What God Says
What does God say about rest?
God made rest part of the rhythm of the world: He commands a Sabbath day and tells His people to keep it holy. Jesus invites everyone who is weary and burdened to come to Him for rest, and takes His tired disciples away to a quiet place. Through Isaiah, God tells His people that in quietness and trust is their strength.
Here are those passages in His own words, each with its chapter and verse, from the Berean Standard Bible.
On rest
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28–30 And the LORD answered, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Exodus 33:14 And He said to them, “Come with Me privately to a solitary place, and let us rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
Mark 6:31 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant or livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
Exodus 20:8–11 Then Jesus declared, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:27 For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “By repentance and rest you would be saved; your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”
Isaiah 30:15 This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’”
Jeremiah 6:16 “For I will refresh the weary soul and replenish all who are weak.”
Jeremiah 31:25 “If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words, then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 58:13–14 “Tell the Israelites, ‘Surely you must keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.”
Exodus 31:13
These are 10 of the 1,730 passages where God speaks in What God Says: Every Word God Speaks in the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, from Biblee Publishing. Every one is printed in the book exactly as it appears here.