Learning to Rest

The night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed to His Father, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). Throughout His public ministry, Jesus was preoccupied with this work as He said that His food was to do the will of His Father and “to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). This divine work, planned before the foundation of the world by “the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23), is the central part of God’s plan of redemption for all mankind. It requires a victorious Messiah to be the Pascal Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished!” in John 19:30, He was speaking about more than His work on earth. He was introducing a sabbath rest. 

Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested [sabat] on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.             Genesis 2:1-3 

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy [reverently separated]. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it, you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. "For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.             Exodus 20:8-11 

The program that God planned, in His infinite wisdom, before the foundation of the world for human history centered around a seven-day week, with the seventh day ordained as a day of rest. Just as God worked in creation for six days and rested from His work, He declared that mankind would follow the same pattern of life. Man would need to learn to rest from his work. This principle would not appear in any Biblical command for the first 2,448 years of man’s existence, to be codified in the Law of Moses and introduced in Leviticus 23, and accompanied by the seven major Jewish festivals. 

A Holy Convocation 

The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these: ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.          Leviticus 23:1-3 

The Hebrew word for convocations in the above passage is miqra, and it speaks of a rehearsal, which is similar to a wedding rehearsal. The new covenant believer, Jew or Gentile, is anticipating a wedding, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-9), when each will be wed to the bridegroom, Jesus Christ. The believer is rehearsing as he rests from his work to honor God as a reminder of all the provisions of life provided by Him. The Old Testament Jew, before the advent of synagogues after the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, gathered as a family for a planned rest. (The oldest discovery of a synagogue dates to the 3^rd century BC). The sabbath celebration was a rehearsal of the Kingdom age when Messiah would reign over the entire earth from Jerusalem. God never gave any rules about how it should be celebrated, including the particular day of the week. 

The seven major Jewish festivals from Leviticus 23 are prophetically fulfilled in two ways: in the person of Christ manifested at His first coming and the timing of His two comings. The first four festivals, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost, occur in the spring (the former rain) and point to His first coming, while the last three, which all happen in the fall (the latter rain), point to His second coming. Specifically, Rosh Hashanah is also the Feast of Trumpets and is fulfilled by the rapture of the church, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) looks to the Great Tribulation, and Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles is a picture of the Kingdom age. 

Lord of the Sabbath

At that time, Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath." But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple [hieron – equivalent to the house of the Lord] is here. But if you had known what this means, 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE [Hosea 6:6],' you would not have condemned the innocent. "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"—so that they might accuse Him.             Matthew 12:1-11

Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."         Mark 2:27-28

In the above passages, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees with the question of what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath. In His entire public ministry, it appears He went out of his way to perform miracles, characterized by many as “work,” on the Sabbath. Jesus used this particular occasion to teach that The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Since the oral law included many major restrictions to Sabbath practices, including the very definition of work, and was now being enforced by the Pharisees as if it had come from God, Jesus was challenging the inconsistency of these laws. He was telling them that He is the object of the Sabbath, and it is under His lordship. 

The Rest of God 

As a believer-priest, the new covenant believer accepts his accountability to the High Priest. In Colossians 2:13-14, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” As a result of this greatest work, the believer-priest is tuned into the voice of God, unlike the Jews in the wilderness, who were not listening to God and became disobedient. The ten spies and the people refused to accept that God was greater than their enemies in the promised land, and therefore, they missed their rest. In Psalm 95:10-11, “For forty years I loathed that generation and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know My ways. “Therefore, I swore in My anger; truly they shall not enter into My rest.”

The writer of Hebrews addresses this matter in Hebrews 3:18-19, “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So, we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” There is a direct relationship between unbelief and disobedience. Psalm 106:25 says they grumbled in their tents and were not listening to God’s voice. When the High Priest speaks, the believer-priest not only listens but also mixes faith with what he hears. The relationship to the Word of God is an essential element to the believer finding God’s rest (Hebrews 4:2). In verse 3, “For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, ‘AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,’ although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.” The rest of the High Priest is available to each believer-priest who places his trust in His finished work (John 19:30) and His truth, the Word of God (John 17:17). 

