In my last blog post, I wrote about our journey over the past year and a half. I became painfully aware that I had expected to be released from all of my waiting by changes to my circumstances…moving into our new home felt like the domino that needed to drop for everything else to happen. For us to have a baby. To feel calmer and reset our routine. Yet, none of those things were going to help me with what I really needed.

I have become convinced that this mindset of rest is needed week by week, just as God established it…in spite of the workload. Things will not calm down until something changes…and it’s not often our first instinct to stop in the middle of work to rest in order to move ahead refreshed.

I finally began to recognize our need for rest and began embracing it for our family.

But the most important reason that rest can’t wait is because Jesus offers it to every Christian…right now! If we are walking with the Lord, we are told to give Him our burdens and He will give us rest! No matter what else in your life is unanswered or incomplete. No matter what is causing the whirlwind for you. There is a way to approach these things from the rest that comes from a walk with Christ. He promises that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

When I shifted my weekly routine to honor the principles that God established at the start, I began to see the importance of taking a pause. Not just for me but for my whole family!

And it’s not just us…It’s become popular in today’s Christian culture to talk about how Christian families should honor the Sabbath. Either due to a recognition of the need for rest, or a re-igniting of the old way of the past, many churches are emphasizing the importance of this ancient practice. Have you seen it out there too?

It is a worthy goal to ensure that your family has a day or a time for rest each week. It is good to be able to have rest! It is worth repeating that rest is essential to a life of faith…now more than ever! Look at how distracted our world has become!

But if we are going to consider the idea of the Sabbath and even its reference in the first 10 Commandments of the Law of Moses, then I think it is valuable to first recognize the purpose of rest across the entire message of the Bible. There are several key differences in the instructed Sabbath for the Israelites compared to a New Covenant Rest and the 7th day of rest in Creation.

In a recent Bible study I have been working through from Jen Wilkin, she offers a valuable teaching framework for examining the Scriptures that emphasizes the importance of the context of the writing. When considering the application of any biblical text, we should ask: What did it mean for Them/Then, What does it mean for Us/Always, and lastly, What does it mean for Me/Now?

Differentiating what parts of the Bible are actually applicable to me and even more importantly, recognizing what practices are no longer instructed or commanded, is foundational to any Christian practice that we may seek to implement. Yet, despite the topic of Sabbath rest being popular in the Christian world today, I have not heard the topic explained within this framework.

I have had the opportunity to study the Book of Hebrews for several years now, developing Bible lessons along the way, starting with the toddler age group. I am now fully convinced that every Christian should be taught about the transition to the New Covenant using the Book of Hebrews in a similar manner to how Genesis 1-12 is critical to understanding God’s purpose and how He created the world.

Most of us desperately need REST! But we must heed the warnings of the New Testament about reverting back to an Old Law…one that cannot save us!

What is the Sabbath?

The word Sabbath literally means “to stop” or “to cease”. God’s people were expected to stop working from sunset on Friday (the 6th day of Creation) until sunset on Saturday (the 7th day of Creation). That was the rule.

God had codified the Sabbath Rest into the Old Covenant Law. The Old Covenant was given specifically to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — often called the Israelites or later referred to as the Jews. For more information on covenants, see this post.

By the time Jesus was born, the Jewish people had been practicing the Sabbath Law for ~1400 years! As you read through the New Testament, you will read about several debates and arguments as Jesus went about his ministry. He was regularly attacked for performing healings on the Sabbath. Jesus seemed to purposely lean in to these controversies to provoke the religious leaders.

Without a full understanding of the ways that the Sabbath had lost its inspiring principles, one might conclude that Jesus was changing the practice. But when we study the topic in its fullness, we can see more clearly that Jesus was re-establishing the Sabbath according to His Father’s intent. He was actually correcting those who had added to the Law and distorted its intent, leading their people astray.

In order to more fully understand the practice of the Sabbath and why it needed correction by Jesus, we need to dig in to why it was established in the first place.

In Mark 2:27 NET, Jesus says:

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.

Jesus reminds us that the Sabbath practice was established for the people that God had made…because we desperately needed it! Jesus often returned to our origins when correcting the religious leaders about their practices. He goes back to when He made the world with God to help us understand how far we have strayed from the purpose of our Maker.

