Sabbath Rest | Sunday, November 8, 2020

Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time forth and forever. (Psalm 131:2-3)

When the ground shakes beneath the nations, where is your trust truly seated?

A Disquieted Soul in a Chaotic Season

If you've felt some moderate frustration or anger over the election and everything that has happened over the last four or five days, then you've been triggered. Interestingly, I don't think this belongs only to one side of the political aisle. Every politically engaged person in our nation is probably not entirely happy with the outcomes, and it all has a certain 2020 flair to it. I expected chaos from this election, and I suspect many of you did as well. I've been sharing that expectation since before this year began. Yet we can keep praising God that we're still moving forward and He is still on the throne.

Like many people, I went to bed late on Tuesday night with a mix of thoughts and emotions, conflicted about the outcome. But I woke up early Wednesday morning with a song in my head that I hadn't heard in fifteen years or more — a song from Psalm 131, sung by a group called Water Deep. The words come straight out of the Psalm: O Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time forth and forever. These words have been on a perpetual loop in my mind ever since, and I am thankful they have. I have been calming and quieting my soul all week long by meditating on them.

Cultivating a Quiet Heart

One translation of Psalm 131:2 says, "I have cultivated a quiet heart, like a baby content in his mother's arms." Thinking about those words, I remembered a picture on my phone from seven years ago — me at my desk with my youngest, Elliot, less than a week old. I have cultivated a quiet heart, like a baby content in his father's arms. Have you done that? Maybe you aren't even sure how. A calm and quieted heart is a heart that safely trusts in the power and majesty of Almighty God.

I remember taking kids to youth camp as a youth pastor. The ropes course had something called the leap of faith. You'd climb about forty feet up a tree, stand on a little two-foot platform, then jump out to grab a trapeze bar hanging ten feet away. It seems absurd, but you're wearing a harness, and the leap is really a test of your trust — not in your ability to grab the bar, but in the person on the ground holding the line. Some people would climb up, freeze on the edge, stare at the bar for five minutes, and climb back down, unable to take the leap.

That is the picture of trust. Do I trust the harness? Do I trust the rope? Do I trust that person forty feet below? In my experience, God is always seeking to mature our trust in Him. Challenging circumstances — events like elections — are leaps of faith. And if we are disquieted in our soul, it is an indication that our trust may be seated in something other than God.

What Are You Trusting In?

On this post-election November morning in 2020, I want to ask you an important question: What are you trusting in? Where is your faith seated? If it is in the halls of power in Washington, D.C., you will always be disquieted. One meaning of the word Israel is "governed of God." If you are ruled and governed by God, then trust in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

Some indicators that we need a trust adjustment are catastrophizing, all-or-nothing thinking, tunnel vision, and cognitive distortions about what is going on. I have reminded you many times of Paul's words in Philippians 4: "Be anxious for nothing." That is a command, and it seems impossible until we understand how it is done:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

That is what I've been experiencing this week. God's all-surpassing peace has guarded my heart and mind, and I can honestly say I am at peace with what's going on, because I trust that the Lord is on the throne.

Set Your Mind on Things Above

Paul writes in Colossians 3, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth." Not on Washington, not on Sacramento, not on the stock exchange in New York, not on pandemics, wars, earthquakes, or famines. Why? Because you died with Christ, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. "When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

Our ultimate hope is not in politics or politicians, not in vaccines or therapeutics, not in the stock market or career or education. Our ultimate hope is that when Christ who is our life appears, we will appear with Him in glory.

Those Who Are With Us

There's a great story in 2 Kings 6 about the prophet Elisha. The Syrians were warring against Israel, but every time the Syrian king planned an attack, God revealed his secret plans to Elisha, who told the king of Israel. Frustrated, the Syrian king sent a great army with horses and chariots to surround the city of Dothan where Elisha lived. In the morning, Elisha's servant looked out and saw the army, and he was rightfully terrified. He cried, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?"

Elisha answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." The servant could only see the earthly realm. So Elisha prayed, "Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the Lord opened the young man's eyes, and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. O Israel, trust in the Lord. God, open our eyes that we may see this is spiritual, and that You are not defeated. God is still on the throne.

I keep coming back to Isaiah 6, where the king of Israel had died and the throne was vacated — but in that moment Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, seated upon a throne. It was as if God said, the throne on earth is vacant, but the throne in heaven is not. Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, and here God says shalom, shalom — peace, peace — but only as your mind is fixed upon the Lord and you trust in Him. And so the exhortation comes: "Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength."

Returning to Deuteronomy: The Sabbath Command

Aside from the many topical messages I've given this year — far more than I ever expected — we have been studying through the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. The last time I taught from it, several weeks ago, we considered the first three of the Ten Commandments: you shall have no other gods before Me; you shall not make any idols or earthly representations of God; and you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. The teaching of those first three commands is clear: God expects exclusivity, demands proper adoration and representation, and is rightly jealous for our devotion.

Now we come to Deuteronomy 5:12:

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work... And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

This may be one of the more contested and misunderstood of the Ten Commandments. Some Christians see it as essential and literal; others think of it spiritually; some disregard it almost entirely. One thing is certain: when reading the Gospels, Jesus kept the Sabbath. The very religious people of His day, however, didn't really understand what the Sabbath was about.

Who Is the Authority on the Sabbath?

Jesus is God incarnate, so He always keeps the laws of God perfectly. Yet the religious leaders sought to kill Him because they were sure He broke the Sabbath. If Jesus kept it perfectly and the leaders accused Him of breaking it, then their understanding of the Sabbath was simply wrong.

