The Puritans…were great souls serving a great God. In them clear-headed passion and warm-hearted compassion combined. Visionary and practical, idealistic and realistic too, goal-oriented and methodical, they were great believers, great hopers, great doers, and great sufferers. But their sufferings, both sides of the ocean (in Old England from the authorities and in New England from the elements), seasoned and ripened them till they gained a stature that was nothing short of heroic. Ease and luxury, such as our affluence brings us today, do not make for maturity; hardship and struggle however do, and the Puritans' battles against the spiritual and climatic wildernesses in which God set them produced a virility Of character, undaunted and unsinkable, rising above discouragement and fears, for which the true precedents and models are men like Moses, and Nehemiah, and Peter after Pentecost, and the apostle Paul.
J.I. Packer

The Day of Rest

For years, I've been careful to worship God with my family, and not work for profit on that day.  I've been careful to avoid making others work for me (restaurants, stores, etc), in hopes that by not encouraging business on The Day of Rest, that perhaps others would be freed to rest and be with family on that day.

Today was a Day of Rest, and I was considering several projects that I really wanted to get done, such as painting and repairing a car.  The day was looking pretty busy.  I've used the principle that any work done on the Day of Rest was ok, as long as I wasn't trying to profit.  The Day of Rest was made for Man – not the reverse – right?

But today, God made me aware of a flaw in my approach to resting.  Simply this:  When he rested, it wasn't profit-based.  He didn't find other hard work to do – he needed to be refreshed.  We need to come away from our Day of Rest with an energized, renewed perspective to tackle the new week.

Also keep in mind that The Day of Rest came before the Jewish nation began, so this isn't some cultural thing.  If God is smart enough to do it, we should be too!

 

Genesis 2

New International Version (NIV)

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

 

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

 

 

Exodus 31

12 Then the Lord said to Moses, 13 “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.

14 “‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. 15 For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. 16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. 17 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. ’”