Exodus 20:8-10

The world is relentless about making humanity into a commodity.

It cares nothing for the soul; only the output. Think for a moment about God’s timing in giving Israel the commandment to keep a Sabbath day. It was on the heels of centuries without respite from production in Egypt.

The result of living in this prolonged toiling is best described by Psalm 115:

But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. (Psalms 115:4-8)

Put simply, the world had stripped humans of their humanity.

The commandment to remember the Sabbath day was and still is provision that stirs back to life the soul’s suppression. Rest, then, is retaliation. But it’s also cooperation.

Rest retaliates against living according to what we are in human eyes, and in turn cooperates with who we are in God's eyes.