God established this pattern for us in the very beginning.

7th Day Rest of Creation – The Origin of Rest

At the very start of everything, God spoke and all things were created: the Earth, the solar system and stars, plants, animals and mankind. Though God clearly didn’t need more time, He chose to establish our world in a particular order over exactly 6 days.

It is very important for every Christian to believe God when He says how He made the world and not trust man’s guesses about creation and the age of the Earth. God’s order matters and His Word is true. Every other theory posed about the creation of our planet requires some part of God’s truth to be ignored; whether it is claiming the global flood didn’t occur or claiming that animals existed and died before Adam sinned.

Did God really need 6 whole days to make all of Creation? Of course not! But there is a purpose to the length of our week.

In Genesis 2:2-3, God establishes a pattern and gives us the purpose for the last day:

On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

God established a 7-day week and before He allows it to begin again, He sets the last day apart. Before we can begin the cycle again, God reserves a day for rest. In order to rest, God makes perfectly clear that you must stop doing other things. But it’s not just to recharge your batteries. God set the 7th day apart as holy.

It was placed on the last day of the week for a reason. This cycle is for us and for our good. God created us with this rhythm in mind from the start. After you do work, you should take a day to rest so that you can focus on something different…honoring the one who has blessed you with your life.

Then we examine other times that were established in the beginning (Genesis 1:14):

Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years….

And later we read, in Ecclesiastes 3:1:

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.

Think of all the purpose of the seasons and how there is a time to plant, a time to harvest, a time to be dormant (winter), and then it all begins again. We do not skip these rhythms and we cannot avoid them.

In my last blog post, I was recognizing the fatigue that can weigh us down when we take weeks, seasons, and even years, without taking time for rest. I couldn’t expect my life to reset when I was living on empty. I couldn’t break the cycle or deal with the whirlwind when I wasn’t making room for rest and holiness.

So when we consider some of the applications of the 7th day rest, we can conclude that:

• It was made for mankind, so it is for our good and not just about rules or even taking a break.
• God showed mankind a pattern that when you work, it is important to set aside a day of rest before you begin the cycle again. Work + Rest each week
• He blessed the day as Holy, which means it is set apart from the days of work. We stop to rest so that we can have a different focus for the day.

Because God established this for all people from the dawning of time itself, it can reasonably be assumed to be for: Them/Then, but also for Us/Always.

The privilege of Rest – God Provides Manna

In case you have started beating yourself up by now, realizing that God intended for this good rhythm of work + rest in your life and you have lost sight of it, then please be encouraged that you are not alone. This is where many of us find ourselves. God established the 7th day of rest for our good, but He often had to remind His people of its importance.

Until the time of Moses almost 2500 years after Creation, there is no mention of specifically how the 7th day of rest was honored, yet we have always had its principles.

Then, God chose a special people to bring about the Messiah – the Israelites. While in Egypt, God had accomplished His promise to make the Israelites a great nation, but they had also become slaves!

When God freed his people by His mighty hand and brought them out of Egypt, they had to begin learning how to rely on Him for all of their needs.

In Exodus 16, after their food had run out, the people became hungry. They were out in the wilderness where there was nothing to eat. And they began to grumble and complain. Some of them even suggested it would have been better to return to Egypt.

Though their cries had gone up to the Father for generations, they had not yet learned to look to God for their provision.

But God still delivers. He doesn’t just feed them. He again emphasizes a pattern that establishes what is most important for them.

God sends them food of Quail and Manna (which literally translates to “What is it?”) and says at the end of verse 12 that by providing food for them,

“Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” Exodus 16:12

But there is a catch! God ensured that everyone had exactly enough for their family each day (v18), but there were very clear instructions:

• They were to collect the Manna each morning, “each household should gather as much as it needs.” (v16)
• And not try to store any overnight (v19); when they tried it had maggots in it!
• Then on the 6th day, they were instructed to collect double. (v22)

The people gathered together to ask for an explanation of the double portion on the 6th day and this was the answer in Exodus 16:23:

He told them, “This is what the Lord commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord. So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.”

God was establishing them as a nation that would reflect Him.

And before He gave the Israelites the Laws on Mt. Sinai, he re-established this pattern for them.

“Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out with his strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath Day.” Deut 5:15

They came from slavery. They didn’t have the freedom to rest in their old life. But as soon as they are under God’s rule, He commands them to take a day of rest and provides double the food on Friday to allow them to do it. He not only reminds them of the creation and the rhythm He established, but He also insists that this is the way He wants His people to live!

Because God brought them out of slavery, he gave them a Sabbath pattern to follow to remind them of their freedom!

The Law of Sabbath

Now, until I began researching for this blog, I didn’t realize that the practice of the Sabbath Day actually came before the Laws were given to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai!

God actually restored or brought forward the idea of the Sabbath day before He gave the Israelites the specific laws of its governance. As soon as there was a need, God established work for them to do to collect their food and immediately re-established His pattern of work + rest and setting apart a day of holiness. This made the principles from the beginning even more pronounced to me.

A short time later, Moses travels up the mountain to be with God. While he is up there, God provides the Laws which are to govern His people. This is where the people grow impatient and make a golden calf, but we are going to fast forward a bit to focus in on what the Law added about the Sabbath.

The Israelites were given the Old Covenant Laws (often called the Law of Moses) to show them how to live as a chosen nation, set apart to reflect God to the other nations. It is important to keep in mind that the Old Covenant Law was not just the first 10 commandments that we think of, but actually 613 laws specifically for the Israelites. These laws covered every aspect of their lives: moral laws, ceremonial laws (construction of the tabernacle, worship and priesthood, cleansing) and civil laws (for the nation and your neighbor). They also came with a specific punishment…most often…death.

We see the codification of Sabbath practices in the Law given to the people at Mt. Sinai and listed as number 4 in the first 10 commandments.

The command in the law is specifically to “Remember to observe the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.” Exodus 20:8

“You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.” Exodus 20:9-11

But we also get some other glimpses into the intent of the Sabbath rest from studying the Law of Moses:

Details about the Sabbath Day:

• Have a holy assembly (Lev 23:3)
• No kindling fire or carrying a load (Ex 35:1-3)
• Extra sacrifices (Numbers 28:9-10)
• Applied to servants and foreigners, and even animals (Ex 23:12)
• Work in the temple: priests arrange bread in Tabernacle on the Sabbath day (Lev 24:8)
• Punishment for breaking the Sabbath Law: death (Ex 35:1-3, Num 15:32-36)

Plus yearly Sabbath expectations:

• A 7th year rest for the land
  • no sowing/reaping for the entire year. All ate freely. (Ex 23:10-11, Lev 25:1-7))
  • Cancelling debts: Israelites were instructed to free their fellow Israelites from any debts owed in the 7th year. (Deut 15:1-2)
  • Hebrew slaves released: If they served for 6 years, they were to go free, with generous gifts of livestock, grain and wine. (Deut 15:12-18)
• The Year of Jubilee: After 7 cycles of 7, the people held a 50th year Jubilee (Lev 25:2-7, 8-12)

So for Them/Then:

God required that His people follow His pattern:

• Work + Rest (for the Lord) is needed each week
• Days and now years set apart as Holy

It was a reminder that they had been rescued from slavery and given their land and the freedom to rest from their work! So that they would understand, these laws and patterns were all intended to show God’s generous provision for His people and to recognize His ownership and authority over every part of their lives.

In Deuteronomy 31:16, the Lord says “The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day by observing it from generation to generation. This is a covenant obligation for all time.“

So the Israelites were expected to keep this covenant. But before we can ask the question of whether this also applies to Us/Always as Christians, we have to understand the corrections Jesus made while He was on Earth and the New Covenant that He established for the world.

Back to the Sabbath Day and Jesus

Jesus performed many healing miracles on the Sabbath. Do you know how many are recorded in the Bible as being on the Sabbath? Seven!! It was very clear that He wanted to make these corrections very clear to the public and its a beautiful symmetry that the number 7 means completeness.

• A Man with an Unclean Spirit: Mark 1:21-28, Luke 4:31-37
• Peter’s Mother-in-Law: Matthew 8:14-15, Mark 1:29-31, Luke 4:38-39
• A Man with a Withered Hand: Matthew 12:9-13, Mark 3:1-6, Luke 6:6-11
• The Lame Man at Bethesda: John 5:1-18
• A Crippled Woman: Luke 13:10-17
• A Man with Dropsy: Luke 14:1-6
• A Man Born Blind: John 9:1-16

5 of the 7 miracles led directly to arguments with the religious leaders. And Jesus made very clear that the enforcement of the Sabbath Day had strayed from its intention.

