S2 E17 | "Sabbath" | Bible Study John 5:1-11

I once heard a story about a businessman flying from New York to Seattle. Ironically, the trip was for pleasure. The man was known for many things, but mostly for being observant and for being a workaholic. He was halfway through composing a PowerPoint presentation when he noticed a young girl sitting alone and coloring a book in the next row over. The man glanced up and down the aisle. No parents. Just a content little girl about nine years old, filling in the lines of a coloring book. She bobbed her head back and forth to the song in her head, and from the slight grin she wore, it looked to be one of her favorites. After about 10 minutes of casual observation, the man concluded that the girl was alone. While this struck him as somewhat odd, he returned his attention to his work, knowing that he had a job to do and only so much vacation time in which to do it. A few minutes later, the man's finger started to wobble atop his keyboard as the plane began to shake. The first bump went easily unnoticed. The second, however, was unmistakable as dark clouds surrounded the plane. The man looked over to the young girl. She remained content with her coloring, the same song, apparently still in her head. "Just a little turbulence," the man said. The girl looked over, smile intact, and nodded. "It'll be over soon," the man assured. It wouldn't be. The man began taking slow, deep breaths as the shaking increased. "What are you doing?" The girl asked. "Breathing exercise." "Why?" "It helps calm me down." "Does it work?" The man nodded with his eyes closed. "Helps to regulate the autonomic nervous system. Lowers the heart rate, decreases blood pressure. Helps you to relax." The man took another breath. "You should give it a try." "Um. No, thanks." The girl happily returned to her book and the song in her head. A voice then sounded over the PA system. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I've turned the fasten seat belt lights on and asked the flight attendants to be seated. We're entering an area of turbulence, and I would like everyone to be seated for safety. Thank you." The man quickly closed the screen, locked his tray table, and strapped his seatbelt tight. The girl continued to bob her head as she simultaneously listened to both her Disney ballad and the pilot's instructions. As she placed her book on the seat table, the song managed to work its way loose from her head. It was now being performed through that timeless musical expression, the whistle. And no sooner did the girl's seatbelt click did the plane suddenly drop in altitude. Screams and other sounds of fright erupted from the passengers throughout the cabin. Only one little passenger laughed as if the dip was simply a part of the flying experience. The man's fingers started to cramp as he gripped the sides of his seat tighter and tighter. He slowly opened one eye and looked over to the girl. Her eyes were also closed, but not like his. Hands behind her head, fingers interlocked, she looked as if she was poolside, ready for a mid-afternoon nap. And while thoughts of the man's life, his cat, and poor work boundaries started to form into flashes before him, he thought most of the whistling and how that was gonna be the last thing he ever heard. But just as quickly as the turbulence roared, it quieted. The plane passed to the other side of the storm and was now once again flying smoothly among the clouds. The man's shoulders and grip loosened. He sighed, and while whistling would not be the last thing he ever heard, it would be present from time to time throughout the remainder of the flight. When the plane landed and the passengers began to disembark, the man introduced himself to the girl and asked, "Why didn't you act the same as the rest of the passengers? How were you able to stay so calm, so at rest?" The girl smiled and said, "Because the pilot's my dad and he's taking me home." In the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the titular character not only convinces the neighborhood boys to do his chores for him, whitewashing a 30-yard fence, but to pay for the privilege of doing so. I think there's something similar going on in society today. We're being led to believe that busier is better, that painting the proverbial fence is preferable to a day of rest. And as a result, work has become somewhat all-consuming. For example, we go from the work week to working the weekend, and we're rewarded for it by being called weekend warriors. We work ourselves up to working out because we know that when it comes to physical fitness, we're always a work in progress. We're content with working vacations. We sugarcoat extra work by calling it a work party. And when a plan comes together, it works like a dream. Or if we're Irish, like a charm. And when we're not at work, ironically, the one place in the house called a restroom is where we go to take care of business. There truly seems to be no rest for the weary. But then again, this is nothing new. Back when God gave Moses the 10 rules for life, rest was fourth on the list. Yep, right up there with don't murder, don't commit adultery, and worship God alone. The Israelites were told to rest, to remember the Sabbath. Exodus 20:8-11 reads, “'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.'" And to put an even finer point on the importance of keeping the Sabbath, Exodus 31:14-15 reads, "'"You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death."'" And thus, the cliche "Don't work yourself to death" was born. Probably. It's interesting that of all the commandments, Jesus and the Pharisees seem to clash most about the Sabbath and how to keep it. But I suppose with good reason. By the time Jesus came onto the scene, there were 39 categories of Sabbath work prohibited by law, an estimated 1,521 specific actions. So it's no wonder Jesus disrupted the apple cart, also prohibited by law, when he healed a man at the pool of Bethesda. If you couldn't raise your hand to write, you certainly couldn't raise a man to walk. Somehow the Pharisees had found a way to make rest exhausting. But why? I suppose the simple explanation is that they believed they were doing the will of God by enforcing and reinforcing Levitical law; if law is good, then more law is better. Or perhaps it was something else, something a bit darker. To say that the Pharisees didn't represent God well is an understatement. They played a pivotal role in murdering his Son, after all. But even before wading into the pools of conspiracy and murder, they happily used their seats of authority to wield ungodly dictatorial rule over those they were entrusted to lead, to subjugate unto themselves rather than to leave towards Jesus. And the indictment against them is clearly presented in Matthew 23. One excerpt reads, “'But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.'" And of all the Pharisees mis-leadings, the one Jesus seemed to highlight the most was the misrepresentation of the Sabbath. Before Calvary, it was the hill he was willing to die on. But why was an accurate understanding of the Sabbath so important? Like Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana and the Old Testament sacrificial practices, some would say that the Sabbath was a foreshadowing of things to come, a foreshadowing