Get Some Rest (2)

This is one area of life that there is great agreement between “science” and faith. Humans need rest. The secularist scientist would say the happenstance of human life requires chemical regeneration that comes through periods of rest. The Christian worldview would say we have a creator (When I preached from Genesis 2 a few years ago, I pointed this out) designed us as the supreme crowning jewel of creation and built rest into the very fiber of the way he created. Humanity needs rest because our creator designed us this way.

Today as we look at the Sabbath Commandment, we will see clearly our need for rest.

Let me remind you again, that the commandments were given to a covenant people, not the world at large, and certainly not to unbelieving nations. No one can be made right with God by keeping commands, because no on can keep commands.

But for those of us who know Jesus, we keep the precepts behind the commands. Last week we talked about our relationship to God in the first 3 commands. Today I want us to look at our relationship with God, creation, and ourselves in the 4th commandment.

We are not slaves

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 HCSB

Be careful to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you. You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey, any of your livestock, or the foreigner who lives within your gates, so that your male and female slaves may rest as you do. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Be careful to remember. ESV observe, KJV- KEEP - the word means to keep, guard, watch over

I think we often miss the fact that WORK is commended here. Work and get it done in 6 days. The God who created us to need rest, did so because he created us to be productive. To work.

The he wants us to rest, to cease

The word is not just used to talk about a day… the emphasis is on ceasing.. on this case to cease from work. But other times its used differently. Look at these verses.

But please note that the emphasis of this passage is that Israel used to be slaves in Egypt. As slaves they HAD to work all the time. Long, hard non-stop weeks under the harsh hands of the Egyptians.

Part of their covenant relationship was that they had a new master, and He wanted them to rest. He was looking out for them, not trying to wear them down and wear them out.

This speaks of God’s relationship to His covenant people. We need to let it sink into our hearts that God HAS OUR BEST INTEREST AT HEART.

Genesis 8:22 HCSB

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

Jeremiah 31:36 HCSB

If this fixed order departs from My presence— this is the Lord’s declaration— then also Israel’s descendants will cease to be a nation before Me forever.

We are not limitless

Exodus 20:8–11 HCSB

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

We can become exhausted, drained, used up, burnt out, depleted, and good for nothing.

As I mentioned in the beginning, God built rest into the cycle of life.

You need a good night’s rest, and you need a weekly rest, and I believe you need a vacation from time to time. If you study the Bible, you will note that God even told Israel to let the land rest from time to time.

Studies have shown that people who aren’t sleeping well have a decrease in concentration and productivity.

And people who are not getting an off day, run out of steam.

It is not good to run on empty. Years ago, a man gave me a book called “Leading on Empty.” I had run out of steam, but had not run out of work. Most of the time, I like to have lots of things on my plate, but I had gotten to the place where I had no desire, no energy, and no drive to do much of anything. That is a bad place to be. GOD MADE US TO NEED REST.

We Are Not Legalists

Mark 2:23–28 HCSB

On the Sabbath He was going through the grainfields, and His disciples began to make their way picking some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was in need and hungry — how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the sacred bread —which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests —and also gave some to his companions?” Then He told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

If you read through the Gospels, you will quickly notice that Jesus had no toleration for man-made rules that defined “how” to keep the Sabbath.

He had no toleration for seeing Sabbath keeping in some burdensome way that exacted rule after rule.

He challenged the Pharisees at every turn on this.

Here is why: The pharisees had made rule after rule on HOW to keep the Sabbath that went way beyond what God had ever said.

In the passage we just read, the Apostle pulled a few heads of wheat and ate a snack, but the busy body religious crowd called Jesus out.

The first question I have, is why are they being so nosy?

But Jesus saw nothing wrong with picking a few heads of grain.

The principle he based that on was this.... Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Sabbath was not Lord over the people.

Ox in the ditch… get him out. If he stays in the ditch, shoot him and get another ox.

The Pharisees had made up rules that made the Sabbath more work, than it was rest.

It was a burden.

In the past Baptist have done the same. We have made up rules about fishing and hunting on Sunday. Or shopping or etc. that go way beyond anything the Bible said.