Rest Will Come: A Biblical Theology of the Sabbath (Part 3)

I often tell folks in marriage counseling that marriage is hard work and the only thing that comes easy is fighting. I really do believe that. It’s hard to sacrifice, to listen, to be sensitive, to put others first. It’s hard to make marriage work sometimes, and the only thing that isn’t hard to do is to fight. War seems like a natural part of our human rebellion and selfishness. We fight with spouses, children, parents, co-workers, friends, neighbors, sometimes even with complete strangers. It is, quite frankly, exhausting to constantly wage war against others, against ourselves, and especially to attempt to wage war against God. But the Scripture outline that there is a day coming when we will rest from all war (national and personal), where there will be genuine and eternal peace.

The theme of Sabbath Rest is developed and unpacked across the history of Israel. They are a nation constantly beleaguered by the threat of invasion, this is anticipated even early on in Israel’s life. Deuteronomy 12:9-11 says it this way:

For you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.  10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,  11 then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD. (Deuteronomy 12:9-11)

Note here that Israel’s rest is connected, intimately, with God’s resting “place” where Israel will come and offer sacrifices. Eventually Biblical history identifies this “place” as the Temple, where God’s presence rests among the people. It is the central location for worship. So rest from war, rest from fighting and feuding, peace itself is connected to the covenant presences of Yahweh.

The concept becomes central in the storyline of Solomon. It begins in 2 Samuel 7, where David finds himself at rest with his enemies and desires to build a “dwelling place” for the Lord. But God refuses David this privilege. Instead this task would fall to Solomon, David’s son, a King known as a “man of rest” (1 Chronicles 22:9). Solomon will celebrate the rest that God has given them by building (1 Kings 5:3-5) and dedicated (1 Kings 8:56) the temple.

 56 “Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. (1 Kings 8:56)

There is an important point that we need to make here, however, and that is that ultimately Israel did not experience this rest as an eternal reality. Their rest was interrupted by more war, more fighting, and eventually slavery. Ultimately this rest, the rest we seek and the rest Israel sought, comes by means of presence of God dwelling perfectly with His people (John 1:14, where the language actually communicates that Jesus became flesh and “tabernacled” among us), it comes by means of that special temple called Jesus (Revelation 21:22).

The Sabbath is a reminder that there is rest coming from all our wars, battles, and struggles. All the struggles of nation versus nation, spouse versus spouse, and Christian versus sin. There is a day coming when we will truly be at peace, but it is only found in the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6): Jesus, our true provider of Sabbath Rest!