Rest

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

REST

 

Gen 2:1-3

2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

NIV

God had finished all that he had determined he would do regarding everything he had created. There was nothing else to create, so he stopped, or rested from all his work. This is the Hebrew word Shabath, which literally means "to desist from exertion, to cease from labor." It is often translated to mean that you should rest from what you are doing. The Jews celebrate Shabbat and use the phrase Shalom Shabbat, meaning a perfect Shabbat. It is a holy day of rest observed from the evening of Saturday to sunset of Friday. Some of the orthodox persuasion have taken a rest from work to the extent that they will not push a button to turn a light on or off or to summon an elevator. God made it very clear in the Law recorded in Leviticus what the rules for the Sabbath are. God made the seventh day clean, sanctified, holy. We, believers, have changed the Jewish custom of observing Shabath on the seventh day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week. We might say that Sunday is a holy day, with some Christians believing that it is the day of rest God intended for us to desist from all work. But Sunday has nothing to do with the seventh day when God rested from all his work. We have made Sunday whatever we want it to mean; however, it is, in the purest sense, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. We serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today, we know that He is living, no matter what men might say. You ask us how we know He lives. He lives within our hearts. Yet, because God made the seventh day holy, we have taken that to mean that Sunday is our holy day. Yet, we do not follow the Law for the Jews regarding Shabath. Instead, we have developed our own set of rules to govern the first day of the week. Because of our culture, some are required to work on Sunday, but that does not preclude them from celebrating Jesus' resurrection in their hearts and minds. Many of us have set the rule of attending church for one hour on that day of celebration. Does that fulfill our sense of obligation, or keep our Sabbath holy? Since in the truest sense of the day,  because God rested from all his work, we should enter into God's rest, as the author of Hebrews clarifies that we should cease from our work. That might apply to our labor for wages, or our employment-type work, but it can also apply to the work of good deeds. If we have entered God's rest, then we rest in the work of God, his redemptive work, his provisional and protective work. We can rest assured of his faithfulness to his word and that we will experience resurrection. What work can we do to secure our position in the resurrection of believers? We can rest in God.