Rest

For some, this weekend signifies an end to summer and the return to the school year (I
know that has been the attitude in our home for many years now!). For others, it’s the
last chance to get in a weekend of camping or traveling up north. And for still others, it’s
just a long weekend and a chance to grill some burgers and dogs. Or maybe it’s a
chance to get a steal of a deal on that new appliance, couch, or vehicle you’ve been
waiting for!

However you approach Labor Day, the holiday gives us a moment to stop and think
about the topic of rest. Although the holiday has decidedly secular origins from the late
1800s, the idea behind its creation was to recognize the hard work and contributions of
the working class to the growth and prosperity of our nation. By establishing this day as
a national holiday on the first Monday in September, it allowed many of those hard-working individuals to have an extended weekend toward the end of summer – one last
hurrah, as it was. That is, they had a long weekend to rest from their labors and enjoy
what they had earned.

The notion of both having a solid work ethic and regularly resting from that work is a
clear principle established in Scripture. We should be careful not to confuse the
existence of work with the curse pronounced on creation because of sin. After all, God
worked before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden and He provided work for the man
and woman in the Garden (Genesis 1-2), so we cannot say that work is, in and of itself,
part of the curse. What we can say is that work became significantly more difficult and
less efficient after the curse (cf. Genesis 3:17-19). I believe, based on those opening
chapters of Genesis, that our work today leaves us exhausted in a way that Adam and
Eve did not know prior to disobeying God’s command. Yet God, in His overwhelming
grace, established the principle that we should also rest from our work one day out of
the week when He created during the first six days of the week and rested on the
seventh. Once again, we see that principle existed before the sin of our forebearers
entered the picture.

Unfortunately, many of us treat our day of rest as a time to “catch up” on the work that
we didn’t accomplish through the rest of the week. It’s a subtle trap to fall into, because
we intrinsically know that we should work hard in order to glorify God (1 Corinthians
10:31; Colossians 3:23-24). And there is a satisfaction that comes with putting in a
good day’s work. Yet as with any good thing given to us by God, we can misuse it. If
we fail to rest, we are not demonstrating how great our faithfulness or dedication to God
is; indeed, it’s the opposite. He has told us to rest (Exodus 20:8-11) and that He created
this day of rest for us, not us for it (Mark 2:27), so to ignore this gift is to our own
detriment: our health deteriorates, we lose mental acuity, and we face burnout in our
physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual lives.

Whatever you choose to do this Labor Day weekend, I hope you take some time to rest.
While you are doing so, meditate on Hebrews 4, where we learn that because of
Christ’s redemptive work, we now find our rest in Him because He has secured our
salvation by that completed work. Let that truth calm your soul and remind you of the
joy that awaits us in Glory.

Pastor Roy