A Sabbath Rest 

So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience.               Hebrews 4:9-11

When Hebrews 4:9 says, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,” it was not just referring to the future kingdom age when Messiah would be in full control, but to all of His people who recognize His Lordship as High Priest in every age. The Greek word is sabbatismós, which means keeping the day of rest as a time when the believer ceases from labor. Verse 10 suggests that this word, derived from the Hebrew shabbat, references the eternal rest that all believers will experience when God's work is completed and he can enter God's rest. It differs from the other word (katabasis) in this passage, translated rest, which speaks about a ceasing to work. This Sabbath rest is the beginning of the believer finding an inner rest, where he learns to rest in the work of God. 

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn [mathete] from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."     Matthew 11:28-30

The rest Jesus refers to here is that inner rest that each believer receives from Jesus through being “yoked up” with Him in His work. It happens when the believer becomes His student, His disciple (mathete), and prioritizes His words. He also places Himself under the authority of the Word of God, which is “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). He allows the Word of God to become his judge so that his thoughts and intentions are disclosed and brought to light. It is a place of safety. 

The Sabbath Fulfilled 

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus stated, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. He was not saying anything was wrong with the Law of Moses, but it was now fulfilled in Christ, a supernatural connection to the Son of God and Messiah. Paul clearly defines the truth in Romans 7:12: So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. There is also a prophecy of the future Sabbath completion when Amos spoke in Amos 8:5-9:

saying, “When will the new moon be over, so that we may sell grain and the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, to make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, and to cheat with dishonest scales, So as to buy the helpless for money and the needy for a pair of sandals, and that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?” The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds. “Because of this, will not the land quake and everyone who dwells in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, and it will be tossed about and subside like the Nile of Egypt. “It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord God, “That I will make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in broad daylight.

The prediction was that the Sabbath would be fulfilled when the land quakes and the sun would go down at noon. In Matthew 27:45, 51: Now from the sixth hour, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. That fulfillment took place at Calvary.

The Substance Belongs to Christ

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.           Colossians 2:13-17

Judaizers had infiltrated many churches, including the Galatian churches as well as the Colossae church, with the intent of keeping the Law of Moses and other laws imposed by the Jewish leadership as a requirement of being a Christian. Although this matter had been addressed by the Council in Jerusalem (see Acts 15), the influence of these spirits is constantly making true Christianity a thing of regulation rather than a freedom in Christ (Galatians 5:1). As Verse 16 says, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. A walk in Christ is not administered by external judges but by the Holy Spirit.

Day by Day           

So then, those who had received his word were baptized, and that day, there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer… And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.          Acts 2:41-42; 44-47

This passage may provide the purest description of the new covenant relationship with God. They met daily and occupied themselves with the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer, taking their meals together, and going from house to house. This is the heartbeat of our worship of God and celebration of the Sabbath. It is much like the Essenes, who attending school daily, studying the Scriptures and other ancient Jewish scrolls, and living a life of purity before God. They had removed themselves from the politics of Jewish public life and carried on their forms of worship outside the Temple, without animal sacrifices, and a deep devotion to studying and exemplifying the characteristics of the priesthood as ancestors of Zadok. They also practiced daily ceremonial baptism. Josephus reports the following in The Jewish War:           

Toward the Deity, at least: pious observances uniquely [expressed]. Before the sun rises, they utter nothing of the mundane things but only certain ancestral prayers to him, as if begging him to come up. After these things, they are dismissed by the curators to the various crafts that they have each come to know, and after they have worked strenuously until the fifth hour, they are again assembled in one area, where they belt on linen covers and wash their bodies in frigid water. After this purification, they gather in a private hall, into which none of those who hold different views may enter now pure themselves, they approach the dining room as if it were some [kind of] sanctuary.         The Jewish War, Book II, 8.5.128-129

Cease Striving 

Revelation 21:3 says, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. Our worship of Him is a daily event as we recognize his desire for each one and choose to fulfill His will without striving. In Psalm 46:10, “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'              Matthew 7:21-23 

Andrew Peterson wrote The Chasing Song, and his words are appropriate: 

Now and then, these feet just take to wandering

Now and then, I prop them up at home

Sometimes I think about the consequences

Sometimes I don't

 

Well, I realize that falling down ain't graceful

But I thank the Lord that falling's full of grace

Sometimes I take my eyes off Jesus

And you know that's all it takes

 

Well, they say a race can only have one winner

Oh, and you know you've got to pull out front to win

God knows the only time I'm winning

Is when I'm chasing Him

 

And Jesus chased the money men

And He chased His Father's will

He chased my sin to Calvary

And He caught it on that hill

Saul, he chased the Christians

'Till his blindness made him see

David, he chased God's own heart

All I ever seem to chase is me