The number seven is a big deal in the Bible.
Yeah, in biblical Hebrew the word seven is connected to the idea of fullness or completeness.
And that is something we all long for but do not often experience.
Instead we find ourselves working endlessly, fighting back chaos with no real rest.
Yes! Now, keep that all in mind as we turn to Genesis 1 in the Bible.
It begins with darkness and disorder.
But then God speaks to bring about light and order so that life can flourish.
And this happens over the course of six days.
Each day is marked with the phrase, "There was evening and there was morning."
But, on the seventh day something special happens.
God stops and rests.
Right. Creation is brought to its completion on the seventh day.
And that phrase, "There was evening and there was morning," does not appear on day seven.
It is like a day with no end.
On the seventh day, God's presence fills his creation.
The land provides for all of God's creatures, including humans,
who are appointed to rule the world with God forever.
Kings and queens of the seventh day rest.
I can get into that.
But the humans are deceived by a dark power and they forfeit that rest.
They are exiled into the wilderness where they have to work as slaves to the land.
Until they die and return to the dust from which they came.
But God wants to restore humanity back to that seventh day rest.
So, he chooses to give the family of Israel that experience of ultimate rest so they can share it with others.
But, how?
They are in Egypt, slaves to an oppressive empire who is grinding them into the dust.
So, God confronts Egypt and liberates the Israelites,
taking them through the darkness and chaos on the way to the Promised Land.
While they are on their way, they find themselves in the wilderness.
It is easy to get lost.
Life is a struggle.
They are not in the land of rest yet.
While they are on their way, God invites them, in the wilderness, to start living as if they are in the promised land.
But, how do you practice the future rest in the wilderness?
God tells them that every seventh day, they are to stop their work.
Or, in Hebrew, to "shabbat" so that they can rest and enjoy God's good world.
So, take a whole day to live as if the ultimate rest has already come.
Yeah. This is the sabbath, celebrated every week on the seventh day.
But, there is more.
The sabbath is just one of seven festivals that Israel practiced every year.
Each one anticipating that seventh day rest.
That is a lot of sevenths!
And there is even more!
Every seven years, the Israelites will liberate slaves, forgive debts and let the land rest for a whole year.
And then, every seven times seven years was the ultimate seventh day rest, called the year of Jubilee.
If anybody had lost their land or gone into debt, all was forgiven, everything restored.
Oh! So the sabbath, these feasts, the year of Jubilee, are all pointing toward the hope of future rest.
Right! Now, when the Israelites when into the land, they forgot their God.
So, they forfeit their chance to rest in the promised land.
They are exiled and enslaved again by an oppressive nation, led back into a world of chaos and disorder.
But, Israel's prophets said that their exile will end one day and that the ultimate jubilee of freedom and rest would come.
But generations go by and they are still waiting.
It is at this dark point in the story that Jesus appears.
And he launches his public mission on a sabbath day.
Yeah, he read aloud from the scroll of Isaiah saying that it was time for all captives and slaves to be released
because this was the year of the Lord's favor.
What did he mean, "This is the year of the Lord's favor"?
He was talking of the ultimate jubilee.
So, Jesus is claiming that seventh day rest would come through him.
Right, he said that he was the Lord of the Sabbath.
And he confronted disorder and darkness in all of its forms,
liberating people from sickness, sin, even from death itself.
Yet, Jesus was killed, so even his work was undone.
Well, it seemed that way.
But notice, Jesus timed his death to take place at the end of the week.
His body rested in a tomb during the sabbath and on the eight day he rosed from the dead.
Oh, wait, the eight day?
You mean, the first day of a new week?
Exactly.
Jesus' resurrection was like the first day of a new creation where God's light and life broke into the darkness.
So, because of the resurrection we have hope in God's promise of future rest.
But, we are not there yet.
It is like we are still in the wilderness, where we experience struggle and pain.
But, as we journey towards that ultimate seventh day,
Jesus invites us to experience a taste of real rest now by following him.
Or, in his words, "Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest."