I joke that I am eligible for bed, meaning I can give up my day and my many chores and get to bed. It’s a blessing to sleep, a real blessing that my kids are older and even if on different schedules than me, I can sleep without listening for every noise.

Except for the middle of the night, my middle night, wake ups to catch bugs from my daughter’s room at 3am, her going to bed time. Oy! When we will be on same schedules is not on our schedule. I feel that I am allowed to be cranky at 3am, but I usually get up anyway and help…  ughs to bugs…

I’ve been reading this multitude of instructions the Lord gave to the Israelites thru Moses recorded in Exodus 22, 23, so many if/then instructions mostly for setting boundaries for living (death by stoning seems a pretty big deterrent). Hopefully the people made an example of the rules to each other, hoping to not need to punish, and these things didn’t happen. And deep in the rules is a separate instruction and honestly seems to be the allowance for nighttime rules and it is a scripture of an awareness of your required awakenedness and responsibilities in daytime: “If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed.”

Hmmm…. you as a homeowner (and a lifeowner) have responsibility to know if it’s day or night, you have a responsibility to act appropriately. 

It’s a pattern of God to give rules and to rest (6 days and then one day). It’s a pattern of God to want us to be aware when awake. He gave detailed instruction for allowing time to worship, pray, work, rest. And God knows all the brokenness of the people and makes provisions for them. (Biggest provision being Jesus forgiving and giving grace to our humanness) Perhaps our rest is both for our bodies that wear out, and also to settle us down enough for God not having to deal with spiders in the middle of the night. The Lord does not sleep, but rest assured He rests when He knows we are OK.

Let’s be OK today for His sake.  Don’t sweat the small stuff. Keep track of day and night – keep working when there is work and keep resting when rest is allowed. Deal with your own bugs, and give Him all the rest. Haha, rest, God’s rest is taking out burdens and letting us rest, then He rests assured we are OK.

Let Us Be Still and still be His.

Amen 
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a link to exodus 21-24 – so many instructions… https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+21-24&version=NIV