Share the Rest


I love the theology of the Sabbath. It is the first thing God designates as holy in the Bible. It is made for man and yet restricts man from working to produce for himself trusting in the God who called him into the rest which points to the ultimate rest to come in Christ!
  • The Sabbath is where man gets to remember he is made in God's image to reflect God's character and ways. 
  • The Sabbath is where we remember we are most creaturely dependent upon another for all that we have and are.
  • The Sabbath is where God's liberation and power are at work in Jesus. 
  • The Old Testament and the New Testament hinge on the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is where God's Word for us and our obedience to it come together. in the Sabbath we learn by experience how obedience is a blessing to our lives. When we obey the Sabbath we find the blessing of God's rest. You could say the Sabbath is the day in which we most learn doing what God wants us to do is actually what is good for us to do most quickly. Not committing adultery takes a lifetime to realize its benefits. Not lying may take a bit shorter. Not stealing a bit more shorter than that depending on how careless we may be. In the Sabbath we stop WEEKLY to rest,  recuperate, and worship Him. As Christians we are WEEKLY reminded about Jesus and His work FOR US... and then we go and start our lives again!

Here in Exodus 23:10-12 we learn this about the Sabbath as well: The Sabbath is meant to be shared.

Exodus 23:10-12 (ESV) “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. 12 “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

God's people are not just to rest themselves. They are to invite all those who live with them (animals, servants and aliens alike) a day to cease and be still before God SO THAT all may be refreshed.

Think of the alien who comes to stay with a Hebrew family. You can imagine the ancient questions: "What is this day you have in your week where no one works and you trust in your God to provide while you do nothing??? Aren't the gods unhappy when we are not working for their pleasure??? Aren't there babies to sacrifice and cuts to self-inflict for their appeasement?" And then back to their homeland they go to report about a God who GIVES rest and COMMANDS a people trust HIS work not their own!

That's a game changer.

It's like the Gospel. Unlike all other religions, the Gospel teaches us what God did to save us, not what we do to save ourselves! The Gospel is HIS WORK not our doing! The Gospel is what regenerates us and makes us strong again for another week of struggling through the opinions, deadlines, conflicts and obligations of another week. The Gospel reminds us that we are not on our own on a big floating rock! We have a God who is FOR US and NOT against us!

And just like the Sabbath, the Gospel is meant to be shared. 

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