Rest

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the LORD you God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
Exodus 20: 8-11

In the movie "The Terminal" starring Tom Hanks, he plays an Eastern European immigrant who is forced to actually live in JFK airport in New York City for quite awhile when an immigration snafu traps him in limbo. He takes up residence in the airport, and lives his life there as best as he can - he eats, he makes friends, he takes care of himself, he works as he is able. However, never once does he come to the point where he decides to take up permanent residence there. I suppose he could have, everything for a human to survive is right there in JFK - but not once did he ever lose sight of the fact that the airport was not his home. The airport was always designed as a place for people to pass through - a temporary stop. The movie wouldn't have made much sense if Hanks' character decided that he loved residing in the airport, and worked hard to live there for the rest of his life.

It would be foolish for anyone to make the busyness of the airport their permanent residence, right? Surely we would never live our life in such a way.

Every time I read the command above regarding the Sabbath, I am convicted of my continuing efforts to live in the busyness of this temporary residence called life. I forget that this world is not my home, and that I am just passing through. I get so busy watching the interesting people mill around the airport and hustling back and forth on the moving walkways, that I have taken my eyes off of my heavenly destination. More often than not, I find myself at home and busy in the airport.

The command to remember the Sabbath is a command to live in the rest that God intended for you.

Do you know what the highlight of creation was? Many of you might answer the creation of humanity - but I don't believe that to be the case. The climax of creation, the moment that all the rest of the creation was leading up to was the seventh day...the Sabbath rest. I mean after every day of creation we find the same pattern of conclusion/ending - "so the evening and the morning were the _____ day." There was a clear ending to each movement of creation...except for the seventh day. At the end of the seventh day God simply sat back, admired the fruits of His imagination and enjoyed living in the midst of His creation. He rested with creation, thereby blessing and sanctifying it.

This state of Sabbath rest, where God fully enjoys being in the midst of His creation, was the reason why we were made. Sabbath rest in the presence of God is our home. Unfortunately, our sin has removed us from our intended Sabbath rest with our Creator. Our sin has us stuck in Terminal 3 with all the Starbucks and Newsstands. This world is not our home, our home is in heaven where we will someday enjoy our Sabbath rest with God forever. Thanks be to God, Jesus came to break us out of the airport - to forgive our sin and restore our Sabbath rest.

This command was never meant to be burdensome or oppressive. This command is like a cold splash of water in the face reminding us that we were made for rest with our Creator and not ever-moving baggage carousels. To practice Sabbath rest here on Earth has me looking forward to my final destination - heavenly rest in the presence of our triune God contentedly basking in the glory of His creation.

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Jesus

Be God's, Scott