“I Will Give You Rest”

How do you rest?

Mine involves some combination of family, friends, coffee, books, grilling & the Philadelphia Eagles. It may also involve a short nap though, for me, a total absence of activity is not true rest. Rather, it is the presence of just the right set of activities. 

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The writer of Hebrews says “God rested on the seventh day from all his works” (4:5). He urges his audience “to strive to enter” this “Sabbath rest” because it is “for the people of God” and “whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (4:9 – 11). 

The Old Testament uses two different words to describe God’s rest at the end of creation.

After bringing order out of disorder and filling the emptiness with life, “God rested (Heb. shabat) on the seventh day from all his work which he had done” (Gen 2:2). Shabat means to cease. Like the manna that “ceased (Heb. shabat)” coming down from heaven once the Israelites entered the promised land (Jos 5:12). 

Later, the Israelites are commanded to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Why? “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested (Heb. nuakh) on the seventh day” (Exo 20:11). Nuakh means to settle into a place. Like the locusts that “came up over the land of Egypt and rested (Heb. nuakh) in all the land” as a plague on Pharaoh and his people (Exo 10:14). 

In other words, on the seventh day, God ceased from the work of bringing about the ordered creation out of disorder, and settled into that ordered creation he just brought about.

Here is how John Walton puts it:

What does divine rest entail? Most of us think of rest as disengagement from the cares, worries and tasks of life. What comes to mind is sleeping in or taking an afternoon nap. But in the ancient world rest is what results when a crisis has been resolved or when stability has been achieved, when things have “settled down.” Consequently normal routines can be established and enjoyed. For deity this means that the normal operations of the cosmos can be undertaken. This is more a matter of engagement without obstacles rather than disengagement without responsibilities. 

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One popular conception of “being saved” is “going to heaven” and singing praise songs forever and ever while doing nothing else!

What if we instead conceive of “being saved” as entering into God’s shabat and nuakh? What if it’s about our ceasing from the strivings against the disorder of the world and settling into creation in the garden of Eden as we were meant to from the very beginning? What if it means we exercise “dominion” over all of creation, even “the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping things that creeps on the earth”? (Gen 1:26). 

What if this is what Jesus had in mind when he invited us thus: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat 11:28)?

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Sam serves as one of the elders at ODPC EC. Please feel free to contact him at sam.kwon@odpcec.org with any questions or comments. Please join him and fellow brothers and sisters for the monthly study of Hebrews by signing up here.