“Law & Order: SPU – Rest-less or Rest-full?”
Ex. 20:8-11; Heb. 3:7-411
Has anyone ever said to you something like “You know, you wouldn’t be so tired if…?” or “You’d have more energy if…?” How did they fill in the blank? How is your life? Are you rest-less or rest-full?
God has told us that our lives must be rest-full. Therefore He has established a rhythm for life, one of rest and work. To understand this rhythm we must understand God’s purpose in establishing a Sabbath day – a day, if properly observed, that will provide at least three types of needed rest.
First of all, a faithful Sabbath observance will lead us into THE REST OF CREATION. We find this in Genesis 2: 1-2. “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” When the Israelites heard God’s command about the seventh day, their minds would return to this creation message. They needed the reminder. They had lived in Egypt as slaves for over four hundred years – toiling 24/7 the entire time. They were treated as production machines. The idea of seventh day rest was simply that – just an idea, its practice long since forgotten. So before the Israelites entered the Promised Land God re-introduced the concept of resting – ceasing from work – on the seventh day as A SIGN AND CELEBRATION OF THEIR LIBERATION BY GOD. In fact, in the Deuteronomy version of the 10 commandments, the reason for the day of rest is stated (Dt. 5:12-15) “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.”
This whole idea was presented as well when God announced to Israel that He would provide manna for them. They were to collect manna every day, except the seventh day. On that day they were to rest – and God promised the manna they picked up on the sixth day would be sufficient for the seventh as well. The day of rest was a continuing gift to them. The prophet Ezekiel would later remind them that the seventh day was to be hallowed as “…a sign…that you may know that I am the Lord your God.” So the seventh day was to be a day of remembrance and celebration.
Since only Israel treated the seventh day in this way, this rest on the seventh day was also a sign to the rest of the nations that ISRAEL WAS DIFFERENT, THAT THEY WERE GOD’S SPECIAL PEOPLE and belonged to Him. It was to be a very intentional action. Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon point to the State of Texas to demonstrate this principle. In Texas there is a day known as “Juneteenth.” It was on June 19th that the news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas. June 19th became the day when African Americans, with no legal recourse, simply refused to show up for work. Hauerwas and Willimon then point out that this seventh day rest is really our Juneteenth. It is when we are truly counter-cultural and set apart because we simply refuse to show up for work! That’s intentionality.
Jesus taught that this ‘rest from work’, however, allowed for doing the work and ministry of the temple (Mt. 12:1-14). It can be a day of doing deeds of mercy and compassion – a day of serving in ways we do not serve during the rest of the week – a day to be intentional about extending the mercy of Jesus Christ.
This seventh day rest has tremendous SIGNIFICANCE FOR US TODAY. Let’s first of all be clear about ‘the seventh day.’ God did not designate Saturday or Sunday – he just declared a seventh day. The word ‘Sabbath’, in fact, means ‘intermission’ or ‘break.’ The Jews followed God’s pattern by making the literal 7th day – Saturday – the Sabbath. Christians moved it to Sunday, the first day of the week, in honor and celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. A certain day is not binding, but a day is. And when we understand that God did not rest because He was tired, but because He was satisfied, we begin to understand how we are to observe this Sabbath day. As God entered into a time of enjoyment of what He had made, so do we. On this Sabbath we are to enter into God’s rest by enjoying and celebrating Him and what He has made and done. So it’s to be a day of worship and celebration that God has, through Jesus, brought us out of bondage to sin and into a life of grace.
That means become intentional in our WORSHIP on this day. We remember and celebrate our great God. It means we are intentional about building into our lives a day in which we CEASE ALL WORK to remind us that the world will go on without us just fine and that God can be trusted to run the world without us! And we are intentional about finding ways and means to DEMONSTRATE THE MERCY AND DELIVERANCE OF GOD. The prophet Isaiah summarized it poignantly (58:13-14): "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
A faithful Sabbath observance will also lead us into THE REST OF REGENERATION. We learn, from Leviticus 25 that God created the world in such a way that even it needs rest – and that rest is based on the concept of the seventh day. In Leviticus 25 God shows us that THE EARTH MUST REST. We learn that the land is to be rested – unplanted – every seventh year so the earth can be renewed and regenerated. The Jews were to be intentional about resting their land. And during that year of land rest the people were not to worry about the lack of produce or food – God promised He would provide. Even in this time of necessary renewal of the land, God was teaching His people to trust.
What’s true of the earth is true for humans as well. OUR BODIES AND SOULS NEED REST. According to Genesis sin made work a burden so God gave this Sabbath day as a gift to unburden ourselves from work. Jesus was once challenged by the Pharisees because he and the disciples picked some grain on the Sabbath. Jesus’ response? “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” God did not create man so He would have someone to observe a Sabbath – He created the Sabbath so people could be regenerated and refreshed.
