Commentary on "Rest and Restoration"

PHIL HARRIS

 

Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, May 8, 2010

 

Overview

Today, the lesson draws our attention to our need for physical rest. We will look at how the Bible uses the word ‘rest’. Central to our understanding the meaning of rest is to remember what the effects of sin did to the human race.

Also, Scripture has much more to say about our need for rest than just the need to heal and regenerate a tired or injured physical body.

 

Observations

In the Hebrew language, ‘rest’ and ‘Sabbath’ come from the same root word which means ‘cessation from exertion’. In reference to creation, Gen. 2:1-3, we see that God ceased his work of creation. God then ‘rested’ because creation was complete, not because he was tired and in need of being regenerated.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. (Isa. 40:28 ESV)

While Adam was originally given a work to do caring for the Garden of Eden, there is no indication, from Scripture, that this work resulted in a need for physical sleep and rest to regenerate his body. After he sinned we get an indication of the need for regeneration in the following passage:

And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' 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." (Gen. 3:17-19 ESV)

Our need for rest goes much deeper than our continuing need for physical regeneration. In truth, our physical condition points to the critical issue of giving life to our dead spirit through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'" (Heb. 3:7-11 ESV)

 

Summary

1. While quality physical rest is absolutely required for good health, the Biblical meaning and intention of rest goes much deeper by focusing on why we need its regenerative physical or emotional benefits.
2. By referencing to God’s rest at the end of the Creation Week, the Bible is teaching us that our real rest is centered on something elemental that is both spiritual and eternal.

 

GO TO DAY 2

 

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