"Here is the Place of Rest"

Most of us grow up thinking that religion is a kind of passing on of history and/or tradition, a set of rules to follow, a way of life that, faithfully followed, will somehow open to us the gates of heaven.

Even in the Old Testament, though, Isaiah was railing against this kind of thinking. In Chapter 28, he is accusing the rulers of Israel--kings, prophets, and priests---of "staggering when seeing visions" and "stumbling when rendering decisions."

Who is it he [priest, prohet] is trying to teach?

To whom is he explaining his message?

To children weaned from their milk?

to those just taken from the breast?

For it is:

Do and do, do and do,

rule on rule, rule on rule;

a little here, a little there.

[The Hebrew here is difficult to translate; it seems a meaningless jumble of onomatopoeic sounds.  The Hebrew Bible renders the above passage this way:

That same mutter upon mutter,

murmur upon murmer,

now here, now there!]

[To continue with Is. 28:]

Very well, then, with foreign lips and strange tongues

God will speak to his people,

to whom He said,

"This is the resting place; let the weary rest;"

and "This is the place of repose"----

but they would not listen.

So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:

Do and do, do and do,

rule on rule, rule on rule;

a little here, a little there---

so that they will go and fall backward,

be injured and snared and captured.

Is this not a scary passage because it hits home?  How many people find "a resting place" in God, even while they are following all the rules of their religion?  Jesus wept over Jerusalem, the "holiest" of places on earth, because "How often I would have gathered you [into my arms] as a mother gathers her chicks, but you did not know the day of your visitation."

God wants to give us rest;

He wants to feed us---"Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it"-----;

He wants to be with us a friend "closer than a brother;"

He wants to guide us: "Be not like the horse or the mule that needs bit and bridle; let Me guide you with Mine eye."

Jesus promised us "The Gift of the Father, the living, breathing Spirit of God,

the Spirit of all Truth, the very same Spirit that hovered over the chaos at the dawn of creation, the very Spirit that animated Jesus during His ministry on earth, the very same Spirit that "turned the world upside down" after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Spirit who "prays in us when we ourselves do not know how/what to pray," the Comfortor, the Strengthener, the One who establishes us as a blessing on this earth.

The Book of Ephesians lays out the pattern of "religion," or of the Christian life:

First, while we were yet sinners and helpless, God poured out on us all His riches and blessings, raising us up to the level of His very own Son, and forgiving all our sins and ignorances.  Then, He sealed us into Christ Jesus with the Spirit, so that we would be preserved as His own possession.

Then, since we had been called to glory, Paul urges us to live a life worthy of our inheritance as the children of God.  Here is where the "rules," or guidelines, for that life can be found---not in order to merit eternal life, but that we might live out our vocation as blessings in a darkened world.

Finally, when there is nothing more we can "do," we are urged to "put on the armor of God" and to "stand" with faith, for our "battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities that rule the air."

Our problem is that we want to reverse God's pattern:  we want to follow the rules so that, as good children, we will deserve to be blessed by God.  unh unh: not the way it works.  I wonder how many men who have learned from Paul that their wives should be submissive to them have first read and obeyed the verses just above that one:  "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.  Instead, be filled with the Spirit.  Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."

In that context, the "rules for living" begin to make more sense.