Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none." On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. See! The Lord has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day he gives you food for two days; So the people rested on the seventh day.

Leviticus 25:3-5 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land.

O Lord, the Creator of Heaven and Earth,
Creator of cycles of time.
The year? That's all yours. The season is too.
The rhythms of sun and of moon.

We know this heartbeat. We see in the sky
The pulsing and flowing of time.
We trust in the morn. We trust in the spring.
And instinctively know that it's You.

O we can create time periods as well:
The minute? The second? All ours.
The machines we create run fast without rest
On heartbeats much faster than that.

But when You came down to the mountain of God
And met Moses with tablets of stone.
You gave us some rest from the slavery of time
A solemn ... rest. A gift!

Sandwiched between the cycles we see:
And the ones we create on our own
Lies a period of time which is totally yours.
Where you meet us lies the week.

Selah.

O Lord, you are the creator of Earth
You know our hearts most of all.
As slaves you knew what we needed the most
A Sabbath rest from our toil.

With manna You taught us to trust in You, Lord
To give us our daily bread.
So too did you teach us to steward our wealth
For if we hoarded our bread it would spoil.

Breathe in, breathe out. Work six and then rest.
What a beautiful cadence of life!
O the beauty -- Your beauty continues beyond..
The cycles of seven run so deep.

Every "week" of years neither plant nor sow.
The "fallow year" it was called.
Six years we trust in the work of our hands
On seven our faith is in You.

Let the land rest from its years of hard work
Let it recover from six years of debt.
You told us to forgive our debtors as well
To also give rest for the poor.

Every seventh year was a time for the rich
To come down a bit from their greed.
And the poor to be raised from the oppression of debt
To adjust the imbalance of life.

You spoke this so loud when Jesus was here
On earth in the flesh long ago.
When He sat us down and taught us to pray
He inserted this into Your prayer:

"Give us this day our daily bread"
Remember the manna; the faith.
"and forgive us our debts" as we also do
Give rest for the slave and the poor.

There is one more layer in this rhythm of life
One more layer of seven to learn.
A week of year-weeks, then the "Jubilee Year"
All the land goes back to square one.

A "reset" button on the game of life
Which evens good luck with the bad.
When things don't work out. When you lost all you had,
"Game over. I love you. Try again."

Selah.

Oh, Lord forgive us! We never caught on
To the plan You had from the start.
We just don't get this idea of rest.
This heartbeat of seven -- our gift.

We work ourselves ragged. We plant every year.
We hoard everything that we earn.
We ignore the imbalance of the oppression of debt
And treat all our stuff as our own.

Lord help us to feel your cadence of life
To work smart with your wisdom and love.
Lord help us to hear, when on seven you say,
"Slow down. Live long. Take a break."

We forget to trust, to have faith, to not fear.
We forget that the seventh is yours.
We forget who gave us our means to succeed
And who prospers the work of our hands.

We forget who owns our good fortune, our luck
Who owns all our stuff, all our lives.
We draw lines around every thing that we have
Don't touch. Can't have that. That's all mine.

Selah.

Lord, you own every thing that I have.
You own the earth and the sky.
You know every hair on my head, every cell.
You feel every beat of my heart.

Lord you know I want with all of my soul
To lay everything I have at your feet.
Take all of my stuff, my skills, and my life
Take it all. Bless it all. Make it yours.

And when I get frazzled, or frenzied, or freaked
When I'm worried or scared or lose sleep.
When I am tempted to use the seventh to catch up.
Please remind me, "Slow down. Let it rest."

Lord, use me in ways only You can foresee.
Clear the way for a life full in You.
Teach me this rhythm of work and then rest.
Resting, recharging, in You.