of Jesus. You see, the Sabbath was never as much about physical rest as it was about a spiritual one. "'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'" And the Pharisees seemed content in binding the Jewish people in ungodly rules. In the guise of rest, the Pharisees were priming the Jewish people to accept slavery once again. No longer by the hand of Pharaoh, but now by the hand of works. When Moses arrived to lead the Exodus out of Egypt, the Israelites were primed to leave. They recognized their slavery because it was literal, and thus they easily recognized the one who would lead them to freedom. When Jesus arrived to lead the Exodus out of sin, the Jewish people were primed to stay. They wouldn't necessarily recognize their slavery, in part a works-based faith, because it was spiritual, and thus the one who would lead them to freedom was easily overlooked. The Pharisees were acting as the new pharaoh, but who could tell? Nothing about these religious leaders would indicate that they were the bad guys. Quite the opposite. Adorned in religious robes and sacred paraphernalia, they were the epitome of looking the part. But their robes were merely sheep's clothing; their paraphernalia, whitewashed tombs. So, we begin to see a little more clearly Jesus' righteous anger. Because not only were the Pharisees misleading the people into greater depths of legalism, but some would say that the legalism overshadowed the foreshadowing, Jesus as the ultimate rest. Pastor and managing editor for Desiring God, Scott Hubbard writes, "If we could remove the chapter break between Matthew 11 and 12, we might notice, in the context immediately preceding the Sabbath controversies in Matthew ... these arresting words: 'Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'” The rest offered on the Sabbath, it appears, was now being offered in Christ. Jesus had a knack for being intentional. So when he called himself Lord of the Sabbath, I don't believe it was a coincidence. But if the Sabbath had connected with it a negative connotation, then who would want to follow that? It wouldn't be the Lord who gives you rest; it would be the Lord who demanded work. In the Old Testament, the Israelites needed to learn the importance of a holy rest. It seems that it was intended that they pass down the importance of rest from a spiritual perspective so that when Jesus arrived, they would understand his words and recognize him as the true rest. And as Mark states, “'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'" God created the Sabbath for our well-being, to rest, to stay grounded in him— “'Be still, and know that I am God,'" the psalmist wrote—to be reminded that it's in him that we receive strength. Not only that, but as the Lord told the Apostle Paul, “'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'” Jesus said, "'In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.'” As if saying, you will experience turbulence enroute to your destination, but don't worry, I'm in control. Faith in Christ doesn't prevent life's storms, but it gives us peace in their midst; peace, as the Apostle Paul writes, that surpasses our understanding. I love Jesus' response to the Pharisees' reprimand at the Pool of Bethesda. He says, “'My Father is working until now, and I am working.'” Pretty simple. Jesus is at work caring for his children and nothing will prevent him from doing so. So let us choose then to have faith like a child and rest in him. Because whatever trials, turbulence or tribulations we experience, not only is he getting us through, but he's also taking us home. Welcome back to The Defined Podcast w/ Dr. Jon et al., a Bible study in which panelists from a variety of backgrounds, including coaching, education, management, ministry, and psychology, seek hope and truth in what some would call austere times. My name is Chris, your host, once again joined with psychologist Dr. Jon Troll, special education teacher Robyn Nelson, and for the first time in the studio, psychologist Janet O' Donnell. Welcome, everybody. Janet, you specialize in pediatric neurological assessments, is that right? Yes. Tell us what, what is that? What is a day in the life of, of that field? I specialize for the ages of 8 to 18, and I work mainly in the neurodevelopmental areas. So, it could be everything from autism, ADHD, or sometimes even TBI that might have happened and just developmental delays in general. And oftentimes it'll go into different kinds of learning disorders or executive functioning disorders. If it fits into a diagnosis, great. If it doesn't, we're looking at remediations and where they can go for support because the brain is very plastistic and it can change. So, the early you get it, the better off it is. Early assessments are a plus. An intervention. And intervention. Yeah, okay, awesome. Well, great. Welcome. Well, we are continuing our Bible study in the book of John. We are in chapter 5, and today we're taking a closer look at the word Sabbath from John chapter 5. I'm going to go ahead and read verses 1 through 11 out of the ESV and then we'll dive in with opening thoughts around the table here. "After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, 'Do you want to be healed?' The sick man answered him, 'Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.' Jesus said to him, 'Get up, take up your bed, and walk.' And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, 'It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.' But he answered them, 'The man who healed me, that man said to me, "Take up your bed, and walk."'" So, we are looking at the word "Sabbath." What does it mean to rest? And we'll go with opening thoughts around the table and take it from there. Dr. Jon. Cool. Yeah. Well, first of all, yeah, it's great to have you here, Janet. Thank you. We went to school together, both our master's and our doctorates together. So, it's really fun to be collabing with you today. So, yeah. Thanks for inviting me. For sure. Northwest University. Go Eagles, I think. I was just gonna say that. It's Eagles, right? Yes, it is. I kid. So, I'm gonna open this up and I need to usually now preface it beforehand. A couple of jokes. Oh, boy. So, a couple jokes on rest, sleep. I would love to be paid to sleep. You could say it'd be my dream job. Dream job. Don't you dare. Sorry. Don't you dare. I saw that coming. Okay, moving on. I have a condition that makes me eat when I can't sleep. It's called insom-nom-nom-nom-nom-nom-nom-nom-nia. Okay. I love that. What do you call making up for lost sleep? Melatonement. Oh, that is sleep, rest, that and Jesus jokes in there all at once. All in there. Wow. That was a good one. That was good. Last one. My little cousin was showing off that he sleeps in a race car. Joke's on him. I sleep in a real car. Brag. Brag. All right, so I think what kind of stood to me the most in this passage, I just think it's interesting how the Pharisees, they're focusing on obviously the law, the rule, far more than the healing and what Jesus was doing. And what I think is interesting is it seems like whenever we get too wrapped up in legalism, we start to get really self-focused. And it's like, am I doing it all right? Am I following the rules? And we start to miss what God might be, you know, having planned for us to do or