I was never good at keeping to the beat. Whenever people clap along to a song and I join in, I oftentimes find myself out of sync quickly and had to look to others around me in order to regain the beat. Needless to say, I have never dared to try playing the drum set.

Whether it is in a music band or in an orchestra, the beat is what keeps everyone together, lest the music descend into chaos and noise. But when in beat, wondrous music is produced for the enjoyment of all.

And there is a beat we would be wise to follow if we are to enjoy the life we are given.

In his book entitled Sabbath as Resistance, Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann writes, “I have come to think that the fourth commandment on sabbath is the most difficult and the most urgent of the commandments in our society, because it summons us to an intent and conduct that defies the most elemental requirements of a commodity-propelled society.”

Would you agree?

The creation account in Genesis 1 is familiar to most of us. We know that God ordered the world which was formless and empty at the beginning. And he ordered it in an orderly fashion. In the first three days, He ordered day and night, he separated the sky and the seas, and he set boundaries for the seas and caused land and plant life to appear. And the second three days correspond to the first three—the greater light and the lesser light on the fourth day to govern what has been ordered in the first day; birds in the sky and sea creatures on the fifth day to populate what had been created on the second day; and land creatures and humankind on the sixth day to populate and govern what had been created on the third day.

There was a staging process, with the initial stages supporting the latter phases. The wisdom of God in his creative action was clear—and that wisdom was what supported life.

Humankind was created last such that all we needed was already present. It’s like parents getting the entire baby room ready for the baby’s arrival.

Then God ceased from his work of creation on the seventh day. God did not rest as if he was tired from all the creating and needed a break. But he ceased from his work. And that is really what Sabbath means. The original Hebrew word Shabbat means a stopping or ceasing rather than a rest.

And the reason for the fourth commandment to his people to keep the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11) is grounded in God’s rest in the creation account.

Even God’s non-action/ceasing was life-giving and intentional. By ceasing on the seventh day, by not creating anything, God made the Sabbath, and it was made for man, as Jesus said in Mark 2:27. God made the Sabbath for man’s well-being. God provided a divine rhythm for us to flourish. Six days of work and one day of sabbath. Another six days of work and another day of sabbath. God ordained work, he also ordained rest. He is the Lord of all of life, and we should come to see God’s command as a gift for us to enjoy and not do violence to the life-giving rhythm he has ordained for our sake.

In Exodus 16:29-30, the Israelites learnt to trust God’s provision of manna through the six-day-work-and-one-day-rest rhythm. They messed up at the start but eventually learnt to rest on the seventh day. For six days, the Israelites went out to gather manna—to work in a sense—and they learnt that what they did in six days would be enough. God’s provision would be enough.

Jesus taught the same in the sermon on the mount—that we must not worry about our life, what we shall eat, drink, and wear, but that our heavenly Father considers us much more valuable than the birds of the air, and knows and will provide us our needs (Matt 6:25-34). We need only to seek him and trust in his provision.

The creation account also tells us that human beings are made in the kingly image of God. There is inherent worth in every human being. And God made the world in such a way as to provide for every need we have. And it was not just bare minimum either. God created a lush paradise, a visual delight, filled with all kinds of seed-bearing and fruit-bearing trees for food; it was intellectually-stimulating with every species of plants and animals to be studied and marvelled at; and God fulfilled the emotional and spiritual needs of humans through relationships with himself and through close companionship with others. God provided for everything right from the very beginning, before Adam and Eve put their hands to any work.

I know how difficult it is here in the hurry culture of Singapore to stop working. There is just too much work which piles up if we don’t try to clear it whenever we have some time. Like the Israelites who were enslaved in Egypt, we may find ourselves helplessly imprisoned in a system of harsh endless labour set up by a world which cares nothing for our well-being but values us only for what we can produce in fulfilling KPIs and performance targets.

But our Creator knows what we need and cares for our well-being. We are made to work but not purely for work. He made us to enjoy a relationship with him and the world he has created for us.

The weekly rhythm of work and rest here on this earth is a powerful end in itself, but more than that, it points to a far greater reality. Hebrews chapter 4 tells us, ultimate rest is in Jesus Christ alone and those who are in Christ enters that ultimate rest God is preparing for us in heaven. Jesus, by whose name we are saved, invites us even today, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:28-30). And as we look forward to that rest, we can point others there by showing glimpses of the rest we have in Jesus, the lover of our souls.