Created to Rest

Are you ever having a day where you realize that almost all of your problems could be solved by simply taking a nap, or just going to bed? I don’t know about you but if I get overly tired, I am likely to make poor decisions. I think we have all been there.

I'm from a family of four girls. I am the second of four. And my younger sister is one of those people that needs her sleep. When we were kids, she would just disappear from social situations, and we would find her already in her bed asleep. Well, one night with my family, we were relaxing and watching a movie in my parent's room. All 5 of us, this was before the youngest was born, were snuggled on my parent's bed, and it was bedtime. My mom asked my older sister to please ensure that the little one was taken to the restroom before we all headed to bed. At this time, she was four years old or so, and she was VERY sleepy, she had fallen asleep on my parents' bed, and we had to pick her up, but she was just big enough to be cumbersome, so just as my sister tried to wake her up a little bit to take her to the restroom, she took off running. She ran down the hall, and it took a minute, but finally, we found her because we were like, “Where are you going?” “you have to go to the bathroom.” well, low and behold, we found her in the kitchen, and there she was. She was opening the oven, and she was about to take down her pants and sit on the oven door to go to the bathroom. By this time, we are yelling and saying, “No, no, no, no, no.” the poor little one's confused and mad, she starts crying and saying, “I just want to go to the bathroom. I want to go to sleep, I'm tired!” she was so tired, but she didn't even realize that she was in the wrong place she was trying to use an oven for a toilet.

In our walk with God, we are too often like little children who allow our lack of Holy Rest and Sabbath to take us to the point that we mistake our selfishness, our flesh, and our disobedient sinful nature as a “Good Idea” and we miss out on the fullness that is intended for Kingdom Living.

Hebrews 4: 9-11(NASB)

9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

Rest leads to Restoration. Restoration with our creator, with creation, and with the people around us. Without rest, we are much more likely to succumb to disobedience, burnout, and sin. My younger sister was so tired that she could no longer tell the difference between an oven and a toilet. When we fail to Sabbath and do not participate in God’s Holy rest, we can be blinded by our physical limitations. We no longer make decisions well. And we, in turn, walk away from the Promises that God gives us. We begin calling for the slavery of Egypt because we are scared of fighting Giants in the Promised Land.

We are created, commanded, and called to participate in Holy Rest; when we fail to do so, it increases the likelihood of us succumbing to disobedience.

I’d like to make 3 points today.

We are CREATED to Rest.

We are COMMANDED to Rest.

We are CALLED to Keep the Covenant through entering God’s Rest.

You are created to rest. Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start… bonus points if you get my Sound of Music reference.

In the first two chapters of Genesis, we're taken through the story of creation. God has created the light, he created the sky he created the seas and the lands, and the trees, and then put animals on the land, he filled the oceans and lastly, he created man and woman in His own image, and then…then on the 7th day it says that He rested. If we go to Genesis 2 verses 1 through 3, we can read:

Genesis 2:1-3(NASB)

And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly lights. By the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

He completed his work, and he rested from all that he had done; then He blessed the day, He sanctified the day, and He rested.

As we've gone through each day of creation, God repeatedly calls everything in His creation “good” However when we get to the seventh day He instead blesses and sanctifies this time. The Creation was “Good,” but the Rest from creating was Holy.

Now we can take a second to talk about two words I’m using… sometimes rather synonomously. Rest and Sabbath. In this passage of Genesis, the word is commonly translated as “Rest,” but the word is Sabat… which is where we also get the word Sabbath but the Daily rest, as in sleeping at night, taking a day off or a break from something, is not really what I’m talking about today. We sometimes write off the sabbath as simply a day off. A vacation day or the day we attend church. These are a part of life and a balance that every person on earth, whether they are believers or not, must struggle with and understand. But when the Word talks about Holy rest and Sabbath, this is something that was laid into the foundation of the creation, so naturally, as we are in a fallen world, one of the things that the enemy uses against creation is our lack of rest the enemy has made rest an impossibility within our society. God created us to work the land, steward the earth for six days, and spend one day ceasing from that toil to spend time with God, knowing what God did the same, and spend time with God in reflection. According to our modern society, we understand taking a day off. I think, actually, in our post-Covid world, people understand burnout and the need for rest much more. But days off can have nothing to do with the reflection of God. Our day off is more about self, about selfish time, and it's not recognized as a gift from God but rather something that is my right. I don’t know about other people, but I often feel like we mix up rest or sabbath and associate it with laziness or being a sluggard. I have felt a fine line between lazieness, and taking a Sabbath. I felt this very acutely as a pastor's daughter; my father's time with us was sometimes perceived as selfish because he should be on call for the church, and not seemingly allowed to take a sabbath. As his daughter, this led to resentment of a church that was commanded to rest, but did not allow this privilege for their leaders.

