Wishing you a Day of Rest – Shabbat Shalom!

Did you know that Sabbath, the wonderful blessing of sanctified rest is also called Yom MeNucha, the day of Rest.
Rest. Would anybody like some?
As we settle down, worries and cares aside do we feel rest inside, does the day of rest embrace us within, or are we still anxious and worried in our souls? While Israel is caught in a turbulent, fearful time of pain and our world currently aches with birth pains, I continually hear Yeshua saying that now it’s time to rest. But how, when the world is a turbulent flood around us and our families?

Perhaps the answer lies in this weeks Torah portion. It’s the very story, the very image of our present day modern world and its state of pain and wickedness. Yet in the midst of the story we find a righteous man named Noach. Whose name means Rest or Comfort. When the waters finally rose and the dead found their graves in the water, Noach clung to the safety found in the Arms of God. His safety was physical too, it was the wooden beams that creaked around him and the animals, the ark was a place of refuge, but to be saved he first had to enter in to the ark.

Yahweh didnt automatically place Noach in the ark, Noach had to obey Fathers voice and step in to the arms of the ark. Then behind him, God closed and sealed the doors. For months the ark crashed among the waves, while the earth as Noach knew it, disappeared beneath the water. It must have been a frightful thing, yet Noach was safe. Safe because he was obedient to Father’s Voice, obedient to build the ark, remain faithful to God and to enter that place of safety when the time finally came. So too, the arms of God are a sanctuary to all who seek comfort in the Greatest Comforter we will ever know:

John 14: 1 – 4 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

I don’t know what your flood waters look like right now. I dont know if they involve fear or pain, grief or uncertainty of the future. I dont know if they are financial woes or marriage troubles or a crisis of faith. But what I do know is that Yahweh is faithful and He wants us all to enter in to His arms of comfort so that we may experience the day of rest which strengthens us with rest and peace which we can take in to a new week. For Father’s promise is always applicable and available for us to grab with both hands, There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; or anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:9 – 10)

May you know the Comfort and Peace of God today, as you settle down in to the armchair of Sabbath and may the rest which He so freely wants to give, be felt deep within your heart and within your spirit. You do not have to fear, He has got this, and He is never caught offguard or unaware.

Shabbat Shalom from us!