As we continue in our study of Hebrews 4, we now come upon what may be referred to as a transitional verse. This verse begins with a statement of fact regarding the “believing”, here as the definite article and the aorist participle of pisteuo- to believe. This refers to those who both by nature and behavior are believers in the messiah of the New Covenant. “Enter” here is the present indicative of eiserchomai- to enter into, this reflecting the ongoing reality of the experience of these believers, that the rest referred to here is an ongoing reality in their lives. We then encounter our initial introduction into the different nature of this New Covenant rest in the author’s quote of Psalm 95:11- “So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest”. We must note here that the rest referenced here is not the rest of the people but the rest of God Himself, which is further delineated in the explanatory comment and verses which follow. This explanation begins with kaitoi- “and yet or although”, this term shifts the rest mentioned from the Old Covenant to the New. The “His” here is the same person as the “My” in the preceding quote, God in this case. So we find the rest here we are talking about is not the rest of the OT sabbath of the law, but the rest of God in creation. This is made certain in the next phrase, which tells us that God’s “work has been finished since the creation of the world”. So the question we are about to explore the answer to is just what the nature of God’s rest in creation is, and how does it differ from the Sabbath rest of Israel which is in the law. This will be the focus of the next ten verses, as to precisely what this New Covenant rest entails, and how we are to go about entering it. We will find that it is a rest of a different sort, not the Old Covenant rest of one day off work to rest the body, but a more permanent rest, and one not primarily for the body, but one which is much more profound.