Mike Gerhardt, Retreat May 23-26, 2014, A Time for Rest, Leviticus 25:1-12. The Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year will be food for you, for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten. The Year of Jubilee Count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. Introduction: I Love To Retreat. Take it easy, take a break, take a furlough, kick back, cool off, go on holiday, go on liberty, leave of absence, fiesta, siesta, vacate, escape, recreate, recess, respite, relax, R and R and retreat. I feel like taking a nap!! Work is a four letter word to many people. Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off NOW. If a train station is where the train stops and a bus station is where the bus stops, what is a work station? Young man just out of college taking to a recruiting agent, accidently said: I don t want to work, I just want a good paying job. Employer to applicant: In this job we need 1
someone who is responsible. Applicant: I'm the one you want. On my last job, every time anything went wrong, they said I was responsible. Work Six Days (144 Hours). You know that the president of the United States only has 168 hours in his week JUST LIKE YOU. The Bible talks about working six days and resting one days. What do you do with your 144 hours? Jesus stated, A man who works by day will not stumble. Work while it is day. My work Jesus said elsewhere, is to do the Father s will. There was a family in crisis in Bethany. Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus. He was not the poor beggar cover with sores in the parable with the rich man told by Jesus in Luke 16. He was Lazarus, the one Jesus loved who had two sisters Mary and Martha. Mary in Luke 10 sat at the feet of Jesus while Martha work hard doing all the preparations. Martha the working sister was upset by her sister for not helping in the kitchen. For that Martha was corrected by Jesus. Some might think he was rebuking her for working, but I believe he was affirming Mary s choice to spend time listening at His feet. We must work. Sow, prune and gather. You have heard Live to eat or eat to live for those who need to diet. But what about work to live or live to work? The OT Jewish calendar functioned on a series of sevens. The seventh day of the week was the Sabbath. Seven weeks after Passover came Pentecost, and the seventh month of the year introduces the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Every seventh year was a Sabbatical Year, and after seven Sabbatical years came the Year of Jubilee. How much do you work? Tacoma, Washington, March 10, 1990. Tattoo the basset hound went for an unplanned run when his owner shut one end of his leash in a car door and took off for a drive with Tattoo on the leash's other end still outside. Motorcycle Officer Kerry Filbert was on patrol when he noticed a car that seemed to have something dragging from it. Filbert chased and finally stopped the car, but not before the dog reached a speed of 20 to 25 mph and rolled several times, according to the article. The couple jumped out and Filbert told them they were dragging a dog. The 2
distressed pair began calling Tattoo! Tattoo! The 8-monthold dog was not injured. Too many of us are living our lives like Tattoo, picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can rolling around & feeling dragged through life. Getting pulled through life at a speed we re not able to keep up with is tiring. Your Work matters to God. Ephesians 6:9 Masters (bosses, employers) treat your slaves (workers, employees) in the same way this is with respect, sincerity of heart, just as you would do for Christ. He elevates labor. First thing we discover in God s word is that employees must work for the Lord. Most people want to work for God but only in an advisory position. Paul uses slavery as a way to address all work. Now a word about slavery: Aristotle regarded slaves as nothing more than living tools. Philemon, a member of the first century church, owned slaves of whom Onesimus was one. During the first century there was an estimated 60 million slaves in a world of only 200 million over thirty percent. God ordained work, marriage, family and justice before sin came into the world. But God never ordained nor created slavery. The sabbatical year of rest and the celebration of the year of Jubilee were on the Jewish calendar for the nation of Israel to release any slaves and allow them their freedom. This brings to mind a Chinese proverb on work: If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave to the one who directs him. But, if a man does more than is required and goes far above the task, he is truly a free man. Slaves usually have nothing externally to gain from diligence but remember Joseph at Potiphar s house and in the jail. When he showed initiative and enthusiasm for the work, he showed his freedom from men. Work is good but rest is important. Give the Land a Rest (24 Hours). What is Sabbath? A 24 hour period where you do not concern yourself with making a wage or advancing your career or wealth. Rest is important for body, soul and mind. Your Rest matters to God. Let It Go Fallow (sing the song Let It Go). The Sabbatical year was God s way of allowing the land to lie fallow and restore its fruitfulness. The 3
