In the sermon yesterday, we looked at the covenant of rest, and the gift that Sabbath was meant to be. However, the Israelites struggled to rest for many of the same reasons that we do.
Sabbath is hard! And in our time in history we have a unique challenge – there is no longer one single day our entire society recognizes, and therefore, structures as a Sabbath. But we can get creative. Maybe you already practice Sabbath regularly. Maybe it feels like an impossibility. This week’s challenge is to brainstorm creative ways to either improve upon your Sabbath, or to make it a possibility in your personal life circumstances. Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling:
Timing:
Preparation:
Things To Do:
Also keep in mind that God understands when unexpected emergencies come up. Jesus told us it is OK to get your “ox out of your well.” Just go through these moments with Him.
So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.
1 I look up to the mountains—
does my help come from there?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth!
3 He will not let you stumble;
the one who watches over you will not slumber.
4 Indeed, he who watches over Israel
never slumbers or sleeps.
5 The Lord himself watches over you!
The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.
6 The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon at night.
7 The Lord keeps you from all harm
and watches over your life.
8 The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go,
both now and forever.
There was no fight.
No threat.
No pressure.
Just a twist of the truth. That’s all it took…
The first meeting between humanity and their Creator’s archenemy (cleverly disguised as a serpent) can be found in Genesis 3. It’s the moment the crafty creature decided to challenge everything the crown of God’s creation knew to be good, true, and right. The goal? His evil eye was on the proverbial apple. Humans attempting life on their own - giving up on the goodness and rightness of God to guide and protect.
How did he succeed?
Well-executed strategy. His victory can be attributed to his awareness that he could not simply tempt Adam and Eve with nothing more than a piece of fruit. After all, they were surrounded by fruit-bearing trees. Ones God said they could eat from any time they wished. What was one more?
He knew that to lure them to the forbidden tree, he first had to wear down their belief in God’s goodness and rightness – then their loss of trust in His instructions would easily follow.
The wearing down process started with what we read in Genesis 3:1 where the serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” This may or may not have been the first time she had ever considered the possibility that God could be questioned, but her response was an attempt at clarification. “No, of course not. There’s just one tree we can’t eat from or we will die.”
Seeing that Eve’s trust in God’s goodness was still intact, he pressed in deeper with a lie the humans probably had not yet been confronted with. “You will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” In other words, God knows He’s holding out on you – He’s not really giving you all that is good.
Getting the “good” that a maybe “not-so-good” God must be withholding was what made the fruit tempting. As the serpent’s lie-laced fangs sunk in, human teeth sank into blood-red fruit.
Our temptations are no different. There’s no fight. No threat. Just a steady drip of lies that wear down our trust in God’s goodness. One of the ways this happens is in the daily grind and battles of life.
Will it never end?
Does He really care?
Does He really never leave nor forsake us? (Hebrews 13:5)
Is He ever going to come through?
Wearying questions about whether God is truly good entice us into reckless leaps to forbidden fruit - crafty and clever ideas (often mixed with a touch of truth) that can sound deceptively better to our worn souls than God’s instructions for how we and our world function best. (James 1:14-17 and Ephesians 4:14).
But there is a weapon against this wearing down of the spirit that leads to destruction. Resting in God’s goodness and enjoying a bit of sweet fruit from “all the other trees in the garden” does wonders for a tempted soul.
Sometimes it’s easy for us to forget that a part of God’s good and original design for humanity was His gift of joyful rest. We can easily mistake it as mere luxury reserved as a reward for hard work or winning the battles that are part of living in a fallen world. But it is a weapon in our battle* - a counterstrategy to our opponent’s tactics for wearing down our greatest strength - which is our trust in the goodness of God.
In Nehemiah 8, the successful Israelite leader for whom the book is named reminds his people of this at a redemptive turning point in their history. After years of forgetting God’s law, tears of regret are their intitial response to a public reading of its words given for their blessing and well-being. In response, Nehemiah instructs them to "go enjoy choice food and sweet drinks" because "the joy of the Lord is your strength." He declares the day a "Holy Day" because of their remembrance of the goodness of God and the strength this would give them to live out His ways.
Life in a broken world where the problems never stop popping up, and our belief in the lie that it is all up to us to shoulder our burdens alone is why we see God, throughout Scripture, literally having to command humans to rest, feast, celebrate, be childlike, and take time doing things to remember His goodness. To enjoy the sweet fruit of “all the other trees” He created for their blessing.
This isn’t the same thing as unhealthy over-indulgence.
Nor does the Bible prescribe toxic positivity.
The joy of the Lord is tightly tethered to reality and truth. Our souls can be refreshed and strengthened when we are legitimately weak and resources are limited. Joy can be experienced in times that require sacrifice, when our bodies are overworked for reasons beyond our control, and even in our deepest sorrow. There is a unique angle of joy that breaks through in moments of recognition that even in the darkest of suffering and painful questions of life, we are seen, heard, understood, resourced, and fought for by God, Himself. (Psalm 31:7) It holds us tightly and gives hope to take the next difficult, but necessary step. If you’ve been here, you know.
Life WILL wear us down to points of questioning God’s goodness and the rightness of His ways. It’s just the way of things. But we can fight the serpent’s strategy to whittle down our trust in God’s goodness and lure us to forbidden fruit with a weapon that is not of this world - the joy of the Lord (2 Cor. 10:3-5, Nehemiah 8:10). We do this by simply slowing down, and enjoying fruit from "all the other trees" - all the good things He has both given to us, and done for us in relationship with Him, until we no longer see fruit from the “one tree” we can’t have as desirable.
We know we have found our sweet spot (our greatest strength) against getting worn down when we can say with the Psalmist, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103)
"Tis' so sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to take him at his word! Just to rest upon His promise. Just to know, thus saith the Lord.”
There’s an old children’s Sunday School song that goes like this;
I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. (Where?) Down in my heart. (Where?) Down in my heart. I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Down in my heart to stay.
And if the devil doesn’t like it he can sit on a tack. (Ow!) Sit on a tack…
You may or may not be familiar with this lively tune, but either way, the song raises an interesting question. Why would the devil not like us to have “joy, joy, joy, joy” down in our hearts? To stay?
Nehemiah 8:10 tells us that “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” When we experience the goodness of God in our lives, it strengthens our trust in who He is, what His heart is for us, and in His words of instruction to us. We aren’t as easily deceived by the one Jesus called, “the father of lies.” (Some call this experience defiant joy.)
Which is why throughout Scripture we see God reminding His people to take time to enjoy Him and His good gifts to humanity. If we don’t, we can easily be led away into things that seem deceptively better than God’s good and original design.
James 1:14-17 explains this process. It says we must not be deceived into believing that any good and perfect (pure, unadulterated, uncontaminated) gift comes from anywhere other than our good and trustworthy God. Because if we are confused about where true goodness comes from, we will find ourselves desiring (being tempted by) imposters.
Our reflection questions come from these verses.
What are some good experiences with God and moments of His blessing I have enjoyed?
Are there any ways I find myself easily convinced that God’s ways aren’t really very good?
In what specific temptations and struggles in my life would experiencing the joy of the Lord be a helpful battle strategy?