to see. And then what I think it's kind of weird too, is that not only are we like really self-focused—and so that can be problematic—we also become more judgmental to those around us. It's kind of a lose-lose. It's like it's self-focused when, because it's naturally about am I doing everything the way that the law says? And then if it is others-focused, it has to do with being judgmental. Like, what are you doing healing on the—what are you doing, doing something good when you're not supposed to be? So, I just think that that's kind of my first line thoughts, I suppose, is just, it's kind of a lose-lose if we get too legalistic. Right. Yeah. Well, initially I had thought to focus on "Sabbath" or "holy," but I kept going back to the word "remember." And what I was thinking was, remember is the concept of being attentive and being mindful. And the purpose of that is to seek. To seek his presence. So, when we're mindful, that's just the critical part of the spiritual work, is to pay attention to do something. And so, in this case, it's take that rest. And we can go and go and go and we can do and do and do. But we don't take the time to pay attention to what we were asked to do, which is rest, and rest in Him, rest in Him and His presence for many reasons. We get bogged down. We get bogged down in the do, the we have-tos for work or home or family or service. Yeah. You know, even thinking that we're doing it for the glory. But did you really rest? When we rest and we go into that spiritual growth is when we actually find out we're doing prayer time or whatever, and we actually find out from God what He wants us to do, it's not our thoughts, it's not ourselves. We open up and we let the Spirit in, and we are guided, and we are grown. So that's what, attention, being mindful. It's an important thing to remember, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I was probably going in a very similar direction. When I think of Sabbath and thinking that they're just so hung up on the fact that he was healed on the Sabbath, they weren't even, like, caught up on the healing. They were caught up on the fact that the guy picked up his mat. But I guess as a believer who wants to honor the Sabbath, too, like, there's, for me, I'm always like that practically, like, practical thinking of how am I honoring the Sabbath? And I don't want to cross into that space of legalism where I'm like—I just want to know that I'm doing this. You know? I want to know that I'm actually honoring the Sabbath. So, I had a lot of questions come up for myself of, like, what does the Sabbath actually mean? Like, is it just that period from Friday to Saturday that, you know, between sunset and sunset? Or is it when you're not working, or is it a person of Jesus Christ? Like, there's, there was more like, how do I define the Sabbath? And how do I know that I'm actually honoring the Lord and honoring the Sabbath is the thing. And not wanting to be, like, for the sake of, like, I can check that box and know that I did it. But genuinely, like, if this is something that God tells us to do is to honor the Sabbath, how do I know that I'm doing that? So. Yeah. Yeah, going all the way back to the beginning in Genesis chapter 2, this is kind of the very first mention of the Sabbath, verses 1 through 3. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation." So, and we're made in the image of God, so in a way we're to imitate, you know, him in that way. He kind of set the tone there for the future there. And so, there in Genesis, when it says and God rested, that word there, according to Strong's Lexicon, "shabath," to cease, to rest, to desist. In Deuteronomy, in chapter 5, starting in verse 12, it says, "'"Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day."'" So that's the background of the Jews at that time. And of course, the guy carrying his mat, that was the, they're mad at the guy for carrying his mat, right? That was the big offense. That was the big offense. He's walking with his bed. And, you know, in this Deuteronomy passage doesn't go into that much detail, but kind of like you said in your blog, you said, if a little law is good, then a lot more law must be a lot better. Right? That could be one of the reasons why there are so many of them. And so, they might have had a point if it was his job to sell beds and sell mats, if he was a merchant. You know, that was kind of at the time, that was like your work. Right. But the guy's just carrying his own personal bed. Not really working. Not really working. So, they were really. Stretching there. It seems like a stretch. Right. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah, even as you're like reading that out loud to us, it's dawning on me that the intention of that is possibly like to cease from like the money making activities, I guess, like to put that to rest and I would think, like to trust the Lord with the income they're used to being like seven days a week, constant, constant, constant work. Just—I might be oversimplifying, but like—it might be just like, hey, take a pause and honor the Lord and let him like do these things that you need to do, I guess. Right. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. Like in the vlog, I kind of going back and forth because I'm not really sure obviously what the intention was behind there so being so many rules and laws, like was it initially coming from a place that we want to honor God as best we can, so we want to make sure that we don't screw up at all? Or was it a little more dark and nefarious to where they were naturally gaining more power? Right. Because then they can tell everybody. That's a really good point. So I don't know. Obviously, he came against the Pharisees really hard throughout the entire, you know, time that he was in ministry, Jesus. So, I think somewhere along the line, I think it's probably safe to say that the enemy was using the Pharisees to pull, you know, people away from understanding who Jesus was at that time, it seems. And Jesus wasn't the very first person to challenge their understanding of the Sabbath. Because in the book of Isaiah, chapter 1, starting verse 13, it says, "'Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.'" So even the Old Testament prophet Isaiah is telling the people that their version of honoring God by observing what, the Sabbath in their way that they were, they weren't doing it in a way that truly honored God. They were off. They were off. And so, Jesus is, really, he's echoing what they would have known from Isaiah. Right? Yeah. What the prophets were saying from, yeah, years ago. Yeah. It's like, yeah, we have an interesting propensity as humans to like, need to do more and more and more. Which, I don't know, this might be out there a little bit, but it's interesting that God after creating everything, he instituted rest for himself. And I don't know. I mean, the universe continues to expand. So, my thought is he must still be creating. And I wonder if he still is finding time to rest or what that looks like. I don't know. I mean, God is never like off the clock, but he really likes to work and create. And we're made in the image of Him, so I don't know. We like to create and we like to keep going and going and going. And so, it's just cool that he knew that he needed. Well, he