Enough

“Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief  from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” ¹

^{Our Daily Devotion for January 3 was titled, “Rested” and mentioned that the first time ‘rest’ is used is when it is about God and His creating process. We also mentioned how that concept is re-emphasized again in the New Testament, Hebrews 4:1-13. Because this is something God has been making more important in my life and I have had reason to spend more time studying, today’s blog flows out of that study.}

Genesis 2 tells us that when God had completed the initial creation, on the seventh day He rested. Two elements become clear: He had finished all that He had done and that He blessed the day of completion, set it apart as distinctly different because of His resting from all He had done in creation. There is no indication that He was tired, worn out, ‘needed’ a break but rather that He was satisfied, content with all that had been done.

God creates mankind in His image and in Chapter Two  expands the narrative of the creation of mankind which had occurred in the earlier chapter. Part of that image is the ability to accomplish, to work, keep and watch over what He had created. 

Then mankind decides to take initiative and act without God’s guidance, do something God had directly told them that would not be ‘good,’ that would result in separation. They do it anyway and both sin and burdensomeness enter their lives. God sets about to make a way to restore what was lost. There comes centuries of types or examples of God working to make this restoration and the verse at the top is such. Man had continued to struggle to make his own way apart from God to the point where they sought to establish their own dominion over earth. When Noah is born, his father believes that God is bringing relief from the struggle of man to overcome the curse by their own efforts and says, “… this one shall bring us relief from our work and the painful toil…” While Noah is the person named, the mover behind that hope is God. ‘Relief’ is the same word from back in Genesis 2 where God ‘rested’. The time has come for a reconsideration of how to reconcile creation to the Creator.

When God gives Moses the Ten Commandments, it is significant that God again points to a Rest, a time for mankind to pause, reflect and honor what God had done and what they themselves have accomplished. It is not the intent of God that mankind always be trying to do more, to achieve, to produce, to establish by their own efforts. God even goes so far as to tie this Rest to Atonement for in Leviticus 16:29-31,

“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever.” ² 

Jesus reminds us of the importance of resting in God when in Matthew 11:26-29 he encourages those who would know know the Lord to reflect on,

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” ³

While we typically focus on rest being from physical work, Jesus is pointing to rest which includes the refreshing of the soul. When God inspires Hebrews 4:1-13, we should be cognizant that entering God’s rest is a mandatory—at some point we must believe and live according to the truth that God has completed all that is necessary for life and that we created beings must recognize, acknowledge and honor His completeness and admit our own inability to accomplish more than He intends.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” 

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.  4

It is not my intention to be more harsh than the Lord but it really does seem important to Him that we pause, consider, acknowledge and honor His accomplishment on our behalf. And maybe even that we should reach the place where we see enough of our works as enough. Our works will never replace His work on our behalf.