Work & Rest (Leviticus 23:3)

Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.
—Leviticus 23:3

So this is an obvious repetition of a command that we see in Exodus 20 in the Ten Commandments: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” All of that is grounded way back in the book of Genesis, when, after six days of work and creation, on the seventh day God rested.

There is a lot of discussion—even debate—among Bible-believing scholars, pastors, preachers, and students who wonder how this plays out in the New Testament, in light of the lack of a specific command like this there. My aim is not to solve that debate in the next two minutes. But I do want to point out something that I think is obvious here at the very beginning of the Bible and throughout Scripture: first, work is good.

God worked in creation. In a sense, God is working all the time right now. He is working in every one of us. He is sustaining our breath; our lungs; our beating hearts. My mouth is speaking right now. You are able to listen because God is enabling all these things. He is sustaining the entire universe right now. So he is always working. Work is a good thing, and he calls us to reflect this good thing in our work.

Even here in Leviticus 23:3, we should not gloss over this: “Six days shall work be done.” God has designed us to work. It is good to work hard and bring God glory. At the same time, rest is also good. We need to set aside time to rest.

I confess that, if I am not careful in my own life, I can work and work and work and become so focused on all the things that need to be done that I fail to rest. That is really a picture of pride in my own life when I do that, because rest is an act of humility that says, “I am going to stop. I am not supposed to do it all. I cannot do it all.” So I rest and am refreshed.

In the same way, Exodus 31:17 says that God “rested and was refreshed” on the Sabbath. I do not even know how to comprehend the refreshing of God, but that is what the text says. So in light of Leviticus 23:3, I want to encourage you to experience both the goodness of work and the goodness of rest.

So, God, we pray for your help in this. We pray that you would help us to work wholeheartedly, as your Word calls us to—as those working for you, not ultimately for men or women or anyone in this world. We are working ultimately for you. Help us to work well and wisely, and at the same time to rest well and wisely.

God, I pray this in my own life, and I pray this for every person listening right now. Help us to honor you with our work and our rest. Help us to bring glory to your name through the stewardship of your grace that you have given to us—in jobs, in school, and in various expressions of work.

And God, help us also to be stewards of your grace in rest—to stop and be refreshed by you, to put work aside, and not to work constantly in ways that are not good for us and not glorifying to you. We praise you for the rest we have in you. We praise you, Jesus, for making ultimate rest possible.

We know that part of the picture of the Sabbath in the Old Testament was to point to you as our ultimate Sabbath rest. So amid a weary world, with so much coming at us and so much turmoil around us, we praise you for the rest you have made possible for us in Jesus. We pray that you would help us to live in this rest, in a sense, all the time.

Just as Jesus invited us to come to him weary and heavy laden, promising that he would give us rest—for his yoke is easy and his burden is light—so we come to you. Thank you, God. Please help us to lead others to rest in you—physically, emotionally, mentally, and ultimately spiritually.

A Prayer for the Moger People of India

God, we pray for the Moger people of India—around 200,000 of them—with no known followers of Jesus, none having experienced the rest that is found in you. We pray that this would change. We intercede today for the Moger people.

Please use your church in India. Raise up laborers for the harvest field from all corners of the earth to spread the good news of rest in you, Jesus, to the Moger people of India.

We pray all this in your name, Lord Jesus—our rest and the one for whom we work. In your name we pray. Amen.