Correcting their misconceptions

The religious leaders (like the Pharisees and Sadducees) had added a lot of extra detail to the Sabbath Law (and many of the others as well). This is often referred to as a hedge or fence around the Law. They had categorized Sabbath labor into 39 categories of work and gave exacting rules about enforcing these standards of work with the people.

Here are a few examples:
– Listing a specific weight you were allowed to carry
– Listing a set distance that would break the Sabbath Law, despite no traveling limitations being mentioned
– Added ritual handwashing for the people before meals, though no mention of that was expected for the people
– This practice was specifically pointed out as a “tradition of the elders” and as going beyond the Law in Mark 7
– Set specific injuries and life-threatening circumstances that were allowed to be treated, when it’s not mentioned
– Established plucking grain as “harvesting” and violating the Law
– Many forms of knots were forbidden and considered work…no “permanent” knots were acceptable
– Rules about how much sewing (none!) and writing (one letter only) you could do
– Numerous additional rules about buying/selling

Their intent was likely to keep the people far away from acts of sin, but they often ended up enforcing these more strict constraints on people as if they had broken the Law itself or losing the intent of the Law with one of their adaptations.

In Mark 7:9, Jesus said “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition.“

Point One

The first overarching question was: “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?” (Matt 12:10-12)

His answer is perfectly clear…Yes! It is absolutely lawful to do good on the Sabbath. The religious leaders had specified in their hedge for the Law that you could save a life on the Sabbath, but His answer clarifies that by principle, we should always allow for good works and showing mercy. It also reminds me of this verse:

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23

In Matthew 9:13 and 12:7, Jesus points out that God desires mercy and not sacrifice. Meaning that it is better to avoid sin and offer mercy than to make sacrifices either in response to sin or even to thank God.

Jesus even specifically states that the woman who He healed ought to be “set free” on the Sabbath Day. Reminding the people that the intention of the Sabbath was to be a gift of freedom!

Point Two

But Jesus is not done with His corrections…He has more for us to understand. When He was performing a healing on the Sabbath or even when his disciples picked grain and were accused of “working”, He clarified that doing work for the Lord is never a violation of the Sabbath Day.

When the priests completed their work in the Temple on the Sabbath Day, they were innocent and had not violated the Old Covenant Law. When the disciples were eating from the grain as they walked in the fields, doing the work of God’s son, they were likewise not breaking the Sabbath (Matt 12:1-8)

Point Three

The last main argument that Jesus makes is when He heals a man at Bethesda. The leaders again argue with Him because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath.

In John 5:17, Jesus replies, “My Father is always working, and so am I.“

So even though we know that God ceased work on the 7th day, we see that God and His son are always working. This relates to the idea that work for the Lord should always be allowed, but also emphasizes that the Sabbath is a principle for the good of the people. We are reminded again that the Sabbath is for people’s good!

The Point

Jesus was not ignoring the Sabbath Law. None of these corrections were changing the Sabbath, but rather restoring the intent of the Sabbath.

Jesus perfectly followed the Jewish Law without any sin for His whole life until it was taken from Him. (Heb 4:15, 7:26, 1 Pet 2:22, etc.)  Much of Jesus’s interaction showed the misguided additions or misapplications of the Law, especially from the religious leaders. While the Law was good, it was never intended to free the people from their sins. It was intended to expose sin! (Rom 3:20, 5:20) The Law was our guardian or tutor until we could be made right with God! (Gal 3:19-25)

“Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.” Matthew 5:17 (NLT)

The Law (and the Old System) has changed…

Jesus was faithful and without sin when He lived among us, always following the Law. But the purpose He came to accomplish through his death, burial, and resurrection was much greater!

