Numbers 29 - Steve Wiggins Daily Devotional

“You are to hold a sacred assembly in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, and you are not to do any daily work. This will be a day of jubilation for you.” Numbers 29:1

Isn’t it amazing that the L_rd has to tell us to rest? Not only does He tell us to rest, but He actually made it a command! It’s as if we would not rest unless there was some penalty involved.

When I was a kid, I hated school. I did all I could to avoid my school work…right up to testing time. Whenever it came time for testing, my laziness caught up with me. The test was about to expose my lack of initiative.

School grades are indicators of progress…not intelligence. No matter how smart I may have thought I was, that was not the point. I had not seized the opportunity to improve.

When test time came around, I spent all my energy developing schemes to cheat. Sometimes, I would write notes on my arms. Perhaps, I would look at someone else’s paper. Somehow, I would cheat the system, because I thought I was smarter than the system.

Did you know it takes twice-as-much energy to cheat, as it does to study? How smart is that? Plus, you have to carry all that needless anxiety, until you get your grade.

You know what the kids who studied a little bit every day do, the night before the test? They rest. They don’t have to cram. They don’t have to cheat, or worry how their schemes will go undetected. They simply recite what they have learned and they pass the test.

Why do we have to be commanded to rest? Possibly, it’s because we’ve been lazy in our daily devotion to the L_rd. Perhaps, we have cheated G_d, and we are lacking what He provides to the faithful. Could be, we are busy trying to be our own providers, instead of trusting G_d.

Whatever the excuse, whatever our situation, we are COMMANDED to rest. Yeshua said: “Come unto me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

The faithful should celebrate His rest, and the sinner should turn from his ways and enter into it.

Blessings,
~Steve Wiggins, Associate Leader, Worship Leader
Shuvah Yisrael
Daily Devotional, Thursday, June 5, 2014