A Different Time, A Different Place

I provided this survey of man’s being to point out that the fourth commandment was given in recognition that man needs rest for the body, just as he needs rest for the soul and the spirit. Without rest, efficiency nosedives and the ability to complete even basic tasks is compromised. Thus, the Lord God commanded that man needs rest. “In six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day” [EXODUS 20:11a]. Modelled after our Creator, we require rest.

There may have been a day when I thought myself to be invincible. That illusion was shattered by some experiments conducted during my doctoral studies. The studies required me to follow the enzymatic changes in the livers of three sets of rats. Every two hours, I would kill nine rats, three from each set, and do the assessment of the hepatic enzymes. Being very efficient, I was able to complete all my assays within about an hour and forty-five minutes. That left me between ten and fifteen minutes before the next series of rodents would be killed, the livers removed, and the preparations begun. This would continue for ninety-six hours, after which I could go home and get some rest. And I didn’t need any coaxing to fall into bed and get some rest! I realised quite quickly that the body, even the body of a virile young scientist required rest. There is a physical limit to stamina for each of us.

And just as we require physical rest, so we need rest for our soul. The old adage reminds us that the bow cannot always be maintained at full draw, the string must be relaxed or it will break. Similarly, the mind needs to rest at times. It is not wise to always be driven—rest is required to permit the mind to fully function. There is an essential place in life for hobbies, for the diversions that permit us to step away from the tension that daily existence imposes. To be certain, we are prone to go to extremes on those aspects of our lives. If it were not for the need to provide for the necessities of life driving us to work, we might find ourselves becoming mere drones stuck in one place and never growing intellectually or emotionally.

I shouldn’t imagine that I need to expend much effort attempting to convince you of the need for physical rest, especially if you’re over the age of thirty. Similarly, it is likely that we agree on the need for intellectual and emotional rest, what we might call rest for the soul. And our society has eagerly embraced the need for rest for the soul, even elevating this need above any requirement for physical rest. This is evident from the multiplied amusements that mark our culture—from ear buds and the constant demand for musical entertainment to the multiplied sporting events that grab our attention, whether we attend in person or attend vicariously via the television.

As has been stated by Neil Postman in his 1985 tome, within our culture we are “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” [2] And though Postman was focused on the transition from a society built on the written word to a society focused on the televised world, the situation has changed dramatically as we have adopted the Internet. Communication moved from ideas communicated by words to ideas conducted through visual imagery and has now been transformed into a world in which ideas are broadcast in three hundred words of less. Our ability to communicate has been accelerated and changed dramatically, and has done so multiple times in only a few brief decades. Many of us are unable to catch our breath; we assuredly are not often capable of thinking quickly enough to grasp what is being communicated, and thus we have no rest for our souls.