Greetings,
As we pause on this Sabbath day we can be very thankful for the true “rest” it supplies for us. This week it must surely be impressed upon God’s people how much the Kingdom of God is needed as the ruling body over this earth. God’s Kingdom is a future hope and promise as well as a present reality. We look forward with great anticipation for the time when Jesus Christ will administer the Government of God over all nations. Our daily prayers express the desire for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. In support of this desire, our daily actions reflect the seeking of the Kingdom of God by righteous living. The Kingdom of God is central to who we are and how we live.
However, this world is not the Kingdom we envisage or seek. It is the kingdom of the god of this world. Christ plainly declared that “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36). The way of man, under the influence of the god of this world, works tirelessly in an effort to find meaning in life. As Solomon wisely observed: “For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23). The pendulum continually swings as man works to find his way. There is no rest, as Solomon observed.
The children of God – those called by the Father out of this environment of endless, unfulfilled work – have been ushered into a Kingdom-like rest that is pictured by the Sabbath rest. As we cease from six days of laboring on the seventh day, we are mindful of the real “rest” that we have been called into (Hebrews 4:9-10). We “rest” in a relationship with the Father through Christ. We have been conveyed or transferred into the Kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). The world will continue to work as it battles pendulum swings of effort to live meaningful lives. Without God this is, though, a hopeless task, but one which will absorb all of man’s labors.
As we observe the Sabbath, let us be very mindful of the greater rest we have with God. “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” (Hebrews 4:10). Let us leave the world to do its work while we focus on the blessing of a relationship with God. “Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places.” (Isaiah 32:16-18).
Warm regards,
Brian Orchard
