“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” – Matthew 11:28
LIGHT FOR NOW: God’s plan is centered towards granting eternal solace to His people.
Leaning on the wordings of the above text, Jesus speaks to the crowd after John had sent his disciples to enquire of him if Jesus was the one sent from God to deliver them or they wait for another. Jesus took time to reveal to the people about God’s plan which was revealed through Moses (Matthew 11:25). Moses taught the people to work for six days and on the seventh day, they shall rest. The Sabbath (seventh) day was figurative of the rest found in Christ, as shown in our text above. Reading on to Matthew 12:15, the Scripture clearly shows how Jesus healed the multitude who followed him on the Sabbath day. This he did to show to the world that man can actually find solace in Him even in their ‘day of no work (rest)’. Moses had taught the people God’s law and His plan in his own understanding but Jesus came to speak the truth clearly by fulfilling and revealing them to the people. This is shown in John 4:32 which says, “But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of”.
The rest which was promised in our text for today was prepared by God even before the fall of man. Moses used the days of the week to symbolize the clear fact that even though man had sinned and had fallen short of God’s glory, God still made a way for man to find a way back to his prepared rest. A question can be asked of what the rest of God is, this can be found in the explanation made by Jesus in Mark 2:27-28 which reads, “And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath”. A quick reading of Exodus 33:14 shows God telling Moses that “…My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest”. Further reading can be found in Psalms 62:1 and Jeremiah 6:16.
Humanity was not placed in a position where work is out of place; God placed man in the garden to tend after it (Genesis 2:15) but after the fall of man, this work became toil and man had to suffer and struggle in life but; God in His enduring love and compassion created an avenue for man to rest from his struggles, even from the struggle with sin. Despite man’s rejection of God’s ways, God is still mindful to keep the ‘Sabbath’ for man as an avenue of return into this promised rest. No wonder the writer of Hebrews 2:6 said “…what is man that Thou art mindful of him…” This shows how much of God’s love is available to us. When we fell and needed a Saviour, God readied a Saviour for us and made us reconcile back His love. Glory!
INSTRUCTION: God is love and is the only hope of rest for mankind.
CONFESSION: I have been lost and even in my low estate, I have a God who has promised me rest and I will dwell in His rest, in Jesus Name, Amen.
QUOTE: Your arrival in Christ is your arrival in the Sabbath.
DAILY READING: MORNING: ROMANS CHAPTER 5; EVENING: ROMANS CHAPTER
LIGHT FROM THE WORD 