִשָּׂא הֹ֔וד וְיָשַׁב וּמָשַׁל עַל־כִּסְאֹו וְהָיָה כֹהֵן עַל־כִּסְאֹו וַעֲצַת שָׁלֹום תִּהְיֶה בֵּין שְׁנֵיהֶם
“Thus says HaShem of Hosts, Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: and he shall grow up out of his place; and he shall build the temple of HaShem; even he shall build the temple of HaShem; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on his throne; and he shall be a priest on his throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”
Zechariah 6:12-13