Once Jesus became a sacrifice for us, we finally had freedom from the condemnation that we were under because of our sins! (Romans 8:1-2) But we have far more than that…

This is why the book of Hebrews is so important. It clearly outlines the transition from the Old Covenant to something new…and it is far better than the one that passed away. (Heb 8:13)

“You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people…” Hebrews 12:24

Jesus is our High Priest forever now that He is sitting at the right hand of the Father. The old priesthood has ended. Everything about the Old Law and the Tabernacle/Temple was pointing to Jesus and the Heavenly Sanctuary.

“And if the priesthood is changed, the law must also be changed to permit it.” Hebrews 7:12

Paul explicitly says in 1 Corinthians 9:20-21 that we are “not under the Law of Moses but under the Law of Christ“. In Romans, Paul discusses that we are freed from the Law because of God’s grace.

So does that mean that we toss out everything from the Old Law? No, but we should always be looking for the fulfilled meaning of the Law when we examine our practices.

What about the Gentiles who become Christians?

When the Gospel message went out to the Gentiles (non-Jews), there were many religious leaders and Jews who would insist that Christians would still need to follow the Old Covenant Laws. So much controversy existed, that Paul met with some of the Apostles in Jerusalem to confirm unity of their answer to the churches.

In Acts 15, the group distributed a letter explaining that the Gentiles were not expected to follow the Law of Moses (which is 613 Laws). And many letters in the New Testament emphasize how important it is that the people do not revert back to the Old System, because it cannot save you! (For more study on this, see Galatians and Hebrews)

The New Covenant and the Law of Christ

But the letter to the Colossians has the most clear explanation:

“So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.  For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.” Colossians 2:16-17

The Law required not only Sabbath Day observances, but also eating only clean meats, being circumcised, celebrating festivals, and making sacrifices to name just a few of the most debated ones. And remember, that the punishment for violating these Laws was often death! If we try to impose any of these laws from the Old System into Christianity, we are supplanting the New Law of Christ with the older, insufficient ways.

That means that Jews and Gentiles were expected to conform to the new and better way!

Now, does that mean that we ignore all of it? No.

It also doesn’t mean we can’t do anything from the Old Law. Much of our justice system is built off of the Judeo-Christian values from the Bible. It simply means that you cannot imply or state that adherence to these practices is required for Christianity. We are often warned that to do so would be to go beyond what is written in the New Testament (1 Cor 4:6).

Many of the New Testament letters deal with people that are called “Judaising teachers”, who were leading people astray. They were trying to impose many of these Laws, such as circumcision, on Christians, saying that you had to become a Jew in addition to believing in Christ.

We need to remember that the Old Covenant Law was good and that it represented the principles of a just and good nation. The first 10 Commandments are largely a moral standard to live by – relating to both God and the rest of mankind. But it was no longer to be imposed as a requirement.

Sunday, the new Sabbath?

Early Christians began to meet on Sundays, the first day of the week. This was not intended to move the Sabbath Day but instead to honor Jesus, who rose from the grave on a Sunday.

So while Christians come together on Sunday to worship God, this does not mean that there is an expectation that you need to create a bunch of rules about rest on Sunday. Or Saturday, for that matter.

In fact, for us, we felt that it was important that our Sabbath time not be on Sunday. While the morning is reserved for worship services, much of the day goes to preparation for the week.

So, is a Sabbath Day still required? No, I would answer that according to the New Covenant, it is not required. If the Holy Spirit felt it was important to emphasize the routine of a Sabbath for Christians, we would have heard about it in the citations mentioned above. In fact, we are called to avoid condemning anyone for such things.

However, when we remember back to the principles of the Sabbath and the emphasis in the first commandments of the Law, we can recognize that there are some important principles that we likely need reminding of just as much today as they did when wandering in the wilderness.

Principles to guide Us/Always:

• That the Sabbath was given for our good!
• Work + Rest (for the Lord) each week is needed!
• A day of the week set apart as Holy
• Recognizing that trusting God’s provision for us means that we can always stop and He will provide.
• Remembering our freedom from the slavery of sin!

Isn’t it interesting that Christians are explicitly told to take the Lord’s Supper each first day of the week?! Like the Israelites received instruction to remember their freedom from Egypt, we too are called to remember Christ’s sacrifice that freed us from sin each week. Many of God’s instructions have a fulfilled meaning in our lives as Christians. It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence.

