Photo © Unsplash/Anton Darius | @theSollers
How is it
that in our
overworked
underpaid
hyperstressed
neverhushed
go go go go
culture
we aren't
running full tilt
to the God
whose covenant sign
is rest
the God
whose binding contract
stipulates that
we were
first and foremost
created to know
peace?
2 Chronicles 14
I loved this verse from chapter 14: "Let us build up these towns," [Asa] said to Judah, "and put walls around them, with towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we sought him and he has given us rest on every side." (vs 7) The Israelites in Judah had not yet forsaken what they had learned in Egyptian captivity—that God is the very best King there is.
DEUTERONOMY 15
"At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts." (vs 1) I have always been intrigued by the number seven and the way it is used in the Bible. I think it must be God’s favorite number. It seems to carry the idea of perfection, wholeness, completeness. There are lots of significant things that happened in the Bible regarding the number seven: Noah took seven of the clean animals into the ark, Jacob worked seven years each for Leah and Rachel, Egypt had seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, and Jesus cast out seven demons from Mary Magdalene. Even the multiples of seven have some significance in the Bible. For instance, many great Bible men came from generations that were a multiple of seven: Enoch (7), Abraham (21), David (35), and Jesus (77). Wow, double seven!
EXODUS 31
God is the Savior. He is the only Savior. And one of the ways He helps us remember that is by giving us the Sabbath, a day when we stop working and rest in Him. I love how God says it in this chapter: "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.'" (vs 13)