In Matthew 12, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and His hungry disciples plucked heads of grain to eat. The Pharisees objected: "Your disciples are doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath." A few verses later, in the synagogue at Capernaum, they asked whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath, hoping to accuse Him. Jesus answered, "What man among you, having one sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Then He healed the man's withered hand. And the response? "The Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him."

So who gets to be the authority on the Sabbath? Often, very religious people completely misunderstand, misinterpret, and misapply God's law — and they still do so today with this command. I don't claim to keep any of God's laws perfectly; the Bible makes clear none of us does. But we are all seeking to understand how to apply these things in our lives.

A Command and a Gift

Just what is the importance of this command, and how should we observe it? "Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." According to God's command, His people are to set aside — to consecrate — one day in seven as a day of rest unto the Lord. What should be seen here is that the Sabbath is a day of rest made for man. It is a command, but it is also a gift. In His grace, God commands rest.

This reveals something important about God. He is gracious, and He knows the weakness of our frame — because He formed us from the dust of the earth. Therefore He graciously commands our rest, and in this we ought to be thankful. November is a month of gratitude; in a few weeks we celebrate Thanksgiving. God is not a harsh and severe taskmaster. He redeems and rescues us from our burdens and calls us to rest.

When Moses says "as the Lord your God commanded you," he is dropping a subtle reminder to go back to the original command in Exodus 20, which connects the Sabbath to God's creative activity: "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth... and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." God worked in creation and then rested — and He blessed the seventh day and made it holy.

In our workaholism as Americans, we feel we must keep going, get ahead, never waste time, until many people are working six or seven days and long hours. But God exemplified rest and called us to experience its blessing. Unfortunately, like many religious people in Jesus' day, we think we must keep the Sabbath to keep God happy. In reality, God gave us the Sabbath to bless us with supernatural happiness through rest.

The Command to Work

But there is more to the fourth commandment than the call to rest. There is also a command to work: "Six days you shall labor and do all your work." God calls His people to emulate Him both in enjoying rest and in completing their work. In the same way that overwork with no rest is a trespass against the fourth commandment, laziness is a transgression as well.

If you read the opening chapter of the Bible, you'll see that at the end of each day of creation Scripture says, "And God saw that it was good." There is an inherent goodness in a day's work. Even before the fall, God commanded Adam to work: "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it" (Genesis 2:15). Work and rest are both good, and God commands us to both.

Grounded in Redemption from Egypt

Moses grounds this command in Israel's bondage in Egypt: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out." It's as if God says, you were under severe and harsh taskmasters, but I redeemed you and brought you out so that you might experience rest. And this rest is not for you alone — it is for your children, your servants, your animals, and even the strangers and foreigners in your land. The whole of the land is to rest because I am a God of rest.

God desires that all of creation experience His rest, and this is exactly why God the Father sent Christ the Son. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of rest. The burden of work became toil through sin; in Genesis 3, the ground was cursed, and "in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread." But Jesus desires to give us rest. In Matthew 11:28 He says:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

A Personal Struggle to Rest

Let me be candid: this command is difficult for me. I am not very good at rest — whether because of my upbringing, my personality and internal drive, or the workaholic culture we live in here in the U.S. At the same time, I feel a deep desire and need for rest, especially in 2020. My wife and I feel as though we've been running at 6,000 RPM for the last eight months — work, kids in distance learning, my wife working in the ICU while finishing her master's and clinicals, plus the stressors of coronavirus, lockdowns, bills, the election, and now the holidays. Many of you can relate. But we need to observe the Sabbath. We need to set aside time.

I know some will ask whether we must worship on Saturday or Sunday. Paul addresses this in his letters. From the earliest days, after the Spirit was poured out, the church worshiped on the first day of the week — the Lord's Day, the day of resurrection. Many early Christians were Jewish and also observed the Sabbath; Paul himself went to synagogues on the Sabbath to preach the gospel. But the church gathered on the first day of the week, often in homes. Paul taught that each person should observe whatever day they are led to. So we don't make a huge issue of the seventh day, but we should endeavor to set aside one day in seven to experience the blessing of rest.

Make Every Effort to Enter That Rest

Pray for me in this, and I will pray for you, that we will do what the author of Hebrews says: "Let us be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience" (Hebrews 4:11). Israel actually experienced God's judgment for failing this call — seventy years of captivity in Babylon, in part because they had not given the land its Sabbath years. God is deeply focused on this idea of rest.

The ultimate rest we will have is found in Jesus and in eternity. But even now in this life, God says, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." In the midst of all the chaos, God calls us to distance ourselves from our workaholism and rest in Him.

Closing Prayer

Father, I pray that You would help me and my brothers and sisters to observe these truths, that we would work to enter into this rest, making every effort to experience the rest You desire for us. The ultimate rest is rest from the burden and bondage of sin and death. So, Jesus, I pray for anyone hearing this message — whether on the Sunday it is delivered or months or years from now — that You would draw them to Yourself, that they would experience Your rest and be freed from the bondage of striving under sin in the world, and turn to You. You are the Lord of rest, and because of Your work on the cross, we can experience rest for eternity. Draw those people to Yourself, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

And Lord, we pray for our nation and all that we are currently experiencing. We pray for a resolution to the chaos, but we know the greatest resolution will only come when You return and rule and reign for eternity. So, Jesus, we say, come quickly. All of us would choose You and Your leadership over any politician. Until You come, help us, Your church, to occupy with joy and rejoicing, trusting that You are still upon the throne. We praise You, Jesus. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.