I love thinking about the instruction God provides in the context of how people lived at that point in time. Imagine hearing God's command to return your neighbor's donkey when that means having to lead the donkey on a trek miles long in temperatures near 100 degrees, while walking in sandals and wearing layers of robes. Especially robes made of linen or wool. I'm sweating just thinking about it!
Or imagine harvesting in the sixth year and trying to set aside enough to go a whole year without planting or harvesting, trusting that your harvest from that year would see you through not only the next year, but the long months between planting and harvest the following year as well.
Despite our lifestyle being much less physically demanding than it was thousands of years ago, I struggle with getting enough of my work done the other six days to simply rest as God instructs us one day a week!
And I love God's explanation for why we are to rest: "So that your ox and your donkey may settle down and rest, and the son of your female servant, as well as your stranger, may be refreshed." Translated to the 21st Century: if we obeyed this mandate to rest, the cashier, the mechanic, and the waitress might also get a chance to rest.
Can you even imagine in our hurry-up world having a day in which everyone simply rested, stayed home, relaxed, and allowed themselves to be refreshed? Where they trusted with confidence that their wages from the week would be sufficient to provide for that respite?
This week I'm going to contemplate how I might organize and schedule my tasks and chores for the week to allow for one day to truly rest, not out of obligation because it is a command, but because God instructs us to rest as a gift to us and to those around us.
What suggestions can you share for implementing a day of true rest?
Or imagine harvesting in the sixth year and trying to set aside enough to go a whole year without planting or harvesting, trusting that your harvest from that year would see you through not only the next year, but the long months between planting and harvest the following year as well.
Despite our lifestyle being much less physically demanding than it was thousands of years ago, I struggle with getting enough of my work done the other six days to simply rest as God instructs us one day a week!
And I love God's explanation for why we are to rest: "So that your ox and your donkey may settle down and rest, and the son of your female servant, as well as your stranger, may be refreshed." Translated to the 21st Century: if we obeyed this mandate to rest, the cashier, the mechanic, and the waitress might also get a chance to rest.
Can you even imagine in our hurry-up world having a day in which everyone simply rested, stayed home, relaxed, and allowed themselves to be refreshed? Where they trusted with confidence that their wages from the week would be sufficient to provide for that respite?
This week I'm going to contemplate how I might organize and schedule my tasks and chores for the week to allow for one day to truly rest, not out of obligation because it is a command, but because God instructs us to rest as a gift to us and to those around us.
What suggestions can you share for implementing a day of true rest?
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