The Instinct of Ambition: The Story of MosesSýnishorn

Receiving Rest

Moses went to the top of Mount Nebo and finally came to rest. He had been going his whole life, always in pursuit of that promised land. Now, through his disobedience, reality was sinking in. He would not ever enter it. He would be made to set down that great ambition of his life.

Moses died there on that mountain, his work unfinished. But Moses didn’t protest. I think he finally realized how his ambition had begun to eclipse God and skew his faith. He realized that it had blinded him and distorted him. Moses set it down. He laid down the task and sat there on Mount Nebo, looking out over the land he knew he would not enter.

Rest is one of the oldest themes of scripture. It was there the week of creation, God resting on the seventh day. There is something deep and old in our need for it.

It’s unfortunate that many see the sabbath rest as a kind of life hack. If we take one day off, we will be able to maximize our energy and productivity across the other six. We imagine the sabbath allows us to get more things done. By its created order, and the example of Moses' life, the sabbath always comes at the end. Sabbath ends the work short of what we might be capable of doing.

Sabbath is the intentional acceptance of 6/7ths of what we are capable of. Sabbath acknowledges that some things will be left undone. We will intentionally limit our own productivity, our own achievements, our own ambitions. Sabbath is a work that allows us to check ambition and keep it in its proper place. We will not live every day by ambition’s energy. At least one day a week, we too will set it down.

By limiting our own achievement, we open the door to receiving what God is doing. We train ourselves to pay attention to his work, not just our own. We train ourselves to see our own limits and the reality that life always leaves work undone.

The author of Hebrews explicitly connects our need for rest with our ability to obey God. Those who disobey do not find rest. They are driven by their own endless restlessness. Those who obey, learn to set aside their own ambitions and desires, and are given a rest far deeper than time off. This humble act of weekly sabbath prepares us for eternal rest; nothing is left to prove.

You need that rest. You need it eternally, but you also need it here and now. You need that rest to break the power of ambition. You need it to free you from a life of proving yourself.

Resting, you can finally receive, recognize what God is doing, and find better obedience in following him.

Resting is hard. We prefer to keep working, to stay in control. It took divine judgment to bring Moses to rest. But it was, in the end, a gift, not a curse. By rest, he was brought back into a proper relationship with God, others, and himself. Rest does the same for us as well. It frees us and gives us back our life and God.

How have you practiced Sabbath and how can it give you perspective on ambition?