As we continue in our examination of the rest which remains available for the New Covenant people of God, we now return to an illustration from the Old Covenant people of God which sets forth for us the means by which we may fall short of entering that rest. We begin with an assertion again of the reality of the presence of rest in both covenants, discovering that both peoples have “had the gospel preached to us”. The term gospel here is the perfect participle of euangellion, literally “good message or good news”. The “good news ” here of course is the rest promised in both covenants. We then find that some in the Old Covenant era “heard the message” but it was “of no value to them”. Simply “hearing” the message is not enough, it is of “no value” simply to hear, this hearing must be “combined with faith”. They received the message from God that the land of rest was theirs and they were to enter into it, all opposition would be overcome by the power of God and His “word” to them. However, when they reached the border of the land, they found giants there and chose not to enter. It was this failure to enter which was the lack of faith which kept them from rest. The Greek term faith here is pistis, most literally as to “trust”, used here with the definite article, and we find here that Biblical faith requires action. If we will not act upon what we are told, we do not “trust” it. Merely hearing is never enough, trust in the Word of God requires acting upon it, and their failure to act displayed clearly their lack of faith. It was this lack of faith in what God had told them which resulted in their failure to enter, and this incident is mentioned in order to make known that the means of failure to enter remains the same in both covenants. Later in the chapter we will find the New Covenant message of rest from God, as well as the means to go about entering into it, and we will also find that it is the lack of faith, the failure to trust in and act upon what God has told us which also results in our failure to enter as well.