The Sabbath Rest
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(27) Then <Jesus> said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (28) So, the Son of Man <Jesus> is Lord even of the Sabbath.”’ (Mark 2:27-28); ‘<The Lord through Moses told the Israelites,> “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.”’ (Exodus 34:21)
Why did God set up the Sabbath? When folks read Genesis 2:1-3, it states (in paraphrase), ‘God took a break on Day 7 of Creation’. The picture many get is God on Day 7 after creating the heavens, the Earth, and all life on Earth (including Adam and Eve) during the first six days, sat down and kicked His feet up on an ottoman, and began sipping on iced tea when Day 7 came around. Understanding the level of effort we imagine it took to create the Earth and everything on it and the universe and everything in it, it’s easy to see how this could be the picture painted. It is also a wrong picture and in a certain sense putting God inside a proverbial ‘box’ of human context, which He cannot be put into as He is not human.
God, being omnipotent and omnipresent, doesn’t need rest, at least the part that is God the Father, in the manner we think of rest. He is without time or place, He is everywhere, every time, at all points in time. His rest is more of viewing His Creation, not sitting in an easy chair. God Manifested, Jesus, did ‘rest’ His body, but yet His Godly attributes demonstrated that even while His body was ‘asleep’, He was fully aware of His surroundings and what people were thinking around Him, like He was while on the boat in the storm in Matthew 8:24-26. The Holy Spirit is working 24/7 even when we’re asleep; some great insights come from ‘dreams’ provided by the Lord via the Holy Spirit when people are asleep or at rest.
This does not mean God equates rest to laziness or just sleep. God, creating man, knows our limitations, and know our bodies will not last long being awake for 24/7 for extended periods. Now parts of our bodies are non-stop; our heart, lungs, and brain are 24/7 but need the ‘idle’ time of sleep. We also can only go ‘full-speed’ or ‘rev to the redline’ to work for so long, whether it is a physical or mental job, before needing a break. God created the Sabbath for this break as well, as mentioned in Exodus 34:21.
It is good to take the Sabbath day to rest, relax, and take your body mind off ‘work’. You may yet expend effort when needed on the Sabbath, but it should be for a critical need (if your faucet starts leaking bad on a Sunday, you may want to fix it quickly that day; waiting until Monday may mean a flooded house). ‘Rest’ may also mean to take the time (after church) to play games, like a round of golf or engage in fun fellowship, and while physical effort may be involved it can be mentally relaxing.
Most importantly, God wants us to worship Him on the Sabbath. We who are Christians need to worship the Lord; to have it coincide with our day of rest is perfect! Hebrews 4:10 tells us when we enter God’s rest, we gain rest from all other things. The Lord knew some Sabbaths we would need to do some work (picking grain to eat, pulling a neighbor’s cow out of a ditch, doing a shift as a paramedic), but, if at all possible, the Sabbath should be a day of worship and a day of relaxation. So have a great Sunday, and after church, whatever you do to rest, do it!
