:: Belize readings, Thur: Mission – a good work, worthy of rest ::

(note - not sure why font is so large on a couple of these... can't seem to fix it. sorry!)

Read Exo 20:8-11; Heb 4:9; Matt 11:28-30; Rom 11:33-36

“Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God” (Exo 20:9) While time, schedules, and “life” unfortunately don’t allow a full six days of work on this brief trip, there is still much importance in taking tomorrow to rest and celebrate four good work days before flying home Saturday morning. So work hard today; accomplish much, and then take tomorrow to celebrate – not what you have accomplished this week, but what God has done through you, for his name.

Sabbath is a gift from God, given as a blessing for us and for our enjoyment, to lead us closer to God. C. John Collins (OT Professor, Covenant Seminary), explains Sabbath as follows:

The commandments were never given as a list of what you have to do to make God love you – nor even a list of what you have to be in order to measure up as a believer. Rather, they describe the kind of character that God aims to produce in those who love Him; and as we obey them, He's at work changing us. And they're a gift: they come from the same God who saved His people, and express exactly the same love for us as His works of salvation. God has honored us by giving us these requirements.

So yes, we can say that we've got to keep them, because they come from God; but that's not what I want you to think about right now: it's not just that you've got to keep them, it's also that you get to keep them. It's a privilege. In order for us to think this way about the fourth commandment, we need to consider briefly three points. First, what is the "rest" that this commandment requires? Second, what is the expected character of the Sabbath rest? And third, why is this arrangement so
delightful?

What Is the "Rest" That This Commandment Requires?
What exactly does it mean to "rest" on the Sabbath day? There are two kinds of rest that the LORD expects from His people: for the first, consider Exodus 23:12: "Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed." We might call this rest and recuperation for our natural life; as Exodus 31:17 tells us, the Sabbath "is a sign forever between [the LORD] and the
people of Israel, that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." Just as God rested after His workweek, so God's people are to rest on their Sabbath.

So the first kind of rest is physical rest. The other kind is what we might call spiritual rest. Leviticus 23:3 says, "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places." Besides the gladness that comes from the relief of the body, comes the gladness of public, sacramental worship (which is what a "holy convocation" is, see Isaiah 1:13), entering His gates with thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4).

The Character of the Sabbath Rest
What is the character of the Sabbath rest that God has required? By this I mean, not just what were they to do, but how were they to go about it, and what was the day supposed to be like? Again, I can find two aspects that I want you to think about. Look at Genesis 2:1-3, which is the model for man's Sabbath:

¹Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ²And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. If someone asks you "What happened?" in a bit of Old Testament narrative, the first thing you should do is look for the verbs in the narrative tense; in this passage, "heavens and the earth were finished… God finished his work… [God] rested, blessed the seventh day and made it holy." Well then, what happened? Nothing! Nothing, that is, but inactivity, and enjoyment of the world that God made. Oh, blessed day of relaxation from ordinary toils!

So the first aspect of the day is relaxation from ordinary toils. The second aspect comes out in Exodus 34:21: "Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you hall rest." Yes, even in plowing time and harvest, when there's so much to do, and the weather cuts you no slack with its deadlines. And why? Because God's people need to learn to trust Him in all things, so that they don't fall prey to anxiety and fear – and the way to conquer anxiety includes doing the things we would do if we trusted as we should. So the day is supposed to be one that brings us freedom from anxiety, worry, and fear.

Why Is This Arrangement So Delightful?
Why does it go beyond the power of human tongue to tell how great is this gift of God? Think for a second about the Ten Commandments – given to a people that had just been delivered from oppressive slavery in pagan Egypt. "In Egypt you were surrounded by gods everywhere you turned; but now there's just one, the maker of heaven and earth. There you couldn't help but see carved images that degraded the nature of God and man; but now you get to worship the true God according to the way He really is. There they made you work all the time, and called you lazy if you wanted time off to rest or worship; but now you get to follow the rhythm of work and rest that God built into the world when He made it. There, if you wanted to get ahead, you had to reject your father and mother, and follow Egyptian ways; but now you can see what a glorious thing it is for covenantal parents and children to walk with God together." And so on…

'Finally, as you do one more day of work before you go, surely there were both good and frustrating moments this week; things that went well and things you’d change If you could; maybe even things that make you question yourself and your work in Belize. But as Romans 11 reminds us, we can’t know God’s purposes, but good, bad, or otherwise (from our perspective), “from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” True rest comes in that truth. And that’s what you can celebrate, both in your work today and in your celebration tomorrow.