Years ago Dr. Haegler did some research and announced that more oxygen was expended by the human body in a day of toil than was recovered in a night of rest. The Sabbath was made for man! A story is told of a wagon train of Christians traveling from St. Louis to Oregon. They observed the Sabbath day by stopping to rest and not traveling. But as winter approached some in the group began to panic that they would not reach Oregon before the snow fell. So they proposed to start traveling on the Sabbath days as well. The group was split over the idea so they split into to traveling groups - one would travel all seven days and one only six days. The group which rested arrived in Oregon first. The people and the horses were so rested that they could travel much more efficiently on the other six days. The Sabbath was made for man. WE DON’T SERVE THE SABBATH; THE SABBATH SERVES US. Just as a running back cannot go far if he chooses to run ahead of his blockers, so we cannot go far if we choose to run ahead of God. We must be intentional about this day of rest.
So, if we are to avoid work, what can we do on the Sabbath Day? WHAT REGENERATES AND RENEWS US? Let me suggest that the Sabbath is not the day to catch up on all that needs to be done – paying the bills, running errands, etc. Part of our ‘tiredness’, rest-less problem is that we used to work 5 days, have one day for all the personal and home work jobs, and we had the Sabbath to rest. Now we too often work 6 days and try to cram worship and all the other in work on the seventh and it is far from a day of rest. So the simple answer is ANYTHING OTHER THAN WORK THAT DELIGHTS AND REPLENISHES YOU. It could be spending time with family, relaxing and playing together. Perhaps, as we mentioned earlier, it’s extending mercy through visiting the sick or needy. Maybe it’s reading a book, doing a puzzle, going for a swim or a walk. If you work at a desk or some sedentary job all week, it might be doing something more physical. It might be a day for napping! It is a day for you to BE CREATIVE about how, in addition to worship, you can regenerate and renew your body and spirit. As John Calvin wrote, “It is utterly necessary for us to rest in order that God work in us.”
God does not want us to break down or wear out. HE CONSISTENTLY INVITES US TO STOP, be still, and know that He is God (Ps. 46). Through Isaiah he said (40:31) “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” On the Sabbath day, be intentional about regeneration.
Regular Sabbath observance will also lead us into THE REST OF RECONCILIATION. God’s rest, and therefore our rest, POINT TO JESUS. Jesus also completed a work and rested. Remember His final words on the cross? “It is Finished…into your hands I commit my spirit.” Through Jesus’ death, the work of salvation was finished and Jesus could enter the fullness of rest. This is the backdrop for our passage from Hebrews (NLT). “God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. For only we who believe can enter his rest. So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest.”
Rest is anchored in salvation through Jesus Christ! JUST AS GOD RESTED FROM THE COMPLETED WORK OF CREATION, SO WE CAN REST IN THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS! We can rest from all our empty efforts to earn salvation. Salvation does not come through our work but through Jesus’ work – and His salvation work is done! True Sabbath rest is eternal life in the presence of God – and eternal life is now. Jesus prayed (Jn.17:3), “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” And what does it mean to know God? (Jn. 6:40) “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him, shall have eternal life.” Knowing God, entering into eternal life that begins now, comes through believing in Jesus Christ. Our Hebrews passage makes it very clear that the Israelites failed to enter rest because they failed to believe. Hebrews is concerned with hardness of heart and failure to believe. The whole letter is A CALL TO BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST AS THE SON OF GOD, TO BE RECONCILED TO HIM. This helps us more fully understand what Jesus said (Mt. 11:28-30), "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
This reconciliation with Jesus POINTS US, AS WELL, TO OUR FINAL REST. Listen to Revelation 14:11-13: “There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name." This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."”
And what does this ‘resting from labor’ look like? (Rev. 7:13-17) “"they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."”
Can you imagine it? As Carrie Breck wrote in a great hymn:
“Face to face with Christ my Savior, face to face – what will it be
When with rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ who died for me?
What rejoicing in his presence, when are banished grief and pain, when the crooked ways are straightened and the dark things shall be plain.
Face to face! O blissful moment! Face to face – to see and know; face to face with my Redeemer, Jesus Christ who loves me so.”
The Sabbath day of rest is a day to be reconciled to Jesus Christ!
So – would you rather be rest-less or rest-full? The choice is yours. If you want to be rest-full, be intentional about making the seventh day a Sabbath day of rest. Heed the warning of Hebrews: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Heed the offer of Jesus, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
