God-ordained Refuge

September 6

Although God values industry, although He rewards diligence in man’s labor, He also values rest. God who never grows weary, as is clearly stated in Isaiah 40:28, “Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth faints not, neither is weary…” established an example of rest for man who does tire under his labor.

In Genesis 2:1,2, we are told that God concluded His creation in six days and, He “blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because this is the day that He rested from all His work…” We know the One who is never weary does not require a day of rest for Himself, even after the monumental task of creation.

But He does know that man, after the fall, would find himself stooping under the weight of the burden of labor he now must carry. In Hebrews 4:9, 10, Paul states, “There remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.”

That gift of rest that the Lord programmed into His plan for His errant creation enables the believer to enter into this God-ordained refuge from the demands of the work-a-day-world and to find the rest he needs to go on to the next day’s tasks. God’s example of resting on the seventh day affords us the justification to lay our burdens down.