New Covenant Rest

The book of Hebrews explains how many of the Israelites did not enter the promised rest (in this case dual meaning with the land of Canaan) due to their disobedience and lack of faith. Even so, the faithful men and women of old looked forward for their rest, never ultimately seeking the rest of the land, but beyond. In Hebrews 4:1, the author reminds all Christians that “God’s promise of entering his rest still stands…”

In the next verses, we are called back to the beginning to help us understand that rest is always the last step to His perfect and complete plan.

Rest for the Christian is in Heaven. It was never about finally getting the land (Heb 4:8 – although the Israelites did get rest in the land), and it was never about finishing all your plans and labors here on Earth. It was always about ultimate holy rest, which only comes when we are restored to the Father in Heaven.

God’s work is complete

In the beginning, God spoke and completed His work of Creation and then rested. We know that Jesus is called the Word and He became flesh and dwelt among us. We know that everything in the Old Law pointed to Jesus and His purpose in cleansing our sin. And we read in Hebrews 1:1-4 that in times past, God spoke to us by the prophets, but now He speaks through His Son.

Jesus’s message is the last prophecy we will ever need. When the last of His Apostles was old, John got one more prophecy from Jesus and that was a reminder to keep the faith and endure any trials until the end to receive the reward of Heaven.

From the beginning of Creation, God had a plan and a purpose for everything that He did. And His work is complete, but ours is just beginning. For He tells all of his followers, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring the good news?”

When we recognize that the Kingdom of Christ has COME, we may need to consider that we are actually in a version of Rest already. We are called to live our lives from a place of rest that comes from Jesus.

Because God has declared that the great mystery has been revealed with His son, His message is also complete. We don’t have any more books in the Bible because He has said everything that He needed to say and done everything He needed to do for us to have what we need to live godly lives (2 Peter 1:3). It is the rest of completeness.

So when we ask what the Sabbath looks like in the New Covenant, where the Old Law has been fulfilled, I am asking, do we operate from a place of rest which recognizes that God’s plan is complete? Do we approach this life in a manner that shows that our life is peaceful and purposeful because it is rooted in His ways? Are we busy doing the work of a Kingdom that is always open for more Christians?

Me/Now: Where do I need “work”?

Now if you’ve made it this far, you might be feeling inspired to make some changes. When I reflected on the gift of rest that God is inviting us to enjoy with Him from the beginning of time itself, I realized that I was not really doing that.

We have covered what about the Sabbath was intended for Us/Always and specifically broke out the parts that were for Them/Then (the Israelites) only. As we recognize the patterns and principles that God established for us, is there any area that needs work for you? All 3 distinctions are important, but this one is where we have to decide what we will do about it.

Our Rest Amid Evil

Rest is much more difficult when the demands of life and the realities of evil and a broken world are all around us. Whether we are looking at the world around us or zooming in to our own circles, we can see the impact of a sick and sin-filled world. Sometimes it is even closer to home and sometimes it is in our own home.

Yes, there is absolutely evil and sadness, brokenness and disaster in this world–and “it is ruled by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work” on the Earth.

But let’s go back to the beginning, because before sin entered the world, things were as they should be, right?

I have heard some Christians refer to the Creation as perfect–which makes sense, even in simple examples like how animals didn’t eat each other and people lived in harmony with animals before the curse.

But that is not actually what the Scriptures say, God always states the Creation is “very good”, even before sin entered the world. Before the act of sin, Satan was roaming around the very same garden as Adam and Eve. Temptation of the flesh, lust of the eye and the pride of life were all present, before they were given in to.

We were never intended to permanently be in this “very good” world. God’s plan was set in motion and it was truly the beginning, not an end-state in and of itself. We always had a path of faithfulness to pursue. God reminds us that “before the foundation of the world, he established his plan in Christ” (Eph 3:8-12).

I believe, part of the reason God defines creation as only “very good” is that while the Devil is around tempting us to operate in the flesh, we cannot and will not have a perfect world.

Perfection is not possible or even part of the plan for our time on Earth. God is continually warning us and reminding us of the realities of disaster/disease/decay, the temptations of the flesh, the likelihood of suffering in our faith. Our perfect rest is not on this side of our lives but when we return to Him in glory. When the Devil and all evil is far from us and forever in punishment. That’s when life will be perfect. Christ is called the Perfecter of our Faith. And perfection is only ever found in Christ and the ultimate rest is in Heaven.