didn't need. He instituted rest for himself and then he wanted to be sure that we then followed suit. Because without any direction of rest, I think to your point earlier, Janet is like, yeah, we'll just keep on working until, well, that's what the world was before, you know, the Israelites were instructed to rest, is they were unlike the other cultures in that time. So, there's just this propensity to work, work, work, work, and work. And Christians are unlike the culture now. Right. And I do think that that is a drive to do this work, work, but it needs to be purposeful. And if you don't have the plumb line, if you aren't really seeking God, if you don't really have that spirit in you, it is a search. It's a constant search. It's a constant need to perform, do, meet, gain something. And I think that's why the rest is so important. And maybe it isn't on Friday night. Maybe it isn't even a Sunday. Maybe, maybe your week looks different, I don't know. But are we taking the time to be in his presence and to gain that spiritual transformation? Right. Yeah. And what's the rest? I mean, there's the physical rest, but then rest in Jesus. And speaking of that, the physical rest, I mean, isn't that part of it? Because once you are in that rest mode, you are, you are, your peace. You're it, you know, it touched your heart. And your heart is that that space where, I have that written down somewhere about the heart. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. That's Proverbs 4:23. Everything flows through the heart. Not just your emotions, but your thoughts, your behavior, your relationships with one another, with God. And when we're in that mindful state and we're in his presence, we are taking those thoughts captive. The world wants us and faith, and we have to take captive. We're not. We're in the world, but we're not of the world. And so, we have to be able to take that captive and then be filled and then have that presence so that we can then transform and do his work. That's the call. Okay, kind of in that same vein, I have a thought. I'm going to try and wrap my head around this really quick. Because in 5:17, Jesus also says, but he answered them, “'My Father is working until now, and I am working.'” As if—and I think you just kind of talked about that a little bit too—like the work has not stopped necessarily. And so that has me wondering, is rest the antithesis of work? Or is there some way, shape or form in which those can kind of go hand in hand? Because even as you're talking about this, like, transformative process, I'm thinking about my night the other night that we've joked about like 40 times now, where I was, I had a Friday night where I was like, really in my head a lot and it was, it was hard. But I felt like I was just like kind of really leaning into the Lord and it felt like work. But I. But I'm. I'm like, in a way like work, like, fighting for the rest, I guess, like that rest and that peace that I'm looking for, is there a possibility that, like, this rest is like more of a, like an internal, I don't know, strength that we have or like a discipline that we have regardless of the circumstances that we're in? I'm not at all advocating that we just continue to work and we never stop because, like, the peace is within. But I am saying, like, is there some maybe dynamic in which that's possible that—God keeps working—even in our work can we be resting, I guess? Like. Yeah, I mean, work. I mean, define work, I suppose, right? That's the question. I mean, Jesus was not breaking the Sabbath. Yeah. He was working. I mean, he. Well, he's Lord of the Sabbath, so he could if he wants to. Right, he can do what he wants. Right? But similarly, it's like if we're taking a Sabbath day and somebody needs help, I mean, we're going to be like, we're supposed to be like Jesus where it's just like, we're not going to be like, oh, sorry, good luck with that. I can't give you a ride even though your car's broken down on the freeway. Actually, I have a story about that. I mean, it was just years ago when I was helping run a youth camp and we had realized that all of the, like, specific toys that we needed for this summer camp were locked up in, it was actually our old church's, like, locked area. And the only person that had it was on their day off. And we asked the kid to get it. And he was, like, around the corner, but he's like, sorry, it's my Sabbath, and, like, would not come out. We're like, well, we, we're running this camp with you, guy. And I remember it didn't dawn onto me. My other friend was there, and he's like, well, he's still a Christian. Like. And it's always stuck with me, that idea of like, I understand my friend wants to honor his Sabbath. I also understand my other friend who's like, I mean, there's still things to be done, you know? So. And maybe it just comes back to not, you know, missing, you know, the forest for the trees. Yeah. Or it's like. It's like, let's not get too wrapped up in the, like, the nitty, like, getting caught in the weeds. Yeah. Love people. Or wouldn't it be more as always having the Spirit in you in a moment? So, the person who comes to you and says, hey, I need, if you really are in the right state, you would go, absolutely. Right. That's a good point. Instead of shutting it down because, oh, but I made this rule. Yeah. Well, yeah. In Isaiah, it continues, like, in verse 17, it's like saying, like, it was saying, I've had it with your version of keeping the Sabbath. You know, it's an abomination. Or, you know. Verse 17 says, "'learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.'" Those are action steps. So maybe get someone off the side of the road who's stranded or, you know. Right. Yeah. Exactly. That would be, like, included, you know, among good things. And it actually says in Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." And so, if works and rest are opposites, well, here's, you know, here's created for good works. Does works involve rest? I mean. Well, from a place of rest, in a sense, because Colossians, I got another verse here, Colossians 2:16 and 17 says, "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." And it's interesting. We've talked about like the wedding at Cana, the body. Well actually the blood at the wedding at Cana. Right. The temple, the body. With regard to a festival, that'd be like the Passover later. Right. Or a New Moon or a Sabbath, like, kind of like there's connections and all these things with Jesus himself, right? Right. And then Jesus himself, it says the shadow of things to come, "These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." So, once we are in Christ, then we have like that permanent rest. Right. Well, and that's kind of what I was thinking when I was writing the blog is that it seems like whether intentional or not, once people saw that it's through Jesus we have the rest, like, well, if we believe that rest equals actually more work, I mean, that doesn't sound like somebody who I would want to follow. That is, I mean they're probably, a lot of them were probably fed up with all the rules to the point where it's just like this is just kind of ridiculous. And. But yeah, then, I mean from the Old Testament prophets to Jesus himself, you know, correcting them, no, hey, don't blow this up, because once true rest comes, you