Torah Nugget: Ki Tisa
“When You Lift Up”
“Rest & Breath of Life?!”
What is Rest? Have you ever thought about what it our Father “rested” means?
Our Creator stopped working and rested? Did He take a nap?
In our modern day understanding we automatically equate this scripture with relaxing and or even napping after a long hard week of work. But this is not so in Father’s case.
…rest concerns most importantly the achievement of stability, security, and order. The deity can rest in his/her temple because the threat of chaos has been dispelled. ~Ancient Near Eastern Thought
In the ancient world of the Bible, “rest” for a deity and a king for that matter, carried the understanding of reigning or ruling over a secure and orderly kingdom with no sign of threat. We can see this exact idea with King Solomon in 1st Kings.
In Exodus 31:17 “stopped working” is Shabbat in Hebrew. The Shabbat or Sabbath is the day of “rest” the sign of Our Creator's Reign as King. “Rested” in this verse is the Hebrew word naphash H5314, which means “deep breath”. Let’s put this understanding back into the verse.
Think about meditating and taking a deep breath. Yes, it relaxes you but why. It feeds oxygen to the body and helps everything to balance out, allowing us to appreciate everything around us better.
How much more impactful was it for the Creator to take a deep breath after He established His reign over everything He created?
Is this not literally,
“The Breath of Life?”
Torah Nugget: Ki Tisa