So, even in light of evil, what does our rest look like? How can we rest when we see the evil all around us?

The Rest of Good Work

It is foreign to our culture to place Rest & Work together, but the Lord does. On the Sabbath, he corrected the Pharisees for not allowing his Good Work on the Sabbath. There is no Law against good work! The Law has never prohibited good work!

Under the Old Law, if someone had been wronged by a brother, they were to leave their sacrifice at the alter and go take care of it. Back then, even the day set aside for the Lord was not a day to ignore God’s work of reconciliation.

Now, in the Kingdom of Christ, we need to recognize that Sunday is not the only time set aside for the Lord. It is not the rest of a nap (though I’m not saying you can’t have one!). It is the rest of a Good Kingdom that has a Good Purpose to accomplish, every day.

Is there enough rest in our lives to allow for the work of the Kingdom to fit in? Is there room for wrestling with God’s Word, either alone or with someone else? Is there room for the servant heart God asks of us towards our family, our congregation, our Christian community, and our community at large (in that order actually)?

Are we keeping our focus, every week, on our mission to share Jesus with others? Is our “rest” focused just on us and our own reset or the Kingdom in which we reign as a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)?

In our world today, we almost seem caught between 2 extremes: We have almost forgotten how to pause AND We can only rest when the job is done!

Neither of these are good for us.

I can’t stop! Work + Rest

We have kept putting off rest until it starts to do damage. Many of us have learned the hard way that sometimes you are worse-off without rest.

• Do you remember in school when you tried to power through a project or paper, only to come up empty? Sometimes what we need is a clear head.

• How many of you have taken a vacation or a break from school/work, only to have everyone immediately get sick?! Our body will alert us at some point…

Or maybe…

We can only rest when the job is done. There is something to be said for working hard to get to a “good stopping point”. And also something to be said for taking the time to celebrate when work is complete.

How many of us think that we will rest on vacation? And then either we can’t put the work down or the vacation doesn’t feel restful at all so we shift again.

If we begin to think of the ability to stop working as an act of trust that God will provide for us, then maybe we can break free from this cycle of thinking that it just isn’t possible to stop.

I’m too distracted! Focus on holy things

Even on the toilet, many of us are on the phone doing something…Idle time is a thing of the past.

Scrolling, watching, working; even purposeful tasks are filling every second of our day.

We haven’t allowed our minds the time to idle or be bored.

We have trouble setting things aside because they are always there. You can’t really “leave the office” anymore.

The notifications are going off or piling up if you seek to ignore them. We are actually living our life on high-alert! Did you know that frequent interruptions (like a phone notification) can actually increase stress and mental fatigue? Even just the presence of a phone can distract the brain from focus. Have you noticed the number of times you pick up your phone lately in your weekly report? (See “The Attentional Cost of Receiving a Cell Phone Notification” for more data about the impact)

I’ve even chatted with friends about the additional mental load of text messages from your kids once they get a cell-phone. That’s not even beginning to calculate the impact to them.

Listen, I’m not trying to encourage everyone to get rid of their phone, though there are times when I wish I could. But there is a toll to this life when we are always ON…on the phone, online, on alert.

I had the opportunity to hear Arthur Brooks speak this Summer about his book “The Meaning of Your Life” and he also agrees that while we can’t get rid of our phones entirely, we need some guardrails to preserve our sanity and also our fulfillment in life. Many of the most important things in life cannot be learned or developed through a phone or answered by AI. I am working to incorporate his approach to technology. My phone is docked in another room as I’m writing this!

If we can admit our habits of distraction and be willing to surrender them to God, then maybe we can begin to adjust our habits and allow for room for things that God says we need: rest and time set aside for a different focus…a holy one.

We weren’t meant to carry these things on our own. We weren’t meant to wait on anything to accept Jesus’s help.

What shall we do?

All of these things are part of my struggle as well. But I would urge you not to fall into the “Old Way” of worshipping the Sabbath as if we are all under the Old Covenant and Laws of Moses. I would instead encourage you to stretch into the fulfilled meaning of this word – Sabbath, in likeness to the beginning. And recognize that we are at the unending completion of God’s Word. And there is Work to do!