Rest was built into the fabric of a perfect Creation.

God modeled rest from creation as a physical act to parallel the rest that we, the created, find when we commune with God.

We are commanded to rest. Obviously, most believers know that the concept of the Sabbath is in the Ten Commandments. But the command of Sabbath rest, as we just discussed, is at creation before it shows up on Mt. Sinai. This command is given to Adam and Eve before sin enters the world. The Ten Commandments are a morality code that sets the Israelites apart from the rest of the Polytheistic and pagan world. But this command of the Sabbath was already there. The rest that God commands is something ingrained in every person, but because God insists that we have free will we have a choice to obey or disobey this command.

As we look at the Ten Commandments, I find the command of the Sabbath has a very interesting placement. So let’s take a look…

Exodus 20:1-17(NASB)

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 For six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your cattle, or your resident who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The Commandments are a set of morality Laws in which the people could live their lives according to God’s rule. These Laws are summed up and repeated daily by Jewish people… to this very day in the the “Shema” of Deuteronomy 6:4-9

4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Then Jesus quotes them

in Matthew 22:37-40

37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

So we come back to the Ten Commandments and notice that the greatest commandment is a summary of those first three commandments. Loving God with all that we are.

We can look at each of those words of Heart, Soul, and strength in the Hebrew… To love God with our “Lev”, “Nephesh,” and “Me’od” These words basically encompass our total being. Loving God with our “Lev” or center of emotion; Our “Nephesh” or our being… the literal translation is throat. And Lastly, our “Me’od,” which we could translate to our muchness.

1. No Other Gods- Heart
2. No Idols- Soul
3. Do not take the Lord’s Name in Vain- Mind

The last six commandments are people or neighbor-focused. It starts with our first close relationship with the nuclear family. Honor your father and Mother. We love and Honor those who had a part in our making. This is part of respecting the very process of creation and the mirrored relationship that we also share with God as our Father the Creator. We then respect the value of the life of all People. Don’t murder. Holding life as sacred. We respect the sanctity of marriage and sexuality. This is also a mirror relationship of Christ and His Church. Don’t commit adultery. We are to respect other people’s things and boundaries. Don’t steal. We are to respect the language we have been given as humans and not use it to hurt others. Do not bear false witness. And Finally, we are to be content with the giftings and life God has blessed us with. Do not Covet

1. Honor your Parents - Love your family
2. Do not Murder- value Life
3. Do not Commit Adultery- Love and respect your body and sexuality
4. Do not steal- respect your means of security
5. Do not bear false witness- Tame the tongue and respect the gift of Language.
6. Do not Covet- respect and love your contentment and mind.

Okay, now we can return to that 4th commandment. It sits right between the Love God commandments and Love People commandments. Why do you think that is? Personally, I think of it as a gateway commandment. We are to first Love God, I think that part is a bit easy. God is God, He’s amazing. He made the world and sent Jesus to Die for us. He loves us, cares for us, and is an all-around pretty awesome God.

But People…Not so great. Loving people is hard. Keeping up in our relationships is exhausting. And people are mean; Christians can be mean, vindictive, and hypocritical.

But there is a gateway… Rest, Sabbath… keeping time sacred to be with God is essential to loving those around us. It helps put our hearts to be in a place where we are capable of loving our neighbors. And belongs as a part of both commandments. By taking part in Sabbath, we are communing with God and allowing ourselves the renew our relationship with God so that we can take on His love and Character and, in turn Love our Neighbors.

It is also a way that we love ourselves. We hear when Jesus tells us that the second greatest commandment is to “love your neighbor,”… and we stop there. We forget that end clause of “as ourselves.” We are to “Love our neighbor as ourselves.” This command assumes that we are loving to ourselves. We take care of ourselves. We steward the health of our bodies. We feed it good things. We enjoy the beauty that was created in the image of God. And we give that creation seventh day Sabbath rest. When our spiritual cup is empty, it makes it nearly impossible to pour our Love into our Neighbors.

So how exactly do Sabbath?

1. Sabbath- This is Holy Time, We are Set apart for God, This gives us the capability to do the other commandments.

In this commandment were told two things: to remember the Sabbath and to keep the Sabbath holy.

