In the Bible ‘rest’ is connected with authority. When Israelite kings submitted to God they were free from foreign oppression and they were said to be at ‘rest’. God’s authority over them was like a blanket of protection that relieved them of any concern about future threats. When God owns your life then tomorrow is his concern. We are therefore able to find tranquillity in the present without the perturbing worry about the future which belongs to God. The Sabbath was meant to be a day in which the people recognised and rested in the authority of God. Jesus represented this authority and therefore he is the fulfilment of the Sabbath. When we come under his authority we have rest because our lives are in his hands. In Jesus’ time the Sabbath had become just another legalistic requirement that people felt they had to fulfil to validate their membership in God’s people. It had, in other words, become the very thing that it was designed to prevent. God gave human beings the Sabbath so we would be reminded that our security is in God, not in our own achievements. There are those who would use Scripture to burden you with the lie that you must earn your acceptance with God. Jesus wants to lift this burden off you. You do not become acceptable to God by your sacrifices. You become acceptable to God by Jesus’ sacrifice. When you give yourself over to God it is not so that you can earn his favour. It is so that you can enjoy his favour as you live restfully in his hands.
Put your life in God’s hands and trust him for all that you may be worried about.
Read Matthew 12:1-21
