Joshua and Jesus

Hebrews 3 and 4 talk about how the first generation of Israelites (i.e., the Hebrew people) rescued from slavery in Egypt failed to enter God’s rest when they first came to the Promised Land, because they didn’t believe that God would (or perhaps that He could) keep His promises about giving the land to them. Before getting back into that theme, let’s look at a passage in chapter 4 that mentions Joshua, who not only tried to convince the first post-Exodus generation to trust and obey God, but also was kept alive through 40 subsequent years in the wilderness and later led the next generation of Israelites across the Jordan River into the Promised Land.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.

Hebrews 4:8-10 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/heb.4.8-10.NIV

The NASB translation has a footnote on the name “Joshua”, pointing out that – in Greek – this name is “Jesus”.

Joshua brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, where they could find rest. However, the Israelites didn’t all settle into comfortable homes on day one of crossing the Jordan River, or even when the walls of Jericho fell. They did receive much of God’s promised rest eventually (except where they still disobeyed), but it took time. However, the earlier quote from Psalm 95 (see Hebrews 4:3, 5) indicates that the “rest” that God’s people found in the Promised Land wasn’t the final rest that could be obtained through belief.
Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to earth, and He offers sinful human beings salvation and rest even in this life, with even more rest waiting in eternity. However, there is a timeframe when we must believe in that salvation, trust Jesus as our Savior, and remain faithful to that gospel.

I think that we look forward to our eternal rest, where trials that result from our faith and obedience to God will cease and our work will stop feeling like a burden (which it sometimes does in these mortal bodies). The rest that we find in Jesus while we still walk this earth is not something to gloss over, though. As God rested from His works on the first Sabbath, with Creation having been completed; so we, too, can rest from certain kinds of works here on this earth, like:

All of the works that kept the Jewish rituals going, including regular sacrifices. These served as lessons for us, but many were fulfilled by Jesus and are no longer required for His followers.
All of the works that we tried to do to earn our salvation. These look like the “good works” that form the basis for virtually every other faith in this world.
All of the works that we might try to do to keep our salvation. These can’t always be differentiated (in others) from good deeds done out of gratitude, love, and obedience to God, but the idea that they somehow “maintain” our salvation misses out on the completeness of what Jesus did for us.

Why can we set aside those works? Because our salvation is not from our works! Jesus did all of that work for us already. When it comes to salvation, all we have to do is to believe the good news and respond accordingly. Now, we established in an earlier article that true belief / faith / trust in the good news about Jesus Christ produces certain evidence in the lives who follow Him. Real, complete, trusting belief in Jesus naturally results in living for Him. Obedience to Jesus is the result of ongoing belief in the Source of our salvation, though, and not the source of our salvation.

When it comes to our salvation, we can literally rest. The sacrifice for our sins has been paid, and we can rest in that confidence that – as the hymn says – “Jesus paid it all”.

From Sunday School lesson prepared for February 1, 2026

References:

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.

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