And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning…
Genesis 1:31
Jewish scholars debate even today that the Jewish “day” begins at sunset, and others would argue it begins at sunrise. It’s a very “first the chicken or the egg?” debate. However, I do find it fascinating at the thought that God would have ordained the “day” to begin at sunset, because of the traditional activities that many Jewish families would have participated in, and the order of priorities that we can learn from their ways.
- Sunset—Before the dawning of electricity, work pretty much ceased at sundown by necessity. The evening meal and fellowship with family would have taken place.
- Overnight—This is when rest occurs, as bodies, hearts and minds rest, recharge and prepare for the work to come.
- Sunrise—This is when the work of begins, with the sunlight to help facilitate outside activities like shepherding, labor and toil in the ground, building, etc.
So, if the Jewish “day” began at sunset, we’d see the flow of priorities look like this: RELATIONSHIP—REST—WORK
It makes me think, is this how we should be approaching our relationship with the Lord?
- We first engage Him in RELATIONSHIP, and let Him teach us, guide us, prepare us. We spend time in fellowship and communion with Him.
- Then we REST in His presence, we refuel our bodies, take process time to make sense of what we’ve learned from God, devise a plan in our dreams, recharge our minds and hearts for what lies ahead.
- Then, we get to WORK. We work vigorously, we work with excellence, integrity, diligence and discipline and give the Lord everything we have toward the work He has placed in our hands.
This rhythm, however biblically accurate or not, seems to make good sense. We work from rest instead of working for rest. We allow God to speak to His will and His way for our plans to take shape, then He gives us a moment to breathe, so that when the work starts, we can hit the ground running. Instead of a “working for the weekend” attitude, we can begin to work from the overflow that God has given us to ride out the wave of our work in His momentum and not our own.