An Invitation to Rest

So, I think if we are going to talk about rest we need to go back to the beginning of the creation narrative.  Genesis 2:2 tells us that when God finished the work he had been doing then he rested on the seventh day.   The word for rest used here is shabbat, meaning to stop working.  God from the beginning of creation established a rhythm of rest.

Let’s jump ahead to Exodus and look at part of the commandments given to Moses to see how they point back to the creation narrative above. 

Exodus 20:8-11

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 of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.

Within this passage of scripture, we see both the word shabbat and the word nuakh used to talk about rest.  Above you can see the word Sabbath highlighted in blue.  Each time it mentions the Sabbath it is with the rhythm of rest in mind - a day to stop working.  But then we see the purple word.  This word rested is nuakh - meaning to dwell or settle.  After God created all things he dwelt with his creation and he blessed the seventh day and made it holy. 

When we examine the history of the Israelite nation, Exodus 1 reveals that they have been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, and gives us a glimpse into what they endured.  They were made to do rigorous labor and their lives were made bitter.  Matthew Henry, in his commentary, suggests in an effort to control them that they were stripped of anything that would have given them cause to flourish.  

By the time God sends Moses and Aaron as ambassadors to free the Israelites, they have been treated abusively for centuries and had been crying out to God for help.  There is so much grief and brokenness among God’s people.  Once they are rescued from Egypt, God meets Moses in the wilderness with the 10 commandments.  

I’m not sure how you feel about the 10 commandments, but I have been thinking about them a lot recently.  Especially the commandment to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.  Have you ever noticed how we talk about the other 9 commandments with the expectation that they will be followed, even today, and yet when it comes to Sabbath we hear so many explanations about why we don’t need to observe it anymore?   

I was listening to NT Wright recently and he shared a quote from Vaughn Roberts which I found so profound - 

“When God gave the law through Moses it wasn’t - you keep this law and then you’ll be my people, it was -  I have redeemed you!  I have brought you out of Egypt.  That is done!  You ARE the covenant people.  Here is the way of life.  You aren’t earning anything, you are expressing your gratitude.” 

Think about this idea.  God had done the rescuing.  The people were free, though they didn’t fully know what freedom was yet.  The 10 commandments were given for God’s children to live their lives in a way that made them different from the other nations around them.  The commandments weren’t meant to be the rescuer, but rather the reminder that they were God’s covenant people called to live a different kind of life from the nations around them.    

The commandment of Sabbath was a gift to God’s people.  An invitation to stop working and to dwell with him.  To spend time each week laughing, eating, dancing, singing, lounging, remembering - settled, or dwelling, in his goodness and love.  The same kind of rest that God set into motion at the beginning of creation.  The same kind of rest that would be experienced with Jesus.  

Next week we’ll look at Jesus and the Sabbath, and why I think we shouldn’t overlook it today.  

~ Melissa