In Exodus 25-31 God speaks to Moses seven time (instructions about holy place and holy ordination). Some say it is a play on the creation of Genesis 1. Brueggemann picks up on the seventh speech - holy time. Again, in "Mandate to Difference" by Walter Brueggemann.
This seventh speech culminates with references to the divine sabbath: "it is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested." (Exodus 31:17) And then in a quirky conclusion, the text adds, no longer remembering that it is cast as God's own speech, "and was refreshed."
This is a stunning theological statement! The Hebrews uses the term nephesh, which occurs often in the Old Testament as a noun meaning "self" and often rendered as "soul," as in "bless the Lord O my soul." But here the term nephesh is a verb in the reflexive niphal; YHWH "was nepheshed." .... Sabbath is a time for being re-nepheshed, for recovery of full self by withdrawal from all that drains and exhausts and depletes. And so for God. Because of God's own life and God's own time and God's own experience, God has ordered, in the very fabric of creation, that there are limits to the demands and expectations that are to be placed on our naphshim.
God is refreshed. This is fresh for life. Fresh to be again the one who creates. That is also for us. That we be a people whose acknowledge that our lives can and will be drained of our life essence. Rest is the same as "was refreshed." Makes me wonder how God is within this time of refreshment. Then again, that is my need to figure that out. I also think it is quite odd that we humans think we must define and legislate every second of this day of rest. Are we afraid to rest without rules that really allow for the fullness of rest. Can you imagine God piling on rules for how he can rest or what would be the best way to rest or what cannot take place within the domain of restfulness? Can it be enough that we know that God was refreshed and we are invited into that experience of refreshment. It must be enough to know that God rested. It must be enough that we are trusted to rest also. Otherwise, would God rest?!?! And yet, we all know that we do not rest well (this is me speaking to me here). So instead of mandates that can fill pages and pages of notes on how to rest, we are simply told to rest. It is the way of our creative God - rest. How? Rest.
Connection: Sometimes I find it strange that I am in the middle of restfulness even when it is not a designated time to rest (and vice versa). So is it good for us to let those times expand and be noticed and appreciated in order that we can be refreshed. I suppose being people of little discipline - setting aside a day and time to make us rest is good. But to have to make that day another list of things to do and follow seems out of character for the day.
Come, O God of Refreshment, Come and help us rest in you alone. Amen.
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