want to be able to see it for what it is. And I think that there was a real chance, a lot of people obviously would have, well, they missed it all those years, believing that more works equaled more religion or more works was more religion but got you closer to God. And it's not the first time that that thinking came into place. I'm reminded of, in John chapter 13. So later on, Jesus is going to wash the disciples' feet, right? It says in verse 5, "Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, 'Lord, do you wash my feet?' Jesus answered him, 'What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.' Peter said to him, 'You shall never wash my feet.' Jesus answered him, 'If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.' Simon Peter said to him, 'Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!'” So, if a little bit is good, then a lot must be a lot better, right? He's a little overzealous all the time. But verse 10, "Jesus said to him, 'The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.'” So, there's that other thought there. It's like well, let's just add more. You know? Right. Yep. Let's just. Can't help it. And that isn't always, like, a proper understanding of what, like to interpret what God wants for you. It's not like, you don't just do. You do what he wants you to do, you don't do more of what he wants you to do and think that you're doing better. Yeah. It's like the giving 110%. Yeah. There's no such thing as 110%. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's. I don't know what it is about human processing that thinks that that's beneficial to. I know. It's like a rat race probably. It's like, well, I'm doing more than you. It's, they. It's like. It's almost like we need some type of a, I don't know, proof that we're doing it. Yeah. It's the assurance. And maybe that's what it was. You're gonna do my feet then do this and that. Because I really want to be assured. Yeah. And what's interesting is people that aren't necessarily, like, they don't have faith or following Christ, a lot of times what they will say is, well, I'm a good person. Yeah. So, there's this, but I'm still doing something good. And so that is, through and through, seems to be just a natural response that we as humans have is like, we want to do. And if we're doing, well, that means something. But it could be like running on a treadmill. Right. You're just running, but you're not going anywhere. And if we're not doing his will, because that's what he's guided us to do, then we're just doing it for self. Yep. And then we put ourselves at the top of the hierarchy. And we might as well just throw a calf into the fire because it's the same kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And what. And cloaked in good intentions—that's the part that's interesting—is people will be like, I'm not doing anything wrong. But it's misguided. It's misguided. Yeah. It's trading. It's trading. It's just misguided. It's trading good for great. Yeah. That's kind of what it comes down to. I mean. And I think we then miss out on what we're really supposed to be focusing on. Well, right. Yeah. Yeah. Because we're doing all this other stuff in our head. Right. Right. Yeah. Trading great for good. Yeah. Well, there is like that old, like, what's it called? It's not a, it's an old saying, I guess. Like, if the devil can't make you sin, he'll just make you busy. And I think it's maybe. Oh, that's a good one. Potentially along the same lines as, like, we will get caught up in our own works and our own activity and thinking that we're doing something or anything for Jesus and we might just be busy and so we're not actually doing anything of any like, real value. It's just biding our time. And I'll go back to that whole thing of when you are in that rest moment and you are focusing on, you're renewing your mind. Like you're taking captive of all these lies and you're getting it, you're getting that plumb line done. Let's just. Let's just really center here. Yeah. Without Christ at the center, we get rest wrong, and we get work wrong. Yeah. And that's, like, that stinks. It's like we're not really doing anything well. But something that kind of, something kind of came to my mind too. Talking about, like, that kid that wouldn't go around the block to help out. It's interesting. Like, okay, again, for someone who doesn't follow Christ, right? Like, I guess in my mind I'm thinking, okay, if I had like a boss and they were needing me to come in on my day off, right, like, what would the believer, what would it look like if there's a response just like the kid gave? Like, if I were to say, look, sorry, this is my day off, I'm not coming in, versus yeah, this is my day off, but I'm going to help you out because you're in a tight spot. A person like a boss, like that wouldn't be like, wouldn't really understand, like this need to rest when someone's in need, but they would totally understand, like, wow, this person, they say that they're a Christian and they're helping me in a way that, like, I need help. Yeah. You're saying like as a witness to other people. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like I say, I'm a believer and this is expressing how I treat other people kind of thing. Yeah. And how. Yeah. What type of a witness is it when we're just like, sorry, I know you need help, but, you know. It's my Sabbath. Resting up today. It's like, great, I'll call the next person, I guess. Right? I don't know. We probably have a little bit more leeway then, to talk about more important things if we can help somebody navigate like the needs. Right? Yeah. It's like the missionary. Feed the person before you, you know, preach Jesus to them if they're dying of hunger. Yeah. Right. I suppose this is why it is left, I guess in my mind a little open-ended where like you couldn't clearly say exactly, like, what might look like rest to me one day might not look like rest to you one day. I guess. And then it might even go by different seasons of time too. I think there are definitely times and spaces where it might be appropriate to say, "I would really love to come in," to my boss. "I cannot today." You know what I mean? Like, there is also something to be said for boundaries and I think Jesus loves boundaries. I think there's something to be said for really taking a rest and knowing when you're at your limit, like, so that you can be a healthy person, I guess I should say. So. But maybe that's the beauty of why we don't stick to these, like, Pharisee, like, kind of laws that are a bunch of fluff added on. That wasn't God's original intention. But that also gives us space to be believers who know Jesus and have, like, that relationship with him. So, it's sometimes kind of messy because sometimes it's not clearly defined. Like. Right. We just got to figure it out as we go. And when do you work out that time of rest, right? Because it's not the same for everybody. Yeah. Everyone's gonna, sometimes it's alone, sometimes it's at others. Yeah. Yeah. You're gathering. It's a worship or maybe it's a fasting. It's. It looks different. It should look different. I think it's requested to be different. Yeah. Sounds like. I can't pinpoint the Scripture, but I know it's in there. Like, rest looks different for everybody? Well, what you do, you know, you worship together. But then there's also talk of fasting that supplements, you put in prayer time. That's all part of rest, isn't it? I mean anything that is closer to Jesus will find more rest in him for sure. Yeah. The remembering part would be the activities that they actually would do, would be remembering, most likely. Right. Yeah. Well, I don't know if this will be like a big launching point, but it kind of goes back to a little bit of what we're talking about, about, I don't know, the difference between work and rest and when should we do something and when shouldn't we do something. And what, where was it that Paul said I'm everything to everybody, or something along those lines? Does anybody recall what that, what that verse is? No. Yeah, well, I know what you're talking about. I know what you're talking, I think it was the one that we talked about in, like, a previous podcast. Right. Yeah. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. "For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings." And I don't know, I guess in my mind it, it's a little bit of like, okay, if you're, it's a Sunday and someone needs help with something, you become something to win more people to Christ. That's going to be far more impactful than just kind of folding your arms and saying, nope, I'm resting today. And so, what might that mean to become something for someone or in order to win somebody over without compromising morality, I suppose? Yeah, I think even you saying that too—I really don't want to butcher this because I'm not even sure what, like, translation I'm about to quote—but there's that proverb about he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. And I think that, even as you're saying that, I'm thinking of those times where, like, I feel like I have nothing left to give, but then I decide to go just in obedience to the Lord. And I do feel refreshed as I'm, just as I'm doing whatever it is that God asked me to do. Like, I didn't think I had anything there. But then, like, there's those, like, living water that wells up and I'm suddenly not as drained as I was prior to that event or whatever it is, you know. So, sorry if that's not ESV. Because I can't even think of the reference. I just know it's a proverb. Sure. Yeah. Well, yeah, the good works don't end on the Sabbath. Right. And it is interesting, like you had read from verse 17 there, Jesus doubled down on his working. Yeah. “'My Father is working until now, and I am working.'" Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, you said double down, and it's so, it, that's kind of awesome because in my notes I wrote the exact same thing from the passage of Matthew. And so, it's another portion that I thought was kind of interesting when it has to do with Sabbath. It's really cool. I'll just read this. Matthew 12. "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, 'Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.' He answered, 'Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice," you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.' Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?' He said to them, 'If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.' Then he said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus." (NIV) So, it's like, it's kind of doubling down. Like, first it started down just like, like heads of grain, and then it turns into healing a man's hand. It's just like, talk about two ends of the spectrum. It's just like total double down. Even though the Pharisees were trying to get him in a, you know, get him in a little tricky little thing they were trying to do there. But it's just like, get this, get this. It doesn't, yeah, all of it. From heads of grain to healing a hand. It's all, it's all good. I wonder if that feels like work to Jesus. Well, he knows power leaving his body. That was where my thought was going. Like I don't feel like he's like, oh gosh. I do declare. I'm so tired. He recognizes it. But, you know, he's fully God and he's fully human, but that is like, he is fully God. Right. So, I just wonder about that kind of stuff. Like, what is that like for Jesus? Well, he spent a lot of alone time. Yeah. With God. He did. To refresh himself. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I think he would, I think he did get frustrated. Yeah. I can't blame him. Because ye of little faith all the time. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well. And so, the topic of the Sabbath I think is really cool, too, because there's certain things throughout the entire Bible. It's like, there's certain threads that go from Genesis to Revelation, which I think is really interesting. And Sabbath is one of those things. Obviously, rest comes up in Genesis after the creation, and then it's part of the Ten Commandments, and then it's brought up again in the New Testament. And so, there's certain topics specifically that's kind of like, get this because you keep on seeing it throughout the entire Bible. And then I think that's just, yeah. So, it's kind of like a, it's kind of like one of those kind of highlighted things for me anyways. And then I think, in my mind again, maybe the question is a little bit, you know, what's it talking about specifically? Is it rest in Jesus, or is it rest physically? A little bit of both? Probably a little bit of both. But just some verses that I thought kind of stood out as far as, like, God, Jesus being the ultimate rest. So, Exodus 33:12-14, the ESV, "Moses said to the Lord, 'See, you say to me, "Bring up this people," but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, "I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight." Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.' And he said, 'My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.'" Psalms 23:1-2. "A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters." Another image of rest. Psalm 91:1-2. "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'" And then Matthew 11:28. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And so, I do think there's a lot that points from the old to the new, that it is God, it is Jesus, that we have our rest in and to keep on wondering, I think, am I getting the rest right? I think that's where, I think a lot of times God, Jesus through the prophets, and Jesus himself is just like, just stop. Yeah. Stop being so. And isn't that its own form of not being at rest then? Yeah, don't overthink it. Like, we're overthinking it. Right. You know? Yeah. Yeah. It's a weird cycle. Yeah. Like, how many out there can raise their hand and then, like, overthinking is not restful? I wouldn't know. Sometimes having a day off just to "rest," air quotes, is like, you could be more unrestful in a day off in your own thoughts than you can doing some type of a work. Can confirm. Right. When, as a therapist, you have to teach people how to slow down and just breathe. And for a very anxious person, it's very hard to do. And if you've never done it, where you're just trying to go into breathing and listening, like to your heartbeat, you're just trying to slow down. You know, 30 seconds is a long time. But when you go into prayer or meditation, two minutes is a long time. It is a practice, and you do have to get out of your head. It takes time to do just getting