Summary

The Rest Day Word on the Week 16th November 2024.
We live in a world where stress is an ever present reality. Expressions such as ‘stressed-out’ have entered the vocabulary. Last year in the UK 13 million working days were lost due to stress-related illnesses.
Simple things such as driving a car in, what is euphemistically called the rush hour, (although in some places it lasts most of the day), can increase the driver’s stress factor. Most work is based on a speed/accuracy principle which exerts its own pressures on the worker, especially if the employer has unrealistic ideas of what is expected!
The week-end, originally thought to be ‘free time’ where attention can be given to personal matters, is now often required to catch-up with a list of outstanding jobs which never seem to get any shorter!
Family life suffers with children disrupting adult plans in many ways. In fact, the child may know the child-minder, with whom they spent the greater part of the working week, better than the parent(s). Should the youngster become sick, crisis management is quickly required but not always available.
Such is life today that a one day every seventh set aside for rest would be a God-send. In fact, God did just that in the fourth Commandment (Exodus 20 verses 8 to 11). This rhythm was introduced at creation with God, the creator, resting on the 7th day. He blessed it and made it holy from all the work He had done (Genesis 2 verses 2 and 3).
For the people of God Isaiah 58 verses 13/4 records great blessings arising from Sabbath keeping (it was 6 pm on Saturday to 6 pm on Sunday). “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honourable, and if you honour it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, ...”
Jesus and his followers were in a very busy place. There were so many people that he and his disciples did not even have time to eat. He said to them, “Come with me. We will go to a quiet place to be alone. There we will get some rest.” Mark 6:31. This was a rest day in addition to the Sabbath.
After reviewing their unbelief in the history of Israel where they refused to enter into God’s rest, the author of Hebrews points out that there remains a rest for the people of God (Chapter 4 verse 9).
God’s people can look forward to a permanent ‘day’ of rest in the glory. It will be stress free because our Redeemer knows us intimately (Hebrews 4:14/16).