I Went to Church Yesterday

I went to church yesterday… the day before yesterday, really.

My current reflection on service has to do with rest, that holy and glorious gift of God symbolizing one aspect of his ultimate purposes for his creation. The biblical principle of rest stands in direct conflict with and in bold contrast to the thoughts and practices of contemporary society. We are a restless people. We belong to a culture that lives and moves and has its being in quickly moving pictures and scenes, in rapidly changing sounds, in fast and fanciful alterations in every aspect of life ranging from rituals to relationships. The outcome of this groundlessness is that we are the personification of the proverbial rolling stone that gathers no moss. We're shiftless in all our ways, very impressionistic in our thinking (?) and well-nigh incapable of having an ongoing, serious discussion. In this process, even our speech has been deconstructed into a series of Neanderthal-like disjointed sounds, grunts and utterances reflecting the pervasive shiftiness and stultification of our society. We are restless in all our ways. Our culture, regressing more and more into a state of abject childishness, has been overtaken by a regrettable malaise of intellectual ADHD.

In contrast to this pitiful state of fallen man, rest is a gleaming gift of God to his chosen people. Its biblical meaning is varied but its deeper significance goes beyond the simple notion of the absence of any spatial activity and the reality of being in a secured state. These are some of the meanings contained in the first primary Hebrew word for rest, nuach, found in such texts as Gen 8:4, "the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat." and from which we have such derived nouns as Noah and Manoah. However, the rest of God encompasses more than the non-existence of disturbances, whether external or internal.

Its full meaning is located in its soteriological significance stemming from the theology of the Sabbath. To this end the Scripture tells us that “..on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation." Gen 2:2-3.

In these verses we find the clear biblical teaching of the goal or destiny of creation: rest. That this is a unique day is emphasized by the threefold presence of the word itself: God rested from all the work that he had completed (in creation)- twice. This rest took place on the seventh day – the Hebrew word for seven is intimately related to the word for rest.

What does the Scripture mean when it says that God rested from his work? Clearly it does not and cannot signify that the perfect, omnipotent, independent Lord rested because he had need of physical recuperation. Exodus 31:17 is perhaps even more puzzling for here it states that the Lord God rested on the seventh day and literally took breath, that is, was refreshed. Rest, shabat, in the Genesis and Exodus texts, points to a cessation from labor, which when combined with the fact that the Lord blessed and sanctified this day (made it holy), denotes that God was therein signifying the divine intent and purpose for that day. Please refer to Dr. Joseph A. Pipa’s article "The Puritan Sabbath" in the June 2011 issue of Tabletalk. Accordingly, this rest in which the Lord God, who had just pronounced a cosmic benediction on all that he had created, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Gen 1:31; cf. 1 Tim 4:4, participated is a rest of enjoyment and delight in his work of creation. In other words, our Creator contemplated the work of his words and concluded that it was altogether good. Further, by blessing the day the Lord confers upon it further distinctives by which it is to be marked, i.e., fruitfulness and fulfillment. The implication here is that all those who obey God by observing his Sabbath, would experience fullness of joy, completeness of satisfaction and fruitfulness of life.

Moses expanded on the nature of this rest to the sons of Israel as he proclaimed to them the law a second time. In Dt 5:15 his parting words to his people were "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." Here we find that God commanded his people to rest on one day out of seven, not only because of his pattern in creation but also because of his gracious redemption of his covenant people from Egyptian slavery. The rest into which the Lord was leading them was symbolically located in the Transjordan territory and was accomplished, in the first place, by the taking of the city of Jericho. Upon entering the Promised Land therefore, Israel was said to have entered into its rest and its inheritance. This land was described by Yahweh himself as one that was flowing with milk and honey, signifying the stout riches of divine blessings, and as a place in which Israel would experience non-interference from and victory over all her enemies. All of these were a gracious gift of God. There she was to offer fit sacrifices to her Redeemer God. "But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD." Dt 12:10-11. It was into this land and inheritance that Joshua, Moses' successor, led his people. "So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war." Josh 11:23.

But this was not the final rest that God intended for all of his people, for all time. For God's covenant people, there yet remains another day of rest. "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, .." Heb 4:8-9. This rest is to be found in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ who grants us a full-orbed rest, not simply a non-working on one day of the week and the absence of conflict but most importantly, a rest from the toil of sin. By his finished, substitutionary atoning sacrifice of himself for his covenant people on the cross of Calvary, Christ declares himself to be and presents himself as the fulfillment of all that redemption and rest in the old covenant typified. He is our rest. He, the Lord of the Sabbath, is our Sabbath rest. On the cross of Calvary, he cosmically disgraced and disarmed the rulers and authorities, by triumphing over them, Col 2:15. Then, by his resurrection from the grave, he ushered in a new order, a new age for the entire creation, a Sabbath rest for God's people, Heb 4:9. Herein lie the full meaning and significance of rest. Those of us, who by God's grace alone, have put their trust in Christ alone for their righteousness, have already entered this rest. However, its full benefits and blessings await the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who will, at that time, grant us the fullness of our redemption, the completeness of our rest, as he ushers and leads us into the anti-typical Promised Land, the New Jerusalem, to present us as trophies of his awesome work of redemption, to the Father, as his spotless bride, fully rested from the toils, trials and troubles of sin. Christ is our rest. Christ is our peace.

Each time those of us to whom the Lord has been pleased to grant his rest, Mt 11:28(28-30), attend corporate worship, we demonstrate at least three great truths: we have already been the gracious recipients of this Sabbath rest; we are currently participating in this rest; and we are anticipating that day when our rest will be complete. In the meantime, we keep on drawing near to him by corporately partaking of his Word and sacrament. With each worship our longing for that day intensifies for we are increasingly tasting and seeing that the Lord is indeed good. With each worship our joy multiplies. With each worship we celebrate the victory, the rest of our conquering King, Christus Victor. With each worship we intensify our praise to our majestic Lord and King "… Till our ransomed souls shall find, rest beyond the river." (Emphasis added)

Would you believe that this was my experience in church yesterday?