Hebrews 4

₁God has promised that He will take his people into the land where they can be safe and rest and this promise is still true today. That is why we must be careful because God may also say that some of you will not go into the land where you can be safe and rest. ₂We have also heard the Good_News like those people who came out of Egypt, but the message they heard did not help them because they did not believe it. ₃We, who believe, are going into the land where we can be safe and rest. The Lord said:

God said this, but not because He could not give them rest. God can give rest to anyone. He has rested from the time that He made the world. ₄God spoke about the 7th day when He said: ‘God rested on the 7th day, and He did not work.’

₅And we also read that God said: ‘They will not come into the land where I wanted them to rest and be safe.’ ₆The people who heard the good message long ago, that God wants to give them rest, did not go into the place where they could rest as God had promised them. They did not go in because they were disobedient. But some people will go into the place where they will be safe and can rest, as God promised. ₇That is why God decided that there will be another day, and He said that day is today. This happened long after the first day when David spoke about the things that I told you about. David said:

₈If Joshua had brought the people into the land where they could be safe and rest, then God would not later have spoken about another day of rest. ₉So the people of God will still be able to come into the land where they can be safe and rest, like they rest on the Sabbath day. ₁₀Because if God gives someone rest, then that person does not work anymore, like God who rested when He finished his work. ₁₁That is why we must try very hard to get that rest and peace from God so that not one of us will be as disobedient as the Israelites were, and die.

₁₂Every word that God speaks is alive and powerful. It is not dead. His Word is sharper than the sharpest sword and can cut all the way into us, into our lives and spirits like a knife that cuts into the fat inside the bones of a body. His Word can see what is right and what is wrong when a person thinks, and he can see why he wants to do something. ₁₃God can see everyone and everything. No one can hide anything from Him. He sees everything exactly as it is. We will have to explain everything to God that we have done.

₁₄Jesus is the Son of God. He went to God in the highest heaven and now He is our Great High-priest. That is why we must keep on believing the things that we know are true. ₁₅Because we have a High-priest who knows exactly how it feels to be weak like we are. The devil tried very hard to seduce Jesus in many ways, like he tries to seduce us. But Jesus did not sin. ₁₆That is why we must not be afraid to pray to God, who sits on his throne and who is merciful. We must go to Him so that He can help us when we need Him and He can give us his mercy and grace.