Scripture: Job 3:11–26
Can anyone name for me the biggest competitor of Netflix, the entertainment streaming service? Good guesses, but none of those are right according to Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix and its former CEO. Hastings has said that the biggest competitor of Netflix is sleep. Makes sense, right? Netflix wants your eyes on their screen as much as possible, and the biggest competitor is not another company who wants the same thing, but it is instead your decision to go to sleep instead of watching Netflix. If you have the streaming service, or any of them for that matter, you know that when you finish watching a movie or episode, what comes up immediately? “Want to watch another episode? We think you’d like this movie! Want to watch the next thing on your wish list? Do you want to put off sleep for one more hour…maybe five…so that you can continue to watch our shows?”
Tiffany Shlain writes about this in her book entitled 24/6: Giving Up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection. Her argument in the book is that screens have become a deeply addicting part of our society, and it is disastrous for our brains, our bodies, and our relationships! Now, Shlain is not a Luddite, someone who hates technology. In fact, she is the founder of the “Webbys,” an annual award to give attention to the best content from all over the web. But, like a lot of highly placed tech folks, she knows the limits and the dangers of it. Like social media CEOs who won’t let their kids on the platform. Steve Jobs of Apple famously wouldn’t let his kids use an iPad because it was too addicting! They know that these are not neutral devices or platforms. They are designed to keep you connected to them, not designed to make you a healthier person. And definitely not designed to help your body get the sleep it needs.
But screens are only part of the problem. Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith writes that most of us do not get the sleep that we need. And not only the amount, but the kind of sleep that we need. Many of us live overworked and overstressed lives, maybe fitting into the category of a workaholic. Many of us are people-pleasers, always working to keep everyone happy. Many of us are type-A “go-getters,” who burn the candle at both ends. And after we do everything for everyone else, what is left for us, and what our body needs? As a doctor, she sees people try to fix it on their own. Some attempt to “catch up” on sleep with a weekend marathon. Some alternate workaholism with escapism, and drown their weariness with that TV and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. Some take two weeks of vacation to catch up on a year of neglected sleep or play, usually overdoing one or both trying to cram it all in at once. Some rely on medicine or alcohol or some other substance to force a crash to get us to close our eyes each night for bed. But Dr. Dalton-Smith writes that not all sleep is good sleep. Our bodies will sleep…they have to. We won’t survive if they don’t. But is that sleep good sleep? Restful sleep? She distinguishes between sleep and rest, and says that what many of us face is actually a “rest deficit.” She writes: “Sleep is solely a physical activity. Rest, however, penetrates into the spiritual. Rest speaks peace into the daily storms your mind, body, and spirit encounter. Rest is what makes sleep sweet.” Are you truly resting?
This issue did not arrive with Netflix. I think it goes all the way back to the Old Testament. I am going to read our text here in a minute, from the book of Job. Now, many of us have all heard so many interpretations and sermons on Job that we automatically think we know what the book is going to say. But I want you to hear these words perhaps in a different way, through the lens of sleep and rest. I read now from Job 3.11–26.
Job 3.11–26
11 “Why did I not die at birth,
come forth from the womb and expire?
12 Why were there knees to receive me
or breasts for me to suck?
13 Now I would be lying down and quiet;
I would be asleep; then I would be at rest
14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuild ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who have gold,
who fill their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child,
like an infant that never sees the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slaves are free from their masters.
20 “Why is light given to one in misery
and life to the bitter in soul,
21 who long for death, but it does not come,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
22 who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
whom God has fenced in?
24 For my sighing comes like my bread,
and my groanings are poured out like water.
25 Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
Did you hear how often Job talked about sleep and rest? You could make the argument that he was speaking euphemistically, that he was yearning for death. But I think that sometimes those who are thinking about ending their lives are simply yearning for a rest from the chaos. Look again at Job’s chaos:
- It was physical trauma, as his body was covered in sores and he couldn’t get relief.
- It was financial trauma, as he had lost his home and his possessions.
- It was family trauma, as he was grieving the loss of all of his children, and his wife had given up, telling him to “curse God and die.”
Maybe some of us have faced similar trauma—maybe not all at once, but grief and loss in our health, our finances, and our family—perhaps we just want a rest from the chaos. Job did. Over and over again in the passage I read, Job cried out for rest:
- Yashen, from verse 13, is often translated as sleep, but literally means “to be relaxed or languid” and connotes a long period of time. Job yearns for long, deep, restful, relaxed sleep.
- Nuach is also in verse 13, and then again in verses 17 and 26. Translated here as rest, but can also mean to “to dwell, to cease, to be quiet.” There is a comparative experience with nuach: not on the move but dwelling/settling/staying…not accomplishing but ceasing…not active but quiet. In general, not rest-less but restful.
- Shaqat is the third word, also in verse 26. This has similar connotations to the others, but is often used to talk about rest of a kingdom or the land. In Judges, where it says that the people had peace from war, it uses shaqat. A peaceful quiet, as it is translated here. Or specifically, Job says, “I did not have shaqat.” He yearns for that peaceable rest.
In exquisite and poetic language, Job cries out—to his friends and directly to God—that he just wants to rest. An end to the physical and emotional and spiritual chaos and trauma and pain. He cried for God to give him yashen, nuach, shaqat. “Give me rest.” Maybe we can relate.
And then, Job’s friends give him 34 chapters of a theological guilt trip. And there is a lot of good theological stuff to dig into through those chapters, but they don’t tend to accomplish much for someone who is tired and grieving and angry and afraid. By chapter 37, Job is in about the same place physically and emotionally and spiritually as he was in chapter 3, still crying out for relief and rest.
