Rest as a Novelty or a Rule

I had a random thought the other day, that I felt compelled to share with you, dear reader! Clearly I am fixated on the ideas of margin and rest right now, so this topic won’t come as too much of a shock. To cut to the chase, here’s the idea: what if the idea of a day of rest, a Sabbath, is actually contrary to man’s inherent sin nature? And if so, what if the observation of a day of rest actually enables and enhances productivity and health?

In short, what if God’s command to keep a Sabbath wasn’t simply to provide the Israelite nation a day of rest, but was actually a way to make them more prosperous?

Did I blow your mind a little? I keep wrestling with the idea, and it is both fascinating, and tragically beautiful.

Fascinating, because today when I hear talk of the Sabbath, it is always an ethereal, almost euphemistic reference to taking some random time to rest. In my journey back to God over the last few years, I’ve been struck more and more with how God’s commands aren’t simply good ideas or novel concepts, but actually belie a physical law in this world. So what if the Sabbath is no different – a command trying to illuminate an actual, physical principle of human existence, expressed to a group of people without a sufficient understanding of the human form to appreciate the truth.

Do I always explain to my children the nuances of the rules I set? No, because often their grasp of physics and cause and effect is too limited to understand. So instead I make a rule, attempting to protect them from themselves. Certainly the Bible is rife with examples of this principle – what if the Sabbath command is no different? What if God’s original design for man is to rest for a full day once each week?

Does that sound intimidating? It certainly makes me run to the comfort of the New Covenant!

Tragically beautiful though, because I do not believe God designed man to work, to “do” incessantly. I believe our workaholic nature is a sin based behavior. But God knew our capacity for it, as He designed us this way. And then God gave a law to His people to try and help and protect them from the sin of over work, because they couldn’t understand the whole truth. God always loves us enough to save us from ourselves.

So this is all well and good, and a fun mental exercise, but where’s the proof? First, in my own experience, I have seen how taking a rest can lead to increased productivity. How taking a day to have a mental break results in renewed strength and endurance. On a personal level, there is no doubt that this rule exists.

However, science hasn’t discounted the idea either. As the New York Times, Entrepreneur, and Scientific American note, rest is critical to productivity. That’s great about rest, but what about the Sabbath angle? Here is a paper documenting a study into prosperity in rural China based on the growth of Christianity!

Now, let me be careful here. Christianity is certainly not Judaism. And simply observing the Sabbath doesn’t magically turn me into Donald Trump. That’s not my point. My point is simply the question, what if the command to observe the Sabbath was God trying to help the Israelites overcome their own sin nature so that they could prosper?