Sabbath: The Cost of Rest
Image © Pacific Press
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Samuel 11:1-27, 2 Samuel 12:1-23, Genesis 3:1-8, 1 John 1:9.
Memory Text: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).
Many people seem desperate to find a little peace and quiet. They are willing to pay for it, too. In many big cities there are internet-free rooms, which can be rented by the hour. The rules are strict — no noise, no visitors. People are willing to pay to be able to sit quietly and just think or nap. There are sleep pods that can be rented in airports, or noise-reducing earphones are popular items. There are even canvas hoods, or collapsible privacy shields that you can buy to pull over your head and torso for a quick workplace break.
True rest also has a cost. While the spin doctors of the self-help media would like to make us believe that we can determine our own destiny and that rest is just a matter of choice and planning, yet, at least when we consider this honestly, we realize our inability to bring true rest to our hearts. In the fourth-century, Augustine put it succinctly in his famous Confessions (Book 1) as he considered God’s grace: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.”
This week we look briefly into the life of the man after God’s own heart to find out how he discovered the true cost of God’s rest.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 24.
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It is a crisp cold Sabbath morning here this morning. Let me tell you how I will be "resting". In a few minutes, I will be going out to the lake foreshore with a couple of friends to look for birds, specifically a Rose Robin. This will take about 3 hours of quiet walking among the trees along the lake foreshore. We won't talk all that much, but will enjoy one another's company listening and watching for the birds that we love to photograph. At 11 am I will be back home to watch our church service on Youtube. We are under quite severe restrictions at the moment because of a Covid outbreak in Sydney and although we are outside the lockdown zone (just) there is a general warning that vulnerable people (old and decrepit like me) stay away from indoor crowds as much as possible.
Rest is not about doing nothing - although some of us should allow time to do just that, but is it also about creatively using that time in activities that you can enjoy and share.
I am looking forward to the study this week. I am intrigued by how a study of David's life can challenge us.
True rest is found in Jesus, when we put our trust in Him and depend on Him completely there's no worry or stress.
When we seek Him first difficulties and trials becomes much easier and our burdens lighter.
Even in the midst of all restlessness we can find rest, knowing that Jesus is with us.
The statement in 1John1:9KJV says: ”If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” Should a non-Christian take a ‘time out’ moment and meditate on this statement, this person is inevitably confronted with life's greatest conundrum. It implies that we answer to a divine power who established a righteous way for man to live by. Even David, the man after God’s own heart, discovered there is a balance to be established.
When I became a student of the Faith of Christ, not only a person who believed that their was ‘a God’, the Scriptures provided me with all I needed to know about the difference between a ‘clean heart’ and an ‘unclean heart’. The more I learned, the more I understood that underpinning my faith is God's well-established, balanced moral and ethical code of conduct. I had found that which I had longed for! The gift of the Father to all who choose to walk His path of Truth and Light is ‘to create in us a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within us’ – Psalm 51:10KJV.
Sure there is a cost associated with knowing but not living the right path, though the ‘cost’ is the spiritual dross being burned away to establish the clean heart; there is also the physical 'cost' which God addresses by His infinite wisdom. Because our Father knows who we are, knows our heart and mind, He applies His Justice mitigated by His loving Grace to settle the matter fairly.
Why would I wait to ask Him to cleans me of unrighteousness? It is unwise to allow the effects of acts of iniquity to compound; even doubt is an act of iniquity. Do we think the cost of ‘iniquity’ will not catch up with us? ”If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” - 1John1:10KJV.
Come unto me all ye who have labored and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Matt 11:28-29.
David, as the leader of Israel had committed many grievous sin. To him, it was ok because he was the king and no one dare to say otherwise. He says go and you go, come and you come. Go take someone wife and it was done. Sin was just another thing because all are sinners. But sins doesn’t go unnoticed before a Holy Father and Lord. At first it was a secret only to him and his confidants (as it appears). He had blood on his hands but was resting in Jesus and going to the temple as before, singing the songs of the temple service and making open proclamations. Until the prophet came to his with the direct message from the Lord. It was at that time he realized how deceptive he was to be fooling himself. Does sins blind our eyes to the true rest that only Christ can give?
What about us now, are our sins blinding our eyes so we can’t experience the true rest only found in Christ?
Rest = "cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength". But Rest also means "place hope, trust, or confidence on or in". I believe both rest are important. Of the 2 the second is the rest that God really desires us to obtain. We are so accustomed to putting our faith and trust in self and man. God wants us to redirect that trust, hope, confidence in the the creator and Lord of the universe. Which incidentally includes me.
The Sabbath means everything to me but now my boss says I have to work some Saturday's ,,,I have Prayed on it,,I hope to get an answer soon
Dear Tim, Please consider this situation a time of testing - as happened to Job. You have the opportunity to demonstrate that your faith in God is genuine by refusing to violate His holy day by working for gain on that day.
You write that you have prayed on it and hope to get an answer soon.
What kind of answer are you expecting?
Are you expecting to receive permission to violate the Sabbath?
Are you expecting your employer to change his mind?
Or are you expecting God to supply the grace and strength to stand for truth, no matter what the cost?
I pray "that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being." (Eph. 3:16 ESV)
Bro Tim sorry to hear but can you ask him if you can work Sunday instead of Sabbath or later some afternoons so you can get sabbaths off. While praying start looking for another job at the same company or elsewhere. I don’t know how the Lord will work but we don’t know if he is offering you something better somewhere else.