Food for Thought - Rest
Proverbs 24:15-16 - The Fruitful Fall
​
15 Lay not in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place: 16 For a just man falls seven times and rises again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
​
Contrast is often done in poetic parallel construction. Here we see both the wicked and righteous fall. The wicked falls into mischief; the righteous falls and rises again into ‘his resting place'.
​
This passage shows the righteous falling because of the attack of the wicked, in whatever realm it comes from. The intent is to shake the righteous from his dwelling, his resting place. The wicked want to drag the righteous down, to dwell with them in Babylon, the land of confusion. The wicked have a measure of success in their quest: the righteous do fall.
​
But look at what happens when the righteous fall. They discover new things about unbelief, about lack of faith. They find where they are weak due to misunderstanding about themselves, the world, and God and how He works. They renounce what led them into confusion. Truth opens to them, and the structure of their belief grows and strengthens. They rise again, more firmly grounded in God's love, improving their ability to live in their dwelling, their inheritance, in His resting place.
​
Until the next ambush reveals another unbelief core. They immerse themselves in the Spirit and repeat their resurrection from their personal deadness into new life living.
​
Scripture says this happens seven times, until they are purified of their unbelief and firmly established; unable to fall any longer. They dwell in His resting place, living Sabbath Salvation 24/7.
​
We can say seven here is a type, a representation of completeness. That means we need to completely fall, giving up on all our illusions of strength and self-sufficiency, we rise and live entrenched in God's ability and sufficiency, resting in God.
​
But this seven as completeness comes from the creation week. So, we can say this passage is also a statement of how the creation acts of God get worked into our lives. We fall, He acts to restore us.
​
Can we take this further than metaphors that ad a reinforcing layer of affirmation, encouraging those in free fall that God is there for them? As important as this is, God also provides an answer to our quest-ions, instructing us in His way of escape.
​
The creation week is the process of how confusion is brought into order, until the awesome presence of God dwells with man in time daily. Is there a sequential nature to 'successful falling'? Will we keep having the same type of fallings until we grapple with the issue of light successfully? After that we need to confront the distinctions between heaven and earth, so that we have clear space for Him to plant seeds in our earth, seeds of destiny, which use the energy of heaven to grow. From here we deal with issues of progressive life empowerments (charisma), until we are a person made in God's image, able to handle His gifts of dominion, to accomplish glorious things with Him, by dwelling with Him, as Jesus did.
​
We are finally one with our God, rising to a place of rest that the wicked can't shake, dwelling in Sabbath Salvation.
​
​
​
Respect of Nature
​
One of the great lessons that the observance of the Sabbath should teach us is an admiration and respect of nature. Samuele Bacchiocchi in his book, Divine Rest for Human Restlessness (pages 204-214) demonstrates how the Sabbath holds the key to the solution of the ecological crisis facing mankind. On the Sabbath day, the Christian must leave nature untouched. To change it by building on it or by destroying it would be a violation of "rest." The Sabbath is the day not to alter nature, but to admire it as an expression of the beauty and glory of God's handiwork, Psalms 19:1.
​
Instead of plundering natural resources, the Sabbath teaches us to cease pollution, to appreciate and respect God's creation, and especially other human beings. As Bacchiocchi quotes another writer, "What people do to, for, and with others and their environment depends largely upon what they think of God, nature, themselves and their destiny." The Ruler created the universe. It is His. How we dress and keep it, Genesis 2:15, shows what we think of Him.
​
"Sabbath keeping is an exercise in responsible stewardship of the whole earth . . .. The acknowledgement of God's ownership, expressed on the Sabbath by surrendering the right to use gainfully human and natural resources, affects the Christian's general attitude toward God and the world. It teaches a person to view himself not as a predator but as a curator [guardian, protector] of God's creation."
​
The Sabbath presents a vision and a foretaste of "another day" Hebrews 4:1-11, beyond the present day when "the earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth," Isaiah 24:5-6 (RSV). Happily, the Sabbath points to the millennium, when "They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain [government]." Isaiah 11:6-9. The creation groans and awaits, Romans 8:21-22, the "new heaven and new earth" Revelation 21:1-4, II Peter 3:11-14. The time when we shall "build the old waste places" Isaiah 58:14. How can we "repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations" Isaiah 61:4 if we are guilty of causing this pollution?
​
Abraham Joshua Heschel states in The Sabbath, Its Meaning for Modern Man (pages 28-29), "on the Sabbath we live, as it were, independent of technical civilization: we abstain primarily from any activity that aims at remaking or reshaping the things of space." Instead, we stand back from and admire the creation and its beauty.
​
Written by: Richard Nickels
​
