“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Ex. 20:8-11)
When I was at university I presented a radio show on Sunday mornings on the student radio station. Now back in the day as with a lot of student radio stations there was little chance of anyone actually listening to the radio station – it’s reach was limited, promotion more so and active interest in the site among the student population who would be awake on a Sunday morning even more restricted than all of that. Still, the nature of the radio show was to allow people to think that I was actually interested in them having a relaxing easy Sunday morning. So unsurprisingly …
There is something about thinking about the typical concept of a Sunday morning that fits in with the concept of rest and yet there is so much more. We are aware that in the Creation narrative the LORD God has made heavens and earth in six days and now on this Sabbath He ceases from His work and expects man to do the same. We’re also aware that God did not rest because He is tired which gives us an idea of the rest that He expects us to enjoy on this day.
The indication and invitation is to embrace the rest that we experience in completion – when there is no more to be done, when it is finished. Every week we have the chance to look at what has been done – what has been completed and rest in that. Imagine casting your eyes over God’s great creation, different climates, landscapes, creatures, people – imagine taking all of that in and reflecting on that. Now imagine doing that having contributed your own role in the way the world is for that week’s worth of living. Whether that’s reflecting on the work you’re involved in manually or through relationships or through whichever way you’ve impacted the world around you. Rest in that. It is done – it is finished.
There is little in the way of promoting this type of living we have to be relentlessly on the go with something – even leisure time hobbies are a task in themselves. There is very little in the way of actually this wholesome rest that God recommends which requires the cessation of work for the household. There in itself is a relational, family invitation to embrace the rest – it is not specifically designed to catch up on sleep, but remind ourselves that for as much as we work and toil, we are doing this on a world that is complete because of the Creator.
Though the original created order has been distorted by the sin of man in embracing this rest we also get a foretaste of what God has in store for us when the created order is restored. Even this side of the restoration work of Calvary, in this day of rest, we get an understanding that this world of struggle and distress it is not what God originally required for us and for His creation. He has something better in store and He gives us glimpses of this and foretastes as we take on board the stewardship responsibilities He gave us from before the Fall.
As part of the expression of relational priorities where this day is concerned we rest in the work of God and remind ourselves in the grace that has made all that we experience possible and how all the good gifts around us have come from the Father above. As a balm for the challenges of today and a hint at the glorious rest that awaits us we are thus asked on a regular pattern on such a special lovely day of rest to realise that He has it made.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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