people were not permitted to have a formal harvest that year, but anyone could eat from the produce of the fields and orchards. God promised to provide abundant crops during the sixth year, so observing the Sabbatical Year was really a test of faith for the people. It was also an expression of God s love for the poor of the land (Ex. 23:10 12). According to Deut. 15:1 11, all debts were to be remitted at the end of the seventh year. Jewish servants were supposed to serve only six years (Ex. 21:2), and the Jewish people were encouraged to be especially generous to the poor. Do not sow, reap nor gather. Trust God s Word. Trust God s provision. The Sabbatical year was a time of rest and restoration for the land, the people, and the animals who worked on the land. It was an opportunity for a new beginning for those who had experienced difficulties financially. Unfortunately, there s no evidence that the nation ever faithfully obeyed this law (2 Chron. 36:21). The prophets often condemned the Jewish leaders and wealthy people for their ruthless treatment of the poor. Had the Sabbatical year law been observed, it would have prevented the poor from losing their lands and the rich from amassing huge estates. The economy wouldn t have been perfect, but it would have been balanced much better. During the Feast of Tabernacles in each Sabbatical year, the priests were to read and explain the Book of Deuteronomy to the people (Deut. 31:9 13). It was something like a weeklong Bible conference during which the people were reminded of what God had done for them and what He expected them to do in return. God s people need to be taught His Word, for each new generation has not learned it; and the older generations need to be reminded of it. Hebrews 4:9-10 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Resting in God does not mean no action, it means no anxiety. We look to God s efforts instead of our own. This is God s year to work miracles. Through the years Labor Day has mostly evolved into a day off. Most people don t care where it came from or why, they 4
are just glad to have a day off. A break from their labor. A time to play. A time to gather with friends and family. A time to rest and rejuvenate. It should not be a surprise that we long for this. It s woven into the fabric of creation. God labors. He creates. Day 1, he creates. Day 2, he creates. Day 3, he creates. Day 4, he creates. Day 5, he creates. Day 6, he creates. Day 7, he RESTS. Has that ever struck you as a bit strange? Was God tired? Did he need a break? No. He does not grow weary or tired. But He does paint us a picture of something very important. He wants us to see that there is a place where toil ceases, where burdens are lifted, where restoration occurs. There is REST. It s a foundational concept given to us right from the beginning. Rest from physical work. Rest from emotional and spiritual work. Rest from guilt and the burden of sin. Senior pastor of a larger church stumbles across evidence that one of the pastors on staff is having an affair. No one who knows him believes it. The man denies it. Weeks pass and finally he calls the senior pastor and says they have to meet. The man shows up and looks like he has aged 10 years. He s wasted away. All of the guilt and all of the energy that has been expended in covering up the sin, and excusing and justifying the behavior in his own mind has worn him out. He finally reached the point where he realized how desperate he was for rest. John Wesley was an extremely diligent church worker who founded the Methodist church, so named for the methodical way he approached spirituality, the study of the Bible and prayer. He prayed six times a day, yet he lacked peace and rest. He thought if he worked hard enough and did enough good, God would receive him. Can you see how that would wear someone out? How much good do you have to do for God to accept you??? Who knows, right? If you think God s love and acceptance is something that can be earned or achieved, all you can do is keep striving, and working and hoping that maybe you ve done enough. But the whole program is like the hamster running the wheel. It s tiring. It wears people out. You don t want to do it, but you feel like you have to. You need rest. 5
I remember the time I agonized over asking for a raise at the Chinese Church. I came prepared with all my expenses, expressing only to receive enough to pay all the bills on time. In less than the time it took to translate my request, I got everything I asked for. I admit I thought that I didn t ask for enough! But then there s the realization that even with the increase, things are pretty much still the same. We continue the chase to have more and more, that toy, that relationship that accomplishment, If I only get that thing, I ll be able to REST. When I get married I ll be able to rest. When I get that new job, new promotion, new raise I will be able to rest. When the kids finally leave the house I ll be able to rest. I ll be satisfied and things will be good. But none of those things EVER delivers more than for a moment. They may provide a MOMENT of transcendence, a MOMENT of rest, but when the moment is over we rise up and chase another MOMENT. And it s tiring. Even today, many wonder how they can rest and still have what they want. How they can take a day off every week and still pay the bills. It s an exercise of faith to obey, trusting that God knew what he was doing when he put Sabbath in place. In OT times it would have been even more so. A poor, agrarian society depended on whatever the land produced. They didn t have margins. They couldn t sell a car or their flat screen TV if needed to buy food for the family. They were at the mercy of the land. At the mercy of God. God wanted them to trust HIM for what they needed. A river flows on, until it loses itself in the sea. A river is in turmoil, it rages, churns and rushes but when it gets to the ocean it does none of those things. It rests. It gets lost in the sea. I do the same thing until I rest in Jesus. 6