into the spirit. Right. I suppose once you have this practice, you could do it anywhere. You could do it in the car, you do it on the highway, you're doing the dishes, you just go there. But. Yeah. I suppose that's why we like the rules sometimes, too, because it takes the guesswork out of it. Like, as long as I'm doing this thing, I know I'm doing the right thing. And I don't have to really think about it. I could just point to that thing and say, I did it. And that's where the frustration come in, because then it's like, I'm doing the right things, all the right things and I don't feel good. Yeah. I'm still not feeling good, but I'm doing it. Or for some reason you can't do that thing. Right. You know, then you're. Then that hope that you had in that thing. Right. No longer there. You're spinning out. Is in the thing being works? Yeah. Like lightning candle, opening the Bible, I've got my lights down. Okay, now I'm gonna pray. You're putting certain parameters on what your rest looks like. Yeah. Okay. Read my verses. It's still not working. Like that? Wouldn't it be weird, like, in like a relationship if that's how like the significant other, like, okay, I'm gonna spend time with you, but I'm gonna do these 10 things first to make sure that everything is the way. Like the spouse is like, boyfriend or girlfriend is like, just be normal. Right. And I think that's kind of the image I got when the prophets and Jesus is talking to people about rest and works. It's like, just be normal. Just try to be normal about this. It's like, don't. Yeah. That's a really good point. I mean, for the Lord, it's probably definitely more about the connection than it is about, like, you doing the right things. Oh, it's all about the connection. Like, he doesn't care about— No, it's all about the connection. —whatever. Totally. Yeah. Well, they need to know who God is. They need to believe in Him. But if they don't, if they start losing track of who he is and losing sight of who he is, the belief and the rest go together. Without the belief in God and understanding of who he is, the actions of attempting rest are hollow. Yeah. And the Book of Hebrews, it's another book that really does a good job of connecting the Old Testament to the New Testament. In chapter 4, it says, "Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them," speaking of the Israelites that came out of Egypt, "but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, 'As I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest,"'" So, the ancient Israelites, they didn't believe, not all of them, because they, and they complained in Exodus 16, verse 3, "and the people of Israel said to them, 'Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.'" So, they would rather have not been going to a promised land, rest land. They would have rather been enslaved. They didn't believe. The belief is what leads to the rest. And so, belief in Jesus is what leads to his rest. Right. It's a shadow. Like Colossians said. The actions apart from belief are empty attempts. It can feel like the easiest command to do. Don't do anything. My day off. Just don't do anything. But apart from belief in Jesus, it's hollow. Right? It's not, there's not a meaning to it. Well. And so, if someone isn't following Christ or coming under, you know, Christ's authority, could it be said that it'd be better for somebody to keep on working? To work as much as you can? Because that's what you're deciding to come under is profit, wealth? I mean. Yeah, I don't know, it depends on what they value. Right. Like what, you know, because for some people that might be profit and wealth. Some people it might be. I mean, I think anything could become like that idol, I guess, in your life. What is the point? Right. And I guess it'd be from a spiritual standpoint, not just physical. Let's take like an atheist who is looking at a worldly system and then look at a, at a pseudo religious system that does a lot of things that don't make sense. Which of those two is easier to convert that person to faith in God? Is it starting from, okay, well, compare it with just sin in general. Like God solves sin, he's the solution for sin. Okay, that makes sense. Right? Compare it with like weird rules and regulations that have been removed from God. It's like, how do you— Right. —like how do you even, how does that witness to the person as much as the clear contrast of a worldly system, I guess is what I'm saying. It's. It seems that Jesus was rightfully frustrated with the Pharisees for having a warped version of the religion, because that is so muddy and hard to, it kind of looks like it, it's a form of godliness, but it denies the power. Yeah. That's a, it's a muddy contrast to make with what Jesus provides. Right. Whereas, just don't deal with that and just look at the corrupt state of humanity in a non-religious sense. It's very clear what Jesus offers as a remedy for that, you know? Right. Yep. Yeah. But the form is, it's, I can see why he gets so frustrated because it appears, and it's in his name that these things are in, you know, they, it's like they're breaking the commandment of using the Lord's name in vain, in a sense. Yeah. Or having no god before me, even. In a sense. Yeah. Well. And that's where it says it's better to be hot or cold than lukewarm. No. Right. And that seems to be where the lukewarm was, that was where a lot of the religion was, had moved towards. Yeah. I don't know if we talked about if we're doing rest, but we're not really growing. So, we go to church. That's rest. It's the Sabbath. It's holy. But there's really no growth because there really truly wasn't the rest part. You went to church. Check. You met with people, you sang. Check. But did you really take the time to be in that rest state and take in so you can grow? Right. Because there's a lot, there's a lot in that. And you could go to church and you can be in church for 20 years, but you really didn't grow. Well, the speaker today at the church that I was at did a really good job of, I think, reminding people not to get into their routines of running out to the parking lot to get out of the building. You know, take enough time to reflect. Reflect. Don't just check the box and leave like normal. I think that was good for, no matter how long someone had been in the church, it was good for them to hear that, because probably more so those who've been there a longer time and might have been tempted to miss out on getting a deeper experience there. Yeah. We get stuck in ruts. We do. Well, yeah. And the good things can become just another thing to do, which creates more stress. Which is kind of work. Yeah. It becomes just. Yeah. Well, it's like, there's so many things that are not complementary in the sense that Jesus isn't enough, but if Jesus is the true rest, then other things can be so much more beneficial, and it can minister to us more. We can actually find more of that rest. If Jesus is first and foremost the rest, then it's like, yeah, you're not just, okay, church is done, let me beat the traffic out of the parking lot. It's, yeah, reflecting. It's meditating. It's "'Be still, and know that I am God.'" Yeah. It's. Yeah. It's being in communion with each other. It's edifying each other, encouraging. That's where you're now praying with each other