It seems natural that after a post about work (Work Is Not a Four-Letter Word), we would do a post about rest. In our 0 to 100 mph world, where we work hard, play hard, and party hard, rest doesn’t seem all that appealing. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines rest as “1. Repose, sleep specifically: a bodily state characterized by minimal functional and metabolic activities. 2. a: Freedom from activity or labor; b: A state of motionlessness or inactivity; c: The repose of death.”
That sounds, well, dead, especially the last part! Besides, who has time for that? It seems that with every invention meant to let us do tasks quicker and with less effort, the less time we seem to have. It is kind of like home storage space; the more space we have, the more we put into it. Our lives are filled with stuff, from devices that were supposed to free us but instead enslaved us to endless texts and emails to having a million TV channels yet nothing worth watching. Time is always moving, always pushing us along. We rarely have the right amount of it. Either we have too much to do and not enough time, or we have too much time and not enough to do. At least there’s little we want to do.
We desire a break from the noise of life and from the constant running of the race. Yet when given the time, we don’t rest. We may not know how to rest. Time away from our professions is spent on work around the house, time at kids sporting events, developing our hobbies and interests, and gatherings with family and friends. These are all good things, but they are not rest. The kind of rest we are speaking of is “to relax into something and let it support you.” (vocabulary.com). What we need—what God created us to have—is rest in Him. It is like sitting in a bean bag chair. It is very difficult to control your body getting in one or while sitting in one. (As you age it is near impossible to get out of one without help, but that is not part of the illustration.) You have to let go and allow the chair to support you. In the same way, we need to let go and trust in God to support us.
God even set the example of resting for us in Genesis 2:2-3. God rests from His work of creation. God used the example of His resting on the seventh day of creation to establish the principle of Sabbath-day rest for His people. God even included rest for the Israelites in the fourth of His Ten Commandments (Ex 20:8-11). They were to “remember the Sabbath day.” This was not new with the giving of the law but was from the beginning. Like them, we are called to remember it.
The Israelites were also commanded to “keep it holy”. One day out of every seven, they were to rest from their labors and give the same day of rest to their servants and even their animals. Whatever work they were engaged in, they were to stop for a full day each week. This was not just a physical rest, but a rest for their mind and soul. They weren’t supposed to stop just physical work but to rest from thinking and planning their work for the next week. You know, worrying about it—not that we would ever call it “worry.” They were supposed to be done with their work, to put it aside. Then turn their hearts and mind to God in a special concentrated way that the business of life does not allow on a daily basis. Not just cessation from work but a holy time of giving ourselves to God. Not just a day off but a day to rest IN God.
The Sabbath day was not the only time the people were given to rest from their labors. There were six other holy times each year when the people were to separate from their normal work to worship and celebrate their God. Once every seven years, they were to give the land a rest and not farm it. Remember, this is not an attack on work—God honoring work— but a lifting up of the need for rest. It was given for them to separate themselves from the normal cares of life. The Sabbath rest was instituted in order for them to spend time with God and loved ones. We need it because we need Him. It is a one-a-week reminder of our dependence on Him. The Sabbath was not a law against work, as if work was some sort of necessary evil, but a day dedicated to holy rest. For them, God’s people, to disconnect from the daily cares of life and to connect to God and loved ones.
The Sabbath symbolized the coming of the Messiah who would provide a permanent rest for His people. The Jewish people were always working to keep the law, to be acceptable to God. Knowing they would fail to keep the law, God provided various offerings and sacrifices for them to seek His forgiveness and restore their fellowship with Him. Yet it also became work; they were constantly required to make sacrifices, time after time, year after year.
Reading the book of Hebrews opens us to a whole world of understanding. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” (Heb 10:1). Notice the words near the end: “it can never, … make perfect those who draw near.” But those sacrifices were offered in anticipation of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross. “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12).
As God rested after He completed His creation, Jesus rested after performing the ultimate and final sacrifice. He sat down and rested—ceased from His labor of atonement because there was nothing more to be done, ever. Because of what He did, we no longer need to “labor” trying to be justified in the sight of God. No mere human has ever been able to save themselves by keeping the law. No one has ever been able to keep the full law other than Jesus. Jesus was sent so we might rest in God and in what He has provided. Beyond predicting our complete rest in Christ, He blessed it and made it holy. Here again, we see the symbol of Christ as our Sabbath rest—the holy, perfect Son of God who sanctifies and makes holy all who believe in Him. God sent the Son into the world to be our sacrifice for sin.
In Him we find complete rest from the labors of our own efforts because He alone is holy and righteous. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” We can now cease from our spiritual labors and rest in Him, not just one day a week but always. Jesus tells us in Matt 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Chapters three and four of Hebrews speak to a number of subjects, one of which is rest (see Deut 12:9-10 for background on this). The place of rest for the Israelites was the Promise Land, the place of rest from all enemies. Yet they continually rebelled and did not fully enter into a land of rest, God’s rest. Hebrews 3:11 states: “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” The word “rest” is repeated eight times in these two chapters. There is a rest for God’s people beyond the sabbath rest (Heb 4:1-3). It is by faith that one enters this rest. This rest is our salvation. Again, pointing to us resting from working to gain our salvation. A work we could never accomplish in our own work or self-righteousness.
The reason Jesus can be our Sabbath rest is in part because He is “Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt 12:8). He decides the true meaning of the Sabbath because He created it, and He is our Sabbath rest. When the Pharisees criticized Him for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus reminded them they would not hesitate to pull a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath. He told the Pharisees people are more important than sheep, and the salvation He provided was more important than a traditional understanding of rules.
The writer to the Hebrews urges his readers not to make the mistake of rejecting God’s Sabbath rest in Jesus Christ (Heb 4:9–11). There is no other Sabbath rest besides Jesus. He alone satisfies the requirements of the Law, and He alone provides the sacrifice that atones for sin. He is God’s plan for us to cease the labor of our own works. In Mark 2:27 “And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’” Jesus was restating the principle that the Sabbath rest was founded to relieve man of his labors, just as He came to relieve us of our seeking to achieve salvation by our works, which we could never accomplish. We no longer rest for only one day, but forever cease our laboring to attain God’s favor. Jesus is our rest from work now, just as He is the way to heaven, where we will rest in Him forever.
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg