Come Rest a While

The revolutionary French government faced a dilemma. Although the new republic had officially proclaimed a position repudiating God and all things connected with religion, a constant reminder of the Christian influence continued to annoy them—the calendar, with its weekly seven-day cycle and its many religious holidays.

A committee was appointed to formulate an entirely new calendar. In this new “republican calendar,” the seven-day week was abandoned. Instead, each thirty-day month was divided into three periods of ten days, called decades, with the last day of each decade being designated a rest day.¹

While eliminating Christian influence from the calendar, this arrangement failed miserably. Severe physical and mental exhaustion soon reached epidemic proportions. Even the horses in the streets broke down under the strain of the ten-day week. The system was soon abandoned as unworkable.²

Time periods designated as days, months and years clearly have their basis in the movements of the earth and moon. However, the seven-day week cannot be correlated with any astronomical or natural phenomena.³ Its origin reaches back to the very beginning of our world. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” Genesis 1:1; 2:2, 3.

How fascinating that rest—which is as essential to health as activity—is a recorded part of the world’s first week! Today no one would be foolish enough to suggest that rest is unimportant. Yet, we all occasionally deprive our bodies of needed rest. Just how important is rest?

Proper rest adds years to the life, as a study done in Alameda, California has conclusively proven.⁴

We know that most adults require seven to eight hours of sleep a night. What we may not know is that an irregular schedule, even with enough sleep, can actually make us more tired.

Phylis Austin states, “A syndrome of unclear thinking, difficulty getting started and feelings of lethargy has been associated with sleeping late, particularly if the individual has slept more than ten hours. The syndrome may persist for four to five hours.… The person who sleeps in on the weekend to catch up may be more tired than when he went to bed on Friday night.”⁵

Also, sleep before midnight is more likely to result in production of growth hormones, which are not only vital to children, but give ambition and energy to adults.⁶ Try a 9:00 pm bedtime, and keep it regular.

Rest keeps us well. It is during rest that energy is restored. Our bodies are designed to require periods of rest. In fact, every cell in the body follows a pattern of rest and work. Take, for example, the heart. After every contraction, there is a brief rest period. An organ that does not get the needed rest (for instance, the stomach) will soon manifest physical symptoms (such as indigestion) and will eventually break down under the strain.

Rest is a valuable healer. Most doctors agree that many maladies they treat would get better on their own with proper rest and application of other health principles. Rest gives the body the boost it needs to overcome infection. It also helps heal acute injuries such as fractures or sprains.

Rest is the way the body handles fatigue. Physical fatigue is actually the body’s signal to rest. During rest, the body is replenished, waste products removed and the body systems reenergized by the master glands.

Proper rest results in higher productivity. “Poorly rested individuals expend three times more energy accomplishing a task than do well-rested persons.”⁷

To be truly productive, our bodies also need regular periods of rest from labor. When Henry Ford Sr. began the production of his Model A car, he asked his engineers to temporarily work seven days a week. Later, Mr. Ford ruefully remarked that he would have produced the car months sooner if he had allowed his men a weekly day of rest! “It took us all week to straighten out the mistakes they made on the day when they should have rested,” he admitted.⁸

Spiritual Rest

It is no accident that during Creation week God instituted a day of rest. In fact, the word Sabbath is a Hebrew word meaning rest. When we read, “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” we could properly read, “the seventh day is the rest of the Lord thy God.” Exodus 20:10.

But did God need to rest after the rigors of creating a new world? The Bible tells us “the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary.” Isaiah 40:28. Apparently the rest God instituted on the seventh day of Creation was more than a purely physical rest.

Actually, Creation was not a physical work. God spoke, and it was done. Psalm 33:9. In six days, His Word alone brought the world into being. Then, He rested. He ceased speaking, and His Word, which lives and abides forever, continued to uphold His Creation. 1 Peter 1:23.

What does this mean to us? When we truly partake of the Sabbath rest instituted at Creation, we have the rest that comes from trusting in the promises of God. When we understand the power of the Word of God, realizing it is available for those who trust it, we cease from our own works and allow God to work in us. Hebrews 4:10. This is true spiritual rest! And this rest comes when we realize that salvation does not come from ourselves, but from the Word that made and upholds the heavens and earth.⁹

Then why are we instructed to do no physical labor during the Sabbath hours? Exodus 20:8–11. Refraining from physical toil provides time to contemplate the works and Word of God without interruption; but even more importantly, it teaches an invaluable lesson of trust in God. As we cease all our work—even that work which provides our living—we are reminded that God supplies not only our spiritual but also our physical needs, and that we are dependent upon Him for life itself.

True Sabbath rest, then, is perfect trust in God, Whose power brought the universe out of nothing and Who upholds it with His Word. And to us He extends the invitation to rest upon that all-powerful Word: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28.