Real Rest

Getting real rest

Every seventh day, we need rest. This is wisdom. The ancient faithful took hold of this direction and applied it to their lives. It helped them thrive.

In general, I think this is a good plan. Pushing the limits of our bodies must be periodically followed by periods of rest. We cannot always be working. Nor can the land always be worked. It needs extended rest. The principle is that extended rest applies to people and to the land. This will allow God’s shalom to reign.

It is clear we all need rest on a regular basis and we need extended rest on a less frequent basis. The land and animals under our care also need rest.

We live in times of constant blurred lines between work and home, play and work, recreation and rest. We don’t always see the difference in these concepts. That doesn’t mean the words are meaningless, but simply a challenge. We need to rest. These words of rest may be the most difficult of all biblical words for us and our 24/7 culture to hear. We people love work, we love entertainment, we love to produce.

This morning’s Business section carried a comment about work life: “We are all on call all the time.” I know how I feel when I turn off my cell phone and computer: deprived and detached. Danger signs are apparent in the working world. This is not so good.

What would it take to be a wise person of regular periods of rest and regular periods of extended rest? What will happen if we are always working? Will that life of work bring God’s shalom? I think not.

Work is good and is part of creation, but it can function only with times of rest.

--Fred


Leviticus 25:1-7

1The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: 2Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the LORD. 3Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; 4but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. 6You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you; 7for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.