Take A Day Off Or Die!

You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day must be a Sabbath day of complete rest, a holy day dedicated to the Lord.  Anyone who works on that day must be put to death. [Exodus 35.2]

OK, so here's the deal.  Take a day off or die.

Already in the early development of the Jewish culture and law, we have seen similar instructions about time off.  The Sabbath (as noted above), letting the land lie dormant on the seventh year, and releasing slaves on the seventh year all have a common theme: rest.

Many of us today ask the question, "What is rest?"  A nap?  A good night's sleep?

Evidently, rest is important to God.  So much is this mandate important to Him in fact that He Himself demonstrated the first day of rest following the sixth day of creation.

While we no longer offer sacrifices and necessarily observe Mosaic Law because we are in a New Covenant, there is no reason for us not to study Old Covenant dictates and glean helpful insight into practices that are both practical as they are reasonable.

Jesus is our Rest.  The Apostle Paul gave clear teaching to this end.  This in itself is proof enough that we should pay attention to the instructions about rest.  

How is Jesus our Rest?  What might we learn from studying and meditating on the subject of rest?  How might we benefit from a little rest in the process?  These are questions well worth our consideration!

Father, help me - help us - to understand the concept of rest.  Help us to understand it both from the standpoint of physical labor and from its spiritual connotation as well.