Scheduled Mandatory Rest Around a Holiday
“On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you.”
Exodus 12:16 ESV
When God said this to the Jewish people, they didn’t know what a “day off” was. As slaves to a cruel and oppressive Egypt, they were on the level of a refrigerator or your car: whenever needed, which is all the time, you need to be working.
They were also in exile from Egypt on one of the longest camping trips in history, so rather than having any kind of career, job, or structure, they were looking for ways to get food and sustenance a lot. So when God says “No work shall be done on those days” He is bringing the entire quest for riches, provision, and profit to a complete halt. He’s basically saying that rest is more important on that day than everything except eating.
A day of rest like that is one that sets everything aside and all of its purpose and functions, and says “The Lord does more for me than that thing,” in the same way that going on vacation says “my co-workers can do this without me.” When we rest from our work, we are setting a boundary. We are allowing God to rule over us and show His power to provide instead of thinking that we are the provision power that can never shut down.
He’s made us like this biologically too. Studies have shown that you do your best at work and your best lifestyle happens when you get 8 hours of sleep a night. That means the best way to live involves being helpless, unconscious, and inactive for a third of your day, every single day.
Just like bedtime takes planning, preparation, and attention, so does a day of rest. The Jewish people in Exodus 12 had to plan ahead, get some freezer meals ready, whatever, in order to not do any work except meal prep.
Think of the night they went to bed before that day of rest:
All of the sheep are cleaned up, and not getting shorn tomorrow
All of the clothes are clean, and not going to be mended or made tomorrow
All of the Manna has been collected, and we aren’t going to collect any tomorrow
It sounds like vacation, doesn’t it? That’s on purpose, and that is what God was telling them to achieve around this festival.
What are ways that you can prepare a day in advance to have a more restful day off?
What things about work cause you the most stress when you aren’t at work? What are you checking your email or on your phone to see? Can it wait? Why or why not?
Are there some sleep habits that are getting in the way of the remarkably amazing life that God has purchased for you? What specific step can you take to fix that this week?