Saturday, May 4, 2013

Resting Like God Rests

The sabbath is meant to be a day of rest. In Isaiah 58:13 the sabbath is called God’s holy day. He tells us to call it a delight. How exactly do we do that? Later towards the end of this verse He says if we honor Him by by refraining from saying and doing our our things, then (verse 14) we will be delighting in God, and He will cause us to ride on the high places and give us the heritage of Jacob (which is a good thing). So these are great promises, but I still am trying to really understand the rest part. Maybe it can be found in what God did on the first sabbath.

The words here in Genesis 2:1-3 have interesting shades of meaning. The word for work here implies purpose or mission, as if we were sent or meant to do something. By implication this is our work. The word for rest means to repose or decline. I think of it to be like when I am working on something and finish it, I lean back and look at it. It is interesting that worship is almost an exact opposite to this. Worship means to incline or lean in or toward.

It would seem the sabbath is the day we lean back from our normal routine, work, and things we enjoy. This causes us to delight in the sabbath. We lean in toward God, we worship Him and rejoice, resetting the clock for yet another week. God is so good, is He not?

Prayer
Father, thank You so much for Your constancy toward us. Thank You for keeping us safe. Thank You for thinking of us. Please look favorably upon all Your children today, and give them peace. In Jesus name. Amen.