Tuesday – Pentateuch

Reading – Leviticus 26-27

Highlight Verse:

“Then at last the land will enjoy its neglected Sabbath years as it lies desolate while you are in exile in the land of your enemies. Then the land will finally rest and enjoy the Sabbaths it missed.”
‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭26‬:‭34‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Has God ever forced a vacation on you?

One person in my family had a 15 year “vacation” forced on them (reduced to 7 and a half years for good behavior).

Then there was the time when I worked non-stop for weeks to get ready to move to Colorado only to have a four-day vacation in the middle of the move forced on me by a blown engine.

In the case of the Israelites, God forced them to give the land rest by allowing them to be exiled. They brought it on themselves.

It was far less than ideal. But it was what they needed.

Sometimes God has a way of enforcing a change of pace.

We drive ourselves so hard, thinking it’s what we need to do, then along comes sickness, or job loss, or tragedy and we find out what was truly important and what we could take a break from.

I’ve said before that God gave us commands because He knows what is good for us.

One of those commands is rest.

The Biblical standard for rest is one day in 7.

When you don’t honor that standard, those days of rest tend to come in less appealing ways.

Do you get enough rest?
Do you get too much?
What can you do to get closer to the Biblical standard of rest?