Have you ever been so busy that you felt totally overwhelmed? It might be for your child’s birthday party, visitors arriving, a project at work, or whatever fills your mind with stress, placing you under huge time pressure. You think once this is over everything will calm down. But often we rush around from one activity to another, trying to do and keep on top of everything. We can feel like we are drowning in to-do lists.
Going to church can sometimes feel like another item to put on the to-do list. But that is not what God wants for us. God wants to open our eyes to so much more.
God’s Model of Rest
In Genesis 1, we see God creating. Each day has a similar ending phrase “There was evening, and there was morning”, marking each day. But on the seventh day, this is not what the author of Genesis wrote. Genesis 2:2-3 says, “By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.”
God ceases His work and gives us a pattern to follow. God wasn’t tired or overwhelmed. He took a day to appreciate His creation and be refreshed.
Before the fall, Adam and Eve were able to enjoy walking with God. Their work was easy, and their relationship with each other and with God was complete. They knew fullness and wholeness. This was broken when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, desiring to be equal with God.
Since the fall, the whole story of the Bible is God’s great rescue plan to restore us to eternal rest with Him in the new heaven and new earth.
God’s Call for Rest
As part of that plan, God gives the Israelites, His chosen people, the gift of Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of ceasing from work. This is something they didn’t have as slaves in Egypt. This is part of the reason for Sabbath rest (Deuteronomy 5:15).
In Exodus 31:12-17, we find out quite a lot about the Sabbath for the Israelites.
Firstly, God considers it a sign between Him and His people. Resting on the Sabbath helps God’s people to rely on Him and remember His covenant with them.
Secondly, the Sabbath is described as holy, just as it was in Genesis 2:3. It is set apart as different from the other six days in which there is work to be done. On the seventh day, there is to be rest, both physically and spiritually.
Lastly, this rhythm of life was to be passed down through the generations. This is not just for the Israelites who are wandering in the wilderness. When they enter the Promised Land, God provides them with a foretaste of the eternal rest to come.
God’s Blessing of Rest
So Sabbath is given by God as a gift to His people. But as with all good gifts, sinful people can distort and corrupt them. By the time of Jesus, the religious leaders had added hundreds of laws to ensure people weren’t working on the Sabbath.
Jesus is challenged by some of the religious leaders because his disciples were not keeping the Sabbath correctly. In response, Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. For this reason the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28).
Though we are not tied to the Old Covenant laws, including the Sabbath, we still see the principles and blessing of Sabbath rest remain for us today as new covenant believers. Jesus invites us to come to Him, be yoked or connected to Him, and find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-30). When we take time to rest, we see many benefits.
- When we take a day a week to rest, we show with our actions that we are not in control. We will praise the One who is in control of all our days. We will remember His power in creation and His covenant with us in Christ, which gives us the sure hope of eternal rest with Him for ever.
- When we take a day a week to rest, we set aside time to recognize that God is holy. We honour Him knowing He makes us holy through faith in Jesus. This enables us to live differently in this world.
- When we take a day a week to rest, we acknowledge that God is our provider. Our hope isn’t in our wealth but in God (1 Timothy 6:17-19).
- When we take a day a week to rest, we pass on to the generations following us the truth about God and the eternal rest He offers.
- When we take a day a week to rest, we are refreshed, able to face the challenges of the week ahead, and built up in the truth about God and all He has done, is doing, and will do.
Since the resurrection, God’s people have met on Sundays. Where possible, we should have our day of rest on Sunday. This makes it easier for us to focus on God, the provider of our Sabbath rest.
Though these weekly rests cut into our busy days, they are a shadow of the beauty of the eternal complete rest to come in the new heaven and the new earth. Until then, God has given us this gift. Let’s use it.