But then we get to chapter 38, and the speaker is not Job nor his friends, but God. Out of the whirlwind, God says this:
Job 38.25–33
25 “Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain
and a way for the thunderbolt,
26 to bring rain on a land where no one lives,
on the desert, which is empty of human life,
27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground put forth grass?
28 “Has the rain a father,
or who has fathered the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb did the ice come forth,
and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?
30 The waters become hard like stone,
and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades
or loose the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
or can you guide the Bear with its children?
33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth?”
Again, we can interpret this through a lens of theodicy or sin or God’s punishment, but what if we see it through the lens of rest? We perhaps see God saying two things.
The first point is about place. You’ll notice God does not say, “Don’t worry, Job. One day you will be in heaven and all of this bad stuff will be like a forgotten dream. Now, you’ll never find rest on earth, but after you die, you finally will!” That is not the message of Job, or really anywhere in the Bible. This life. This place is the focus: This earth. Rain. Grass. Dew. Ice. Stars. Rest is not just for another life, it is for this one.
Wayne Muller, in his book about rest and sabbath, writes about how God never tells us to hold off on rest, but always invites rest on this earth, in this life. He asks, “What if our life is simply a time when we are blessed with both sadness and joy, health and disease, courage and fear—and all the while we work, pray, and love, knowing that the promised land we seek is already present in the very gift of life itself, the inestimable privilege of a human birth?” God seems to suggest something similar here at the end of Job. This life. This place.
But if the first relevant point is about place, the second is about providence. Through the verses I read and the whole passage, God seems to say, “Look, I am caring for this world in ways that you cannot understand. Can you believe that I am with you, even if it feels like I am far away?” The providence with which God cares for the world is inherent in creation. What might this tell us about rest, if not that the universe does not depend on us to get our work done and our lists crossed off. If we rest, as we are commanded to do, and as our bodies were created for, the world will be OK. God has been running it for longer than we think we have.
Marva Dawn writes that when we rest, we “cease our trying to be God.” She suggests, “The point of the whole story is that God will provide for his people; they don’t have to struggle to work things out for themselves. Indeed, this is the message throughout the narrative of the Hebrew people—that their God will provide for them….In our twentieth-century spirituality we easily lose the notion of God’s provision for us because of our advanced civilization and its distance from the actual processes that provide material goods. [Rest] forces us to rely on God for our future.” God asked Job to consider the same providence.
Could we hear this message for our souls today? I have heard it over the last three months. That guy who thinks that the universe cannot exist if he doesn’t have it on his to-do list? Right here. Yet, I have over these months become a student of rest, reading all of the authors I have quoted today, and many more. As a student of rest, I have come to understand how much I have to learn. Today, I want to show you the tip of the iceberg of that learning. Again, Dr. Dalton-Smith suggests that we are in a rest deficit. But we don’t have to be. She invites us to what she calls the “Seven Types of Rest”:
Physical Rest
Mental Rest
Emotional Rest
Spiritual Rest
Social Rest
Sensory Rest
Creative Rest
This might be the most important slide of my whole sabbatical. Dr. Dalton-Smith helped me to understand and diagnose some of my own “rest deficit,” and where to start to heal from it. Her book is an incredibly helpful, practical translation of the book of Job: God desires rest for you in this life. And understanding God’s provision will help you get there.
I’m not going to summarize the whole book this morning, but perhaps some prepositional phrases would help define what she means by some of this.
- Rest from Physical Exhaustion: finding restoration through physical relaxation during the day and good sleep at night
- Rest from Mental Exhaustion: turning down some of what she calls “cerebral background noise” and giving your mind Job’s nuach, a peaceful rest
- Rest from Emotional Exhaustion: learning to recognize your emotions and practice realistic and authentic emotional honesty
- Rest in Spiritual Relationships: deepening—or beginning—a relationship with God, not just with church activities or religious busywork
- Rest in Social Relationships: helping to discern what relationships are life-giving and which ones are not, and putting your energy into the first and setting boundaries with the second
- Rest without Sensory Overload: the sounds and sights and tastes and smells of our lives overwhelm us; this one is about the screens that pervade our lives, and keep us from resting, but also about how we go overboard on fragrance, or heavy dips to give our food more taste and texture…we overload our lives with a sensory tsunami, and we need relief from it
- Rest within God’s Creation: embracing nature, art, music…experiences that God has created and give us restful joy and play
I believe that God wants all of this for you. If some of this is scratching where you itch today…if you, like Job, are yearning for rest from the difficulties of life…if you struggle to cease trying to be God in your life, maybe Dr. Daulton-Smith, or some of the other authors, might be helpful. Dr. Daulton-Smith has a great website, where you can fill out a rest assessment, or participate in what she calls the “30-day Rest Challenge.” Here is a QR code to get you there…
I end with a story of God’s gift of rest, from my run yesterday. Out west of town, I was able to sneak in a run between the storms, and it became an experience of rest and peace. I saw the storms that had moved through to the east, still rumbling. And heard the storms back to the west, still coming, yet as I crossed Baldwin Creek, the fog settled on the road, with the sun streaming through the trees, and there was a powerfully peaceful moment.
It felt like how rest works. The storms of life have come, and many feel the weariness from the winds. There are more storms coming, and it is dishonest to believe any different. But God promises that in the moment, we will not be alone. God wants to give us the gift of rest, and invites us to receive.
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