what is rest?

When you hear the word rest, or think about rest, what comes to mind?

Sleep?   Holiday?   Binge TV?

Reading?   Hiking?   No agenda?

No alarms?   Staying up late?

First, I want to suggest that our world has ‘commercialised’ rest.  There is a rest ‘you’ deserve and a rest experience ‘you’ can purchase – for you!  Even on Holidays, there are sales – apparently shopping and bargains are restful.  In other words, resting and buying are connected, one way or another, for a price.

If the economics of rest is obvious to us, maybe less obvious is the prevalence of ‘selfness’ or ‘self-centricness’ in our rest.  Rest is something you deserve, on your basis, in your way, that suits you!

When you consider the word ‘rest’ specifically in the Bible, it seems that the idea or notion of biblical rest is completely different to our cultural ideas or practices.  Rest is mentioned 260-350 times in scripture, depending on your translation.  Considering the English word Rest, Genesis 8:4 is the first mention saying: and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest (Nuach OT:5117) on the mountains of Ararat.

Definitions of this word rest include the notions of: to settle down, stay, give comfort, withdraw, cease, lay, be quiet, and remain.  This particular word Nuach occurs 65 times in the Old Testament.  What makes this ‘Nuach’ idea very interesting is that it is often associated with presence…like the Spirit of Elijah "resting" on Elisha in 2 Kings 2:15.  Or God "resting" on the mountain in Isaiah 25:10. 

The idea I want to experience more is the sort of rest we experience when we are in the presence of the Lord.  Exodus 30:14 captures this when the Lord says: "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

That leaves us with a question being – “How is God connected to our rest?” 

So what does rest really mean to you?

Ben Bonython