Why do we get tired?
On long summer days working on projects, filling the weekends with adventures and making the most of Idaho summers before school starts up again, it is inevitable that you will get worn out.
It is easy to think about exhaustion and see it as a consequence of the Fall. Our bodies break down with time, we get sick, we get tired. Tiredness is a little form of death, and every night we lie down to sleep, and we die, but like death, that is not the end. You rise back to life in the morning. Death and resurrection.
But unlike exhaustion, rest has a very different picture in Scripture. God rested on the seventh day from His work. God was not worn out and in need of a break. And man was given this pattern of six days labor and one day of rest before man fell. Work was good. And rest was good and there was no sin. The Israelites looked forward to their rest in the promised land of Canaan when their work of conquering the land was complete. The new Israel, the church, looks forward to rest in this land, when the last remaining strongholds of sin are removed. Rest is the reward. Rest is sweet.
So, when you are dead tired from long days of work well done, thank God for the rest that He gives each night. Thank God and take rest on the Sabbath. Ecclesiastes 5:12 – “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet…”
But when you are exhausted because you have been living with sin, fighting and falling to temptation, when there is no rest in your marriage, when you are filled with stress and can’t relax on Sunday, this exhaustion gives you the picture of the only place that sin will lead to death. If you want rest, if you want peace, then first go and fight the giants in the land, the giants in your house, the giants in your heart. Do not be ok with a few sins on the edges that are currently out of site and not causing trouble. The command is to kill every last one, and the God who gives the command is the same God who has promised you rest. The reward is sure.
Zach Browning – July 14, 2024
