The Forgotten Teachings of Jesusনমুনা

Learning Freedom through Rest

As the sun sets and light begins to fade over the Sea of Galilee, families are hastily closing up shops, securing animals, and making final preparations for Shabbat (pronounced sha-BAWT). For the next twenty-four hours, the day of the Sabbath, life will proceed at a much different pace. People will rest. This is how God said it should be.

But rest comes in many different forms. For some, rest means a brief nap and a break from work. For others, rest is a few minutes alone, free from the distractions and responsibilities of daily life.

Then there are those for whom rest is needed in a much deeper sense. There is a stirring in their souls that just won’t go away. Whether it derives from the harshness of their circumstances or a nagging dilemma that will not subside, they long to be at peace, to rest from the burdens that overwhelm them.

In episode 2 of the first season of The Chosen, we witness how an entire community structures their lives in hopes of rest. Shabbat is the Hebrew word for “rest.” But it also represents the day that God commanded God’s people to rest—the Sabbath. Shabbat is central to Jewish life. The entire week revolves around it. To understand why, it is important to consider what was happening when God gave this command to the Hebrew people.

As Moses stood on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the Hebrew people were still getting used to the taste of freedom. For hundreds of years, they had been slaves in Egypt. No person in their community had ever known freedom.

So, when God brought the Hebrew people out of Egypt, one of the first things he did was teach them how not to be slaves.

Shabbat was critical to this. During their centuries of slavery, the Hebrew people had worked day in and day out without rest. They worked out of fear, surrendered to someone else’s control. But now they were free! And free people rest.

This doesn’t come naturally, though, to people who have never known anything but slavery. Through the fourth commandment and subsequent passages in the Torah, God helps them see that rest is an opportunity to trust in the Lord and to believe that the same God who freed them from slavery will always provide for them—even when they rest.

While we may not have been literal slaves like the people of Israel, we must still learn to rest. How often do we find ourselves enslaved in busyness and distractions, lost and exhausted, overwhelmed and confused. We find ourselves crying out to the Lord, asking God to free us from our burdens and give us rest from our weariness. Thankfully, we can look to the One who shows both what true rest really looks like and where to find it. He promises to give rest to those who labor and are burdened.

Reflect: How have I built the practice of rest into my life, demonstrating my freedom and trust in God?

Prayer Starter: Lord Jesus, I am weary and want to be free of my burdens. I come to you today to find rest…