Recently
I was listening to a podcast sermon from Tim Keller, Work and Rest. In it
Tim points out that so often we, and even the Pharisees of the Bible, think of
Sabbath as a physical rest. In doing
so we neglect noticing the deep rest
the inner rest Sabbath may actually
be searching for. Keller looks at some instances of Sabbath, and I am going to
focus on the first one in Genesis 1-3.
In
Genesis 1:31-2:2, we see God finishing creation and calling it all very
good. Then upon completion on the
seventh day He rests. He sets that day apart and calls it holy. Why does God rest? Surely it is not because He was
tired. If God was a God who could
tire, then surely He is not God.
So if He was not tired then why rest? It seems this rest points not towards a rest of
recuperation, or of recharging ones batteries physically, but rather a rest of
accomplishment. God had finished,
He had accomplished, He had finished, and it was very good, so He rested. He was completely satisfied by what had
been done, now He could rest in that fact.
So
often we are striving for something, to prove something either to ourselves, to
others, or even maybe to God.
But in reading Scripture it does not seem to me that this is what God
requires or desires. When man was
created, we were made in God’s image, filled with His breath, the spirit of
God, and pronounced “very good”.
Then God was finished, completely satisfied with His work. Man lived in perfect communion with
God, our “church” was walking in perfect harmony with God in the garden,
perfect communication, not afraid and not ashamed. It is not until Genesis 3 where we see the serpent entering
the scene breaking that trust, that communion with God, and man begins striving
for more.
Because
of pride, because of wanting one’s own way instead of God’s man tries to become
his own God and begins the process of striving and proving himself that will
continue until he is one day completely redeemed. Man rejects God’s authority, God’s supremeness, and who God
says man is, and begins to try to prove to himself and others that he is
something of worth. It is my
theory that in knowing “good and evil” man develops a constant desire to
measure and weigh himself, to count his imperfections, to try to counteract his
guilt, to try to become more, to do more, to no avail. Because of that fruit we now know how
much more we can be, how short we fall of God, and we desire, we strive to
bridge that gap, to become gods ourselves.
Before
tasting the fruit we were content, listening only to who God said we were, what
God said we were, and who God was in us.
We were very good, and God was God, supreme and sovereign, there was no
need for us to be anything more, to do anything more than rest in Him, in that
fact. We saw ourselves as God
intended fulfilled in Him, in His image, radiating His glory. In eating the fruit becoming
“knowledgeable” we stopped resting in that fact and started striving for
ourselves. Psalm 46 says
(paraphrased), “God is our refuge and strength, a
help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the
earth should change/fall apart -Selah.”
If God is truly our strength, our refuge, we should not be afraid,
regardless of the state of the world and what is going on around us, we will
not fear.
I
love the word Selah, and although there is some debate on its exact meaning I
love the idea that it means pause and reflect. Stop and listen, think! Meditate on that fact, that God is truly God, and if that is
true, then we are not gods. That
means He is in control of it all, there is nothing dependant on us, we are not
responsible for making the world run, it is in His hands. If we believe that fact, why do we
fear, why are we striving to do it of our own accord? It can only mean we do not truly believe, we do not truly
trust that God is God. We do not
truly believe He is in control, in some small or large way we are guilty of the
same pride of Adam in the garden, the desire to be in control, to have the
knowledge, to do it on our own.
This is not rest, this is not Sabbath.
Bringing
us to the next section of Psalms 46 and what it means to rest in the Lord.
Psalm 46:4 (again paraphrased) “There is a river whose streams make glad
the city of God, God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God
will help her. The Lord of hosts is with us; He
is our stronghold. Come, behold the works of the Lord, Cease striving and know
that I am God; I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord of
hosts is with us; He is our stronghold. Selah.” It seems this is most likely referring to Jerusalem but I
believe now also applies to us.
How I wish for our lives we could all be rivers of peace, rivers of
rest. Not striving for anything
but to give God control of our lives. If God is in us, if we are at peace, we
will not be moved, and in this peace it seems God delights. We rest because we have God at the wheel;
from the prior verses we have yielded control to God because He has it all in
his hands.
We
no longer have to struggle to be someone, to do something. We are to acknowledge who God is, and
His power, and look at all the things He has done and know it is enough, that
it is very good! In looking at
that we ourselves begin to trust in who He is and what He has done and we cease
striving to become our own gods in ourselves. We rest in the fact that this life is all about what God has
done not what we have, can, or will do!
We are nothing but dust, and from Genesis 3 we see that is exactly what
we will return to. It is only what
God does that matters, His life, His breath in us is what gives us value. We exist only to be in communion with
Him, to be His image bearers, to work, yes, but not to let that work or
striving overwhelm or define us. We
are defined by nothing but God, and to be as the river in Psalm 46, at peace
with God in our midst.
How
then can we find this now that we are plagued by sin? Praise be to God, He came Himself and died for us, covering
our sin, our shame, our striving with His own blood. Our debt has been paid, not of anything we have or could
have done. But according to his
mercy we are made clean. Again we
have no reason to strive for ourselves, it is finished. We are at peace. So while the world and our sinful nature
tell us constantly to strive, to be more, to be better, to work harder, we must
find our Sabbath (our deep inner rest), in trusting who God is and what He has
done. Letting our fears and
failures go, because ultimately this world is not dependant on us. This does not mean that we should be
lazy and not work at all. In fact,
at the beginning of Genesis we see that man was put in the garden to work, to
take care of creation. So yes, we
should work, yes we should act, yes we should love, but only as God leads,
resting in His lead, trusting that it is in His hands. God is in control of it all, not
us. We must only walk in communion
with Him. We must cease our
striving and find Sabbath rest, Selah, the Lord is with us.
