How Do We Faithfully Live within Our Finitude?

Sabbath

One of the most countercultural and radical ideas in the Bible, when compared to the ancient world, is the Sabbath. One day a week you do not have to work. The Jews were thought lazy because of it. While those in power could rest when they wanted, slaves and peasants were often unprotected from demands for endless labor, a terrible burden still on the poor of our day who have multiple jobs to make ends meet or are trapped in other modern forms of slavery.

If there was anyone who could legitimately ask for an unceasing industry, it would be the Creator of heaven and earth. Yet from the beginning, Yahweh said that he and his people would reject that notion. From its foundation in the opening creation narrative (Gen. 2:1–3) to its inclusion as one of the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:8–11), the call to rest from one’s regular labor was a defining characteristic of the Creator God and his worshipers. Strong and weak, rich and poor, male and female, all were to be free at least one day in seven, free for unhindered worship, refreshment, and renewal. Amid the endless demands of life and labor, one day a week was treated as different, reminding Israel that God, not creatures, upholds the world and calls it good. We were designed not only to work but also to rest, just as God rested after six days of creative work. Yahweh looked back at his creations in delight and satisfaction, declaring the seventh day as holy, different, set apart.

The Sabbath was instituted not to make you feel guilty but to make you feel known and loved. It was meant to reorient your view and experience of God and his world. As Jesus later explained, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Contradicting our temptation to imagine that God’s love for us depends on our productivity, one day a week he says, “Stop; look up; look around; lift your heart; delight and rest.” Without this rhythm, we easily stick to our labor and make it our lord; we start to worship the creation rather than the Creator. This is why you and I must rest, not because God needs us but because we need him. When we ignore our need to rest, we ignore our limits, and we end up ignoring God.

According to Genesis, the foundation of our call to rest is that God himself rested (Gen. 2:3). Because God looks at his good creation and rests in his finished work, humanity can rest as well. Our rest is directly linked to his rest, and therefore it is also linked to fellowship with him.