God rested

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. – Genesis 2.1-3

On the seventh day God rested.

Why would He do that? An all-powerful God doesn’t need to rest. God doesn’t need a nap. We get a hint about why from the end of the verse where God blessed the day and set it apart from all the rest. This day of rest was so important that God made observing it a part of His law when He gave the ten commandments.

I realise thar as believers we are no longer bound by the Law. It today has no dominion over us. But I thinking there is a principle there we would do well to incorporate into our lives as we serve God and live for Him today. God designed us to need a day to come aside and rest.

And, for Western Europe and the United States at least, for a long time our culture took that day of rest.

But now it has all changed. As a country music song puts it:

Sunday was a day of rest
Now its another day for progress
And you can’t slow down
‘Cause more is best
Its all an endless process.

Our culture has changed and now Sunday is no different that any other day. Its not been that long since most people, outside of emergency services, didn’t have to work on Sunday.

I realise that it is a nostalgic pipe-dream, but I think we are missing something here. I am in a situation where I still get to have a Sunday afternoon rest, but too many people can’t.

I guess all we can do is to all we can do try to try to lay aside that day of rest. I think folks need to try and work with their employers to get their Sundays off so they can be in church and use the day for rest.

I wish I was smart enough to come up with a solution, but as our world becomes more and more secular we need to strive to get our moments of sacredness.