The Balance of Work and Rest
In creation, God has established a pattern of work and rest that is to be a model for believers.
Labor Day has an interesting history. Some trace its beginnings to the socialist Robert Owen, who claimed May 1, 1833, as the day for the beginning of the millennium. But the first May Day or Labor Day celebration occurred in Paris on May 1, 1889. Most of the countries that observe a labor day do so on May 1. In the Soviet Union it is an official holiday. Canada and the United States have fixed the first Monday in September as Labor Day, and in these countries it is a national holiday in which all classes, not simply workingmen, participate.
—Christianity Today
I. Work and rest were built into creation
II. The pattern of work and rest confirmed in the OT
The pattern of work and rest confirmed in the OT
OT Feasts and Festivals: The Pentateuch prescribes the observance of several recurring festal or otherwise positive religious occasions: every seventh day was to be set apart as a Sabbath on which no work was to be performed (Exod. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-15). In every seventh year (Sabbatical Year), Israelite slaves were to be released (Exod. 21:2-6; Deut. 15:12-18), land was to lie fallow (Exod. 23:10-11; Lev. 25:1-7), and debts of Israelites were to be suspended or cancelled (Deut. 15:1-6). In every fiftieth year (Jubilee Year), property was to return to its original owner, Israelite slaves were to be freed, and the land was to lie fallow (Lev. 25:8-17, 23-55). On the first day of each lunar month, a special series of sacrifices was to be made (Num. 28:11-15; cf. Ezek. 46:6-7). These new-moon festivals were days of feasting (1 Sam. 20:5, 18, 24, 27) and apparently days of rest (Amos 8:5). Of the new-moon festivals, that in the seventh month (the Feast of Trumpets) was the most important (Lev. 23:23-25; Num. 29:1-6). Three festivals, called pilgrimage festivals, required the participation of Israelite males at the sanctuary (Exod. 23:14, 17; 34:23; Deut. 16:16-17): (a) the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, which were celebrated from the sunset of the fourteenth to the twenty-first day of the first month (Exod. 12; 23:15; 34:18, 25; Lev. 23:5-8; Num. 9:1-14; 28:16-25; Deut. 16:1-8; Ezek. 45:21-24); (b) the Feast of Weeks, which occurred at the beginning of the wheat harvest seven weeks after the presentation of the barley omer (Exod. 23:16; 34:22; Lev. 23:15-21; Num. 28:26-31; Deut. 16:9-10); and (c) the Feast of Booths, which was celebrated on the fifteenth through the twenty-second days of the seventh month when the harvest and produce were gathered in (Exod. 23:16; 34:22; Lev. 23:33-36; Num. 28:12-39; Deut. 16:13-18; Ezek. 45:25).
III. Work and rest in the ministry of Jesus Christ
IV. Wisdom needed to balance work and rest
A. To avoid idleness
A slack hand causes poverty: Slack renders an adjective meaning “idle,” “lazy,” or “negligent” in this context. Hand is literally “palm,” in which a part of the hand poetically represents the entire hand, and, in fact, the person the hand belongs to. Causes is the RSV rendering of the Hebrew participle ‘oseh, (“making,” “working,” or “doing”). The Hebrew for this line is literally “poverty making an idle palm.” In the life of a small farmer, poverty is looked upon as the result of failing to do the work required to obtain a minimum of life’s provisions. TEV replaces A slack hand with the more general “Being lazy … poor.” Some translations say more directly “If you are lazy.…” We may follow this, but if we do, we should remember that it does away with the image of the hand which occurs in both lines.
B. To avoid overwork
It is not necessarily pointless, or vain, to rise early or stay up late. The key to understanding this verse is the phrase “eating food earned by hard work.” The expression “hard work” translates the same word that is rendered “painful labor” in Gn 3:17; it stresses anxieties as well as painful experiences. The Bible commends the diligent worker (Pr 24:33–34; 2 Th 3:10–13; cp. Col 3:17), but to lengthen the day with anxious toil and stress only leads to greater problems of body and spirit. By contrast, the Lord gives sleep to the person He loves—the one who trusts Him (Ps 4:8). The psalm’s words may apply equally to literal sleep and to the rest and peace of mind that sleep symbolizes. Anxious toil burns the candle at both ends. One can work hard at worthwhile projects (e.g., building a house—cp. v. 1, where “house” could even refer to the place of worship), but it is the Lord’s involvement that makes the effort worthwhile and successful.
It is not necessarily pointless, or vain, to rise early or stay up late. The key to understanding this verse is the phrase “eating food earned by hard work.” The expression “hard work” translates the same word that is rendered “painful labor” in Gn 3:17; it stresses anxieties as well as painful experiences. The Bible commends the diligent worker (Pr 24:33–34; 2 Th 3:10–13; cp. Col 3:17), but to lengthen the day with anxious toil and stress only leads to greater problems of body and spirit. By contrast, the Lord gives sleep to the person He loves—the one who trusts Him (Ps 4:8). The psalm’s words may apply equally to literal sleep and to the rest and peace of mind that sleep symbolizes. Anxious toil burns the candle at both ends. One can work hard at worthwhile projects (e.g., building a house—cp. v. 1, where “house” could even refer to the place of worship), but it is the Lord’s involvement that makes the effort worthwhile and successful.