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I've seen so many people loving the 10th month of the year. And I'm right there with them. So many things to love. The Cooler days, the beautiful colors, football, hockey, soups and stews and chilis, pumpkin seeds and apple pies, and the return of Charlie Brown to prime time TV. I often consider the changing of the seasons, and how it creates patterns and foreshadowing in our lives. Before the industrial revolution, humans used those cues for planning their lives and their households. Spring, you plant, summer you tend to your crops, fall you harvest, and winter you rest. Looking at a big picture, in the spring of our lives, we plant by learning, we tend to or lives by working, we harvest as we establish ourselves and reap from our learning, and then we rest in our retirement. But it doesn't seem that we live like that, anymore. Not in yearly planning, nor in life planning. Life is much more fast paced, now. We have microwaves and instant downloads and Amazon prime. The natural cycle has been interrupted. Or, more accurately, we are stuck in fast forward, the cruise control is always on, and the brakes don't work. For some reason, we look at nature and think, "I can top that", rather than thinking, "so this is how things are supposed to work". But I think as much as we try to rebel against nature, something in us finds comfort in the fall, like a hoodie on a cool October night. It's like there's something in our DNA, something put there by the Creator, that tells us that it's almost time to rest.
But, we have a sin nature, and that nature messes with us. We make idols. Money, for instance. Or our jobs or our social standing and social media fingerprint. And then we envy. We look at what others have, and we desire it. We desire those things so much that we work ourselves into an early grave, striving to buy those things, or we put ourselves into financial slavery, through debt, to get those things. And then, because of those idols and that envy, we then also violate the Sabbath by working to exhaustion.
God gives us rest. He gave it to us in the beginning.
Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 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.”
He confirmed it, later.
Exodus 20:9-10 “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work”
And then He gives us the spiritual rest that we couldn’t get on our own.
Matthew 12:6-8 “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Did you notice something there? Again, we’re given a pattern, and then the reason for the pattern.
The body needs rest. This is a natural, scientific fact. You cannot go without sleep. You might make it a day or two, if you really tried, but sooner or later it will catch up to you, and you will suffer serious consequences.
And you cannot go without time off of working. Again, we can go for quite a bit of time, but sooner or later, it will catch up with you. I’ve seen people go weeks or months without time off. They will proudly declare how much they are working, as though it is something to be envious of. But I have seen it in people around me, and I have seen it in me, burnout WILL happen.
And that pattern carries through to the spiritual, as well. We can do so much. We really can. But without rest, you burn out. Before Christ, the people of God had to have faith, and they were required to perform sacrifices to pay for their sins. And some turned those sacrifices into something else. It was simply payment, meaning you could still sin, and then just go pay for it, at the temple. But others understood, like David, when he said, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:16-17).
When Christ came, He gave us the spiritual Sabbath that we needed, in peace with God (Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
If you’re a Christian, hopefully you understand this spiritual rest that we have. But even the Christian, while delighting in the spiritual Sabbath, often rejects the physical Sabbath, as one of the laws that Christ did away with on the cross.
But Christ didn’t do away with the law against adultery, on the cross, did He? Is it now acceptable to lie and murder, now that Jesus died and rose again? Surely it is ok to steal, now, right?
Of course not. Those laws are God’s standard. We strive to keep them every day. The difference is, that if we stumble, those sins have been paid for. We don’t desire to commit those sins anymore, because our hearts have been changed, but we find rest in the fact that those stumbles are covered, if we do.
So, I ask you, why do we not desire to lie or steal or murder or commit adultery anymore, but we will gladly break the Sabbath? Because it is what society does? Or is it because we put ourselves or have been put in situations where we feel we have to? The Sabbath is there for a reason. We need it. Even Jesus needed to go up a mountain or out on a boat to be alone and rest. Don’t try to bypass that blessing, by believing that you are somehow immune to nature or God’s laws. You will burn out, spiritually and physically. And I believe that that is what the enemy wants. Which is why the enemy has gotten us to believe that we have to keep going, or that God won’t provide or that things will fall apart without you.
Look around you. The trees are turning yellow and orange and the nights are getting longer. There are real reasons for that. The trees need to rest, and the ground needs to rest. And you need to rest as well. Rejoice that that rest is provided. Both spiritually and physically.
Take a cue from the creation, that the Creator is in control, and rest.
