“So the message of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate until the seventy years were fulfilled, just as the prophet had said.” 2 Chronicles 36:21 NLT
For years, Jeremiah tried to convince his people to follow the laws that God had put in place, one of them being that on the seventh day they were to take a break from all their work. However, the more the prophet spoke, the less the people wanted to hear. The law of rest was not something that God had commanded to prevent the people from prosperity; it was actually in place to preserve it.
Farmers know that crops need to be rotated and land needs to lie fallow for a season in order to replenish its nutrients so the harvest will be full. When the people refused to listen to Jeremiah, they didn’t realize that their losses would come by degrees, with small, subtle changes. They sustained a small loss here and a small loss there until the sum of its totality was more than their stubbornness could overcome, and the land lay desolate.
Do you work day in and day out, chasing after the prize of success? Do you fear that taking one day off will cost too much, not realizing that the one day of rest gives you the ability and strength to continue on our quests? The toll for not listening at first is small: an illness here, a slight problem there, until you land at the doctor’s office with a more serious threat to your life. By that time, perhaps a sickness has come upon you that renders you unable to do anything other than rest.
As you lay desolate at home, your body gladly takes the much-needed rest, and you learn the hard lesson that the gains you made when you refused to take a break have now cost you years of losses. May you have the courage to understand that taking one day off does not cost you, but rather pays rich dividends.
