Hebrews 4:7

Heb. 4:7. 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.

Blank Bible:

Today after, so long a time, as it is said, to day] The apostle adds these words after so long a time, but or (?) that that is implied as it is said to day, or because it is so expressed to day, which he observes is as much as if it had been said Even to day after so long a time.

I repeat here the Bible Note #339 cited above under 3:6 f. because of its reference to Hebrews 4:7:

[339] Hebrews 3:6-8 to chap. Hebrews 4:11. "Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost says, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation," etc. The apostle here supposes that when the psalmist here says, "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts;" it is as much as if he had said, "Although that was a long time ago, and do not harden your hearts now in this your day, and see that you never harden your hearts while your day lasts; for if ye do not harden your hearts, there is a rest of God, that you may enter into as well as they; but if you continue to harden your hearts, your day in a little time will be past as well as theirs." The former part of this sense, viz. that by the expression, "To-day," the psalmist means, In this day that you now have so long after their day is past, is evident by Hebrews 4:7 and the latter part of it, viz. that he means, Take heed that your heart be at no time hardened during your day, is evident, because in that verse 8 the words are brought in as a motive to perseverance. It is still more evident by the manner of the apostle's bringing in the words in the 11 Thessalonians and 12th, as also in the 14th and 15th verses, and by the apostle's paraphrase of the words, or gloss he puts upon them there, while it is called To-day, verse 13, and while it is said To-day, verse 15, which is the same thing as during the continuance of the day.

From the psalmist exhorting us to hear God's voice today, so long a time after the carcasses of the children of Israel fell in the wilderness, and so they failed of entering into God's rest, and so long a time after others that believed entered into that temporal rest that Joshua brought them into; the apostle would argue that there remains still another rest for the people of God, to be entered into, as God spake concerning the children of Israel in the wilderness, as if there was a rest of God still to be entered into, though there had been a rest of God many ages before that, viz. that rest, or sabbatism of God, which God enjoyed on the seventh day of the creation, resting from the works of creation, which had been distinguished as God's rest, or his sabbatism; but yet there then remained another rest of God to those that believed, viz. Christ's rest in Canaan after the Egyptian bondage, and his redemption of his people out of Egypt, as is implied in his swearing in his wrath that those that did not believe should not enter into rest. So there still remains another rest also besides God's rest from that redemption, as is implied in the psalmist, when speaking so long after of the unbelievers in the wilderness failing of entering into that rest, he still exhorts and says, "To-day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as they did;" implying that it will not be in vain for us even now to hearken, but we shall enter into God's rest still if we hearken, even that rest that Christ entered into in heaven, after his great bondage here on earth, and his finishing the work of redemption. By which may be understood the force of the apostle's reasoning in verse 3-11 of the next chapter.

Heb. 4:8