The Importance of Rest

Isaiah 5:8-9
(8) Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
(9) The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing: "Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.

What does this passage have to do with the title of this post? It refers to the command to give the land periodic rest. In their greed the people worked the land too hard and they eventually paid the price for it. The Sabbath was serious business. God forced the people into a rest with their exile.

My pastor preached this weekend on the need to let go and take a rest. That's a hard lesson for me. My life is so tightly-packed that I have little room for rest. This is one of the reasons why I like my daily exercise so much. It is a way for me to unplug for a little while. The problem is that it is still not 1/7 of my week.

I am not legalistic about taking a full Sabbath, but I also think that I need to do a better job of unplugging and resting. To that end I actually did not review flashcards yesterday. I got a few other things done, but very little in the way of schoolwork. I think that was OK, though we'll see how the flashcards go today.

At any rate, it is clear that I need to find a way to rest more. This will be difficult during the semester, but I think it can be done. I just have to decide what can go from my life.

Trusting in the Sabbath

Leviticus 25:20-22
(20) And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?'
(21) I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.
(22) When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

I'm not sure if I would have had enough faith to obey this. God commanded the people to give the land a rest once every seven years. This means that the crop harvested from the sixth year had to be enough to last them for three years. Then they could cultivate the land again.

Leviticus makes it clear that God takes Sabbath quite seriously. However, Jesus tells us that God gave us the Sabbath for our sake. I see it as a chance to exercise our faith. What better way to show our trust in God than to take a real Sabbath rest?

I know that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. I know that we are no longer bound by the fourth Commandment. I also know that a Sabbath rest is not an excuse for sloth. But I also know that I get so stressed and caught up in my schoolwork that I have trouble really trusting God that I can take a Sabbath rest. I feel like the book of Leviticus is ministering to me in this area. Whoda thunkit?

A Time to Rest

Exodus 16:19-30
(19) And Moses said to them, "Let no one leave any of it over till the morning."
(20) But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
(21) Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
(22) On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses,
(23) he said to them, "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.'"
(24) So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it.
(25) Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.
(26) Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none."
(27) On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.
(28) And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?
(29) See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."
(30) So the people rested on the seventh day.

I know that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. I don't believe that the commandment about the Sabbath applies to us in the New Covenant. However, I also know that God instituted the Sabbath for the people. Here we see the people's lack of faith in the desert, which of course is a recurring theme for them. First, they gathered more manna than they needed for the day despite Moses' instructions. They paid the price with some nasty containers.

Now look at verse 27. Some people still thought that they had to work on the Sabbath so they went out to gather the manna. God provided plenty on Friday, but they thought they had to violate the rules because somehow God wasn't going to provide that day. Or perhaps they were trying to get ahead.

Again, I don't think that the Sabbath regulations apply to us today. They especially don't in the form that the Pharisees made where it was illegal to walk on the grass on the Sabbath because you might break a blade of grass and therefore be guilty of "reaping" on the Sabbath. However, I also know that I need to have a little more faith that things will work out even if I am not completely driven. I very much have the mindset that I need to get ahead all the time. From day 1 of seminary I purposed to be Hermione Granger academically since I really want to know this stuff for the glory of God.

However, the more I think about this passage the more I think that I need to trust God enough to rest more often. The key will be finding the balance point. I don't want to be lazy either. I do want to make sure that I am really present when I'm with my family though. I make fun of people who always have their Blackberries out when they're supposed to be having "family time." Is going through flashcards any different?