Rest and Mourning
• Matt 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
• There is a blessing that comes with mourning. Part of that blessings is direct comfort from the Lord Himself.
The Commandment:
Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
• The Lord ties the command to rest to the fact that he created the earth in six days and then rested.
o God rested though He wouldn’t need to, He did so to set the example of us.
• But also, to take in the beauty of what He created.
• He also blessed the Sabbath day of rest, so there is a blessing that we come into when we rest.
Exodus 34:21 They were to rest even during the planting and harvest season.
Lev 25:1-7 Even the land was to have rest every 7 years. So Rest is tied to faith
In Leviticus 26 God speaks of bringing judgement on the people and the land because they didn’t obey the command to rest.
Other Days of Rest:
o Feast of Trumpets, Lev 23:23-25
o The Passover Feast, Lev 23:7-8
o The Feast of Weeks Lev 23:21
o The Day of atonement Lev 23:28
o The Feast of Tabernacles Lev 23:35, 36 included two days of rest
o The Year of Jubilee (Every 49 years) was also to be a year of rest.
• All these days of rest were also meant to honor the Lord, with special offerings, etc
Lev 25:18-22 The Promise: He asks the people to rest themselves and the land for one year and he makes a way for that to happen.
o The idea of rest, for us is tied to trust and faith.
From God’s perspective the rest is all about care and honor.
• Also, in the command to rest is the command to Honor Him.
• First, with an offering of sacrifice
• Second, all of those special days of rest involved an assembly which puts us back in community.
Rest is also tied to the Atonement: Lev 16:29-31
• The deny yourself here refers to fasting, so this was a day of fasting and rest.
• This day of rest was tied to atonement, being made right before God, having their sins forgiven.
o In our day we rest to recognize that forgiveness comes from Jesus and not our own work.
In the New Testament
• In the NT we see Jesus as our ultimate source of rest.Matt 11:28-29