• Remember the Sabbath

I always found this part of the commandment very strange because why do we have to remember it? Are we going to forget it? And the answer to that is "yes...absolutely". How many times have the Israelites forgotten God's word and freaked out about something or other? How many times in the Bible does God have to say things like fear not it's like we forget from one moment to the next that God is good and that He will take care of Us. How many times do I intend to spend time with God but I get to busy and forget? When it says here to remember the Sabbath we can look at the Hebrew word which is Zakar…

2142. זָכַר zakar, zaw-kar´; a primitive root; properly, to mark (so as to be recognized), i.e. to remember; by implication, to mention; also (as denominative from 2145) to be male:—x burn (incense), x earnestly, be male, (make) mention (of), be mindful, recount, record(-er), remember, make to be remembered, bring (call, come, keep, put) to (in) remembrance, x still, think on, x well.

basically meaning to remember, to be mindful of, to make mention of…We have to plan to take a break. Other wise our calendars are just too busy. Write in your calandar the time you plan to spend with God… just like you would schedule a brunch with a friend. Write in your daily time and treat it like a meeting you can’t miss. Schedule sabbathing in your weekly calendar and decide how you are going to set that time apart. What will you cease from doing? And how will you spend time with God in that time? This moves me to the next part of the Command…

• Keep the Sabbath

We remember the Sabbath, I’ve set time aside… but then, we are also commanded to KEEP the Sabbath Holy. I recently read a book by my college Pastor Dr. AJ Swoboda. “Subversive Sabbath” While reading AJ’s book one of the most profound things I read was the concept that we are to keep the Sabbath Holy, not make the Sabbath Holy. In creation, God calls all things good but the Sabbath He calls Holy He sanctifies the very time. We get very caught up in trying to make things Holy instead of keeping what is already sanctified as holy. Humans cannot make anything holy, when we try to make something holy that's called idolatry. Swoboda emphasizes a key distinction of Judaism in the ancient world: unlike other religions that sanctified idols, places, or objects as holy, Judaism declared time itself as sacred. The Sabbath, in particular, was set apart as a holy time dedicated to God. However, Swoboda warns that extreme interpretations of the Sabbath can undermine its purpose. For instance, the Pharisees—and even some modern Jewish traditions—have adopted rigid views of Sabbath observance, focusing so heavily on ceasing all work that they often neglect the goodness and restorative purpose God intended for the Sabbath.

If any of you have ever been to Israel you know that when Sabbath comes around on Friday evening everything basically in the entire country stops. Traffic goes to a minimum because Jews can not drive cars and public transit is very limited. Most shops are closed. And the only families you will see on the street are non-Jews. Even elevators and ovens have special settings so not to spark electricity and break Sabbath. There is so much reverence and beauty to this ritual. But in my eyes I feel like this ritual gets caught up in all I can not do, as opposed to the freedom that God wishes us to experience through Sabbath.

Here in Germany, I feel like there is a beautiful freedom surrounding the country’s view of “Sabbath”. Here, Sunday is a day for rest and family. Most families spend the day in the park, taking walk and enjoying the company of friends. Most shops are closed and it’s an expected day to take it easy. There are even noise ordinances keeping people from mowing lawns or doing any construction or even vacuuming.

These are examples of how cultures have placed a priority of rest in their lives. What I think is important for all believers is to figure out how to best keep the Sabbath themselves. How do we keep this time with God and truly take rest?

My last point brings us back to Hebrews 4. This entire chapter talks about the believer’s rest. So let's read that one more time...

Hebrews 4: 9-11(NASB)

9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

Up until now, we have been looking at rest and the Sabbath, particularly as a more tangible set apart sacred timing with God. But here we are, looking at Rest and our faith. By entering the Rest of God we partner with the Promise of His Rest. We are showing that we trust that God will take care of us. We don’t want to miss out on the Promise and ultimately break our covenant with God.

Adam and Eve broke the covenant and missed out on the Promise of life and walking with God in the garden. The Israelites walked away from the Promised Land and forfeited their own ultimate freedom. When we ignore our physical, emotional, and, most importantly, spiritual need for Rest, we have made ourselves susceptible to breaking covenant and breaking relationships with God, with our families, and with our communities.

In David Peterson’s Commentary, he points out that this promise of Rest also points to our ultimate rest with God, in His Kingdom. And under the New Covenant that Kingdom is here and now. By trusting the Lord and having the faith to enter into His rest, we are participating in the Kingdom of Heaven. We are taking our place as Co-Heirs with Christ in the Rest of God’s awesome presence. In our society, it takes faith to set aside time. But God’s promise of rest is there, waiting for us to take part and not walk away in disobedience.

From creation itself, God’s works were finished. “From the Foundation of the world” it says in Hebrews 4:3. We fail to enter His rest out of disobedience and that disobedience leads to sin.

Jumping down to Verse 11, “let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.”

I’m so convicted by this.. We need to ask the questions… Am I resting the way I was created to? I am I following the command that I remember Sabbath and keep it Holy? And am I diligent to enter God’s Rest so I do not fall into disobedience?

I’m going to end today with the end of Hewbrews 4:14-16.

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Book Recommendation:

Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World
By AJ Swoboda
https://amzn.eu/d/c7fNRjV
https://a.co/d/2E7DczY