The Bible speaks very clearly of the need for rest, even God rests. Why do we need to rest and from what? Why are rest and recreation so important in our faith and worship?
The Bible speaks very clearly of the need for rest. The basis for this is found right at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis 2:1-3: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God blessed the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God rested from all the work that he had done in Creation.”
However, there is no suggestion in the Genesis text that God struggled to create, indeed each day he looks on the fruit of his work and sees it as very good. He rejoices in its richness and fertility. God’s work is not like our human toil which takes effort and drains us of energy. God’s rest isn’t escape or relief from working.
Before their disobedience, Adam and Eve share in the plentiful resources of Eden and are at ease in God’s presence. With the Fall in Genesis 3:17b-19 they are oppressed with painful toil on the land where thorns and thistles make growing and harvesting food much harder, and they are reminded of their creaturely mortality and dependence on physical labour to exist –
“… cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
Is it any wonder then, that since Eden, in our fallen state we have longed for rest and relaxation. The Scriptures understand that when the deepest aspirations of the human spirit are not met this makes itself felt in our bodies and we become ill. The Sabbath is God’s gift to us, helping us to realise that our lives are ultimately not what we struggle to make of them, but what we receive from the gifting love of God. So the day God rested is also a day of delight. In the Hebrew calendar, the Sabbath is the only named day of the week – it is a day of blessing that we are all invited to enjoy – to delight in the fruits of God’s creativity.
God therefore builds rest and recreation into the very structure of Creation. One of the great mediaeval French Rabbis, Rashi (1040–1105), suggests that this day of rest – of God’s tranquility and peace, is something we’re invited to share. As we share in it, we grow in our understanding of what’s really important, of the purpose of Creation. Fundamentally, this is about realising what things truly are – what is good, what is to be cherished and what should be celebrated. The mediaeval English mystic, Dame Julian of Norwich also sees this in her ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ when she says “All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.”
Nevertheless, it’s not always easy to find this Divine rest and joy even on holiday, especially with the increasing commodification of pleasure. Perhaps it is helpful to remember that the opposite of God’s rest is not so much activity but restlessness. When we are restless, we cannot delight in others, the world around us, or even in ourselves. We cannot be content with what we have and who we are because we are too busy pursuing something different or something more. But the resting on the Seventh Day embraces all that leads to a more hospitable world. It’s a celebration of the variety of God’s creativity. An opportunity to enter more richly into the vision of a world loved and sustained in being by God.
It provides the possibility of seeing the world as gift to be consciously cherished. Rest here is to delight in a more discerning way in sharing in God’s desire that everything should be very good. This understanding eventually finds a mature expression in the commandments in the Book of Exodus 20:8-11. Where the good of all creatures depends on their inclusion within the Divine Sabbath rest: “the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.” The animals and vulnerable strangers are included in this day of rest – their needs are not inferior in the eyes of God.
The prophet Jeremiah will later make it very clear that the fall of the Nation was due to its inability to rest on the Sabbath. It lost the vision that enabled it to keep things in balance, in perspective, despite being warned in Jeremiah 17:19-27 – “if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.”
The Sabbath is not a day for pure passivity, collusion with the way things are, or a direct rejection of the needs of others, it links us to God’s active, sustaining love of the whole of the world he created. This day of rest provides us with time and space to reflect on how we have acted and how our behaviours and desires affect other people and other creatures. The Scriptures re-state this by referring back to the founding act of God liberating the Hebrew slaves in Deuteronomy 5:15 – “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore, the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” The ongoing mechanism of salvation then, as now, is to honour the Sabbath rest.
As the people reflected on the implications of God’s Sabbath rest, the focus was not just on men and women but on the participation of the land itself and its creatures. Leviticus 25:1-7 makes this clear. In the Sabbath year the land will enjoy rest with no sowing, pruning or planting. The people are to live off what the land gives, trusting in God and receiving and gathering rather than controlling the place in which they live. Early on we learn not to grasp but to live generously with other creatures and life forms. Something we still struggle with.
Every 50 years there was a Jubilee year, the Sabbath of Sabbaths, where the idea of rest was taken to another level. All those who, by whatever circumstances, had lost their land or freedom were to be restored to their family homes says Leviticus 25:8-24. The profit and ownership of the land of their ancestors must not be expanded at the cost and basic rights of others, since God is the ultimate owner of that land anyway. Later, Isaiah 5:8 addresses the consequences of such greed: “Woe to you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no-one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land.”
If we are to follow the regular and Biblical practice of Sabbath rest – then our actions and wisdom must come together for the benefit of all, not just for ourselves. In doing this, we create a vision of a new humanity based on equality and the elimination of exploitation. In the powerful words of St Augustine in his book The City of God, he says that if we eliminate this exploitation, then in the final time and fulfilment of Creation – “We ourselves will be the seventh Day!”
It will be quite literally – re-creation as well as recreation.
Fleur Dorrell.