or just sharing, you know, story. Yep. I sometimes think, like a decision to rest is decision, like a decision to surrender. And it's an act of putting your trust in the Lord. Like, where I think that sometimes we want to do it our own way. We want to show God we can do it whatever the reason is. But it's this, like, active decision. Like when God says, "'Be still, and know that I am God.'" Like, allowing him to do things that we couldn't necessarily do in and of our own strength. And sometimes we get in the way of doing what God wants to do for us. Like, I have, like, right, as of today, I have 10 students with disabilities in my class. And we have a smart board. And I often play songs and do things from the smart board. The tricky thing is it's a touch screen. And if I come around to, like, control it from my computer, if I stop for a second because I'm trying to teach them, some kids don't understand what's going on, and they just want to play the video. What happens is, I'm trying to control it from behind, they're trying to control it from the front, and they completely, like, dysregulate the whole system. And I just think, like, that to me, is this image of the Lord. Like, he's trying to control things for us. But we're coming up in here and we're meddling because we want to help him along. And we're doing these things instead of like, all the time I'm like, guys, sit down. Like, you're actually making this harder to do with all of your meddling. And like, they don't know. Like, they're just. They're just like, I see that ball and I want to see what the ball's going to do when I press play. But I think that we do the same thing often is we're choosing not to just sit back and allow the Lord to do the thing with our rest. Like, to process that growth in us or to change our circumstances or whatever it is. But we often get in the way of our own because we're not resting right. If that makes sense. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. I kind of think of sometimes equating rest with tithe. It's like, God doesn't need our money. Yeah. But there's something about tithing that it puts our trust in him with our resources and our finances. And it reminds us that we don't need to rely on our own abilities and strength and our own resources. And it keeps the right thing at the top. And I think that rest is similar to that. It's like we're. He's asking for a tithe of rest, basically. It's let, like, let the things of this world, don't get so wrapped up in them. Right? And it's remind yourself who is in charge, who is Lord over your life. And so, it's another type of offering, I suppose, in a sense. Not quite, but it's, take your foot off the gas. Yeah. Don't think you need to do this on your own. Because I do think we get caught up in doing it on our own. And that's why the rest is so important. Yeah. Is because then we get stressed out, like, am I good enough? Am I successful enough? Is my status enough? All these other things that don't actually matter become our god. All right, any closing thoughts on the topic? Yeah. So, I think it's interesting. Sabbath is used 172 times in the Bible and rest is somewhere around 275 times in the Bible, New King James. And so, that's kind of what the estimated is. So, it's. Again, it's such an important topic. It's such a common theme throughout the Bible because I think God just knows that we need to be sure that, not just to rest, but to also understand what it is to rest. I just love that what we've talked about here today, it's the trying to sort out what actually is rest, I think is something that it's rest in Christ, it's rest in Jesus. Obviously, there's physical benefits, there's mental health benefits of resting. So that's kind of like, it's kind of like an affirmation like you can't lose with rest. But there can be such a deeper rest than just the psychological and the physical benefits of rest. There's a spiritual rest and putting Jesus at the top, again, of the hierarchy, the one that is over all, that will give you actually the deeper rest that we all long for. I, when I think of Sabbath and I think of rest, the word "rhythm" comes to mind because, I mean, years ago I have this woman in my life who's like a spiritual mom to me and she's absolutely lovely and loves the Lord and loves me. So that's important. But she had been working at this church that we both went to for a while and she absolutely loved it. But it was getting to be too much in her life with the other responsibilities she had with like her kids and her grandkids, like her family's growing and she really wanted to prioritize that. And I remember her coming into my room one day and she was talking about this decision she was making to potentially step down at the church, which was not an easy decision to make. And when I asked her like more about it, she just said, I just, really want to get back in that sweet rhythm with my Jesus. And that has always struck me because I think like, it's a lifestyle of Sabbath for her. It's like a lifestyle of rest. And it doesn't mean that she doesn't, like she's in ministry, she does a lot of things for other people, she is very driven to the Lord. But it was like that returning Jesus at the top of the hierarchy for her. And I, when I think of even just with this conversation, like there is not like a finite definition on what rest is looking like, but it is that like rhythm and that pace that God has set out for you in your own life that, are you operating in that rest? And so, that's my closing thought. Rhythm of Jesus. Yeah. Hebrews chapter 4 has a well-known verse. I just think it's interesting that there's some verses that in some circles are well-known and yet the context surrounding them isn't always as well-known. So, Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Immediately preceding that, it's talking about rest. It says, "For if Joshua," in verse 8, "had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience." And that brings us to verse 12 which talks about the word of God. It's interesting how well-known one verse can be, and then the ones immediately preceding it may not be as well-known. But it's, the admonition there is to strive to enter the rest. I mean, I think meaning continue in belief in Jesus continually, despite the challenges or temptations to not believe and not rest, strive to enter that rest. It's a continual process, a continual day-by-day kind of thing where you can't just say I believed 10 years ago and check the box and, you know, a lot can change in 10 years. You have to day-by-day pray and be renewed in your mind and seek after God. Strive to enter the rest. There are opposing forces that would try to get you to not enter that rest or to, like it says in Hebrews, to try to get one to not believe. Yeah. So, to continually believe is, it seems what the encouragement is there. Yeah. So. Yeah. Well, that wraps up this episode of The Defined Podcast w/ Dr. Jon et al. Thank you for joining us and we look forward to another episode soon. Take care everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to The Defined Podcast w/ Dr. Jon et al. If you enjoyed what you heard, we invite you to like, share, subscribe and give a five-star rating. Find us online at TheDefinedPodcast.com. 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