give God no rest

 Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Isaiah 62:6-65:25. I found a verse in this passage I don't remember seeing before, even though I've read the Bible cover to cover dozens of times. 62:7 says "Give the LORD no rest until He completes His work." This follows the admonition that we should ourselves "take no rest, all who pray to the LORD."

That's curious, isn't it? I mean, God doesn't get tired. But He did rest on the seventh day after creating the heavens and the earth and everything in them. Jesus rested on the Sabbath, just like He commanded us to do. But He also healed on the Sabbath, because He made it clear that people are more important to Him than rules. 

So what does this mean? "God rested on the seventh day"... "Give the LORD no rest until He completes His work"... what are we to make of this? Is it a simple anthropomorphism? Are we just attributing human attributes to God, like they did with Zeus and Apollo and Odin and Isis? I don't think so. Why? Because God Himself told us that He rested on the seventh. And He tells us not to "let Him rest until His work is completed."

Well, it points to a deeper truth about God, and one that we should take to heart. God doesn't need to rest. God doesn't NEED anything. It's not possible. God is the SOURCE of all good things. He is a never ending, inexhaustible FOUNTAIN of all that is good, holy, true, pure, kind, forgiving, just, and... most of all... loving. He rests simply means that He completes His work and then stops because it's completed. He doesn't go on working when His work is finished. He lays down the hammer when the house is complete. Not because He's tired. But because He's done.

So let's continue to pray to Him, lifting up all of the needs of our own lives, and the lives of all those around us. Let's join with Him in addressing those needs, lifting them up to Him so that He can work in their lives, until all is done. And then He rests, and so do we.

God, thanks for continuing to work in our lives until we're done.