Good morning. This is resting theology.

In the beginning, God rested from his labors. We read about this in the second chapter of Genesis. The omnipotent being who can do anything he wants as long as he wants decided that rest is good. This is the foundation of a theology of rest.

From then on the Hebrew people rested for one day a week. They called it the sabbath. (Sabbath is the Hebrew term for rest.) Sabbath was enshrined into law on Mount Sinai, where the fourth of the ten commandments was written, “Keep the sabbath day holy.” God works hard to ensure his people stop working.

Rest is not just physical—it’s spiritual. In the book of Hebrews, the writer emphasized that the Hebrews who wandered the desert for forty years failed to enter into God’s rest because of their unbelief (Hebrews 3:19), but the next generation, led by Joshua, finally entered a period of rest when they came to the Promised Land.

However, the writer explained in the next chapter that they didn’t enter the final, eternal rest that they sought. “So then,” he wrote, “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (4:9).

We all seek rest, when we can lay our burdens down, when we can cease from work, when our troubles are over. We long for that kind of eternal rest.

Jesus once called out to those gathered around him: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I hope today you can catch a glimpse of that kind of rest.

Thanks for reading.