#209: Rest

On the seventh day, having finished His task, God rested from all His work. Genesis 2:2

Rest is a terminology that is not so strange with life. It goes without saying, that rest is an empirical part of a man's everyday life. In fact, it is simply natural to rest. Before the advent of civilisation and industrialisation, men slept for nearly 12 hours a day. Today it is more and more difficult to deliberately take a rest and relax from work. The healthiest individuals sleep for only about 7 to 8 hours a day.

But let us step aside from the daily rest routine and consider it in its biblical context. Christians ought to be circumspectly guided by scriptures. From the very beginning, God ordained rest as an integral part of the cycle of life.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because, on it, God rested from all His work that he had done in creation. Genesis 2:3

By this, God extended this special grace of rest to mankind. When He gave the law, He commanded that the seventh day be kept holy and be a day of rest. In time, when Jesus came into the scene, God expressed his invitation to rest at its climax by making His only begotten Son to die in our place.

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He did not and does not wait for us to get ready. He presented Himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we had not been weak, we would not have known what to do anyway. Rom 5:6

Sin is as debilitating a disease as possible. It does not let us eat. Each time, we are always covered with shame, guilt, pain, loneliness, and immense sorrow. We do not have any space to breathe clearly. In other words, sin literally chokes out our lives. We become slaves. And slaves do not rest. Such luxury is not available to them. The rest we deeply desire comes only and directly from God. It is love that made God desire and decide to give us rest through the blood of His Son. Can you see now how undeserving we are? While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Love is what prompted this.

The rest we receive from Christ should be translated to our neighbour and all of creation.

Do not oppress the foreigners living among you. You know what it is like to be a foreigner. Remember your own experience in the Land of Egypt. Plant and harvest your crops for six years, but let the land rest and lie fallow during the seventh year. Then let the poor among you harvest any volunteer crop that may come up. Leave the rest for the animals to eat. The same applies to your vineyards and olive groves. Work for six days, and rest on the seventh. This will give your ox and your donkey a chance to rest. It will also allow the people of your household, including your slaves and visitors to be refreshed. Exodus 23:9-12

We can see that biblically, rest is not just spiritual, but physical. Also, rest is not just limited to our life here on earth. We are guaranteed eternal rest in the life to come.

So much to unpack on this topic and the rest of the month will be used to study different aspects of this biblical theme.

But in the interim, as you interact with your neighbour, make your life a conduit through which the richness of God's love flows to give rest to weary and enslaved souls. Amen.

Written by Kauna MaiDaraja (Precious Marcus)

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