What A Rabbit Hole!

Then Moses called together the whole community of Israel and told them, “These are the instructions the LORD has commanded you to follow. 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. You must not even light a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath.” [Exodus 35.1-3]

I think we tend to get "caught up in the moment" of the Sabbath forgetting that even it was a symbol of something eternal (existing both before and after it). God rested before the Law and we are prescribed "rest" from the Law afterwards.

If the passage above tells us anything about rest, it tells us just how important it is to God and to us. 

The penalty for not resting, as prescribed, is death. In fact, this applies today! Those who do not "rest in faith" are destined for death in all its fulness: eternity separated from God: hell.

Although it might be argued there remain six days of work, it might also be considered that Jesus did the work! And why do we work? To live? Jesus made the following statement that has tripped up would-be follower since the time He spoke it regarding "living:"

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. [Matthew 6.33]

And what was the "everything you need" part referring to? Everything we work for today (money and possessions).

For all the effort today made by religious leaders to keep their followers working, Jesus' words and teaching stand in stark contrast:

If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. [Matthew 10.38]

We all know these statements made by Jesus (God's WORD)! Is it not ironic how hard we "work" to interpret them to suit our own insistence upon working?

What a "rabbit hole!"

Or is it?

Jesus was never unclear regarding the reality of following Him and how opposite it was (and would be) to conventional thinking. Just like the "death" prescribed upon those who would break the Sabbath under the terms of the Law, so "death" is prescribed upon all who are not found in faith - those who have not rested from their own works and have not submitted to the service of the Kingdom of God with complete abandon.

God help us to rest!

Father, as uncomfortable as it is, please keep the conviction coming upon my life as I consider what true devotion to You in following Christ looks like.