“I will come upon him while he is weary and weak, and make him afraid. And all the people who are with him will flee…” (2 Sam. 17:2).
“Remember what Amalek did to you… how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God” (Deut. 25:17-18).
“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Mt. 9:36).
I want to emphasize the word weary in these Scriptures. This is a word denoting a weakened state because of a long time of work, activities or worries. This state destroys a person that is makes them defeated; scatters them that is makes them confused and eventually kills them.
Not only a weary person is incapable of being physically active or successfully completing what has been started, but they are also unable to think soberly and to make right decisions.
I do not think there is even one person who is unfamiliar with this state. Weariness can have different expressions or reasons. A prolonged state of weariness can lead to depression. For instance, a person can get weary because of a hard working day of many hours with no opportunity to rest; when they have to spend sleepless nights with their child, and during the day they shall both take care of the child and do home duties; from physical work; nightmarish and stormy days; demonic attacks; and from prayers that do not exalt the Lord, but only consist of demands and tearful begging, “Please Lord, give me this, give me that, give me…”
Our Heavenly Father has a way out from all weariness, no matter what it results from. Jesus the Savior says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-30).
Let us learn from our God. When creating the universe, our Heavenly Father rested on the seventh day, “…He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (Gen. 2:2). Through Moses, the Lord passed the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel, one of which was about rest, “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest” (Ex. 34:21).
I do not think you can find even one person who was busier than Jesus Christ during His earthly life. Let us not forget that at that time, He was one hundred percent man. Jesus was keenly aware of His mission, which was to prepare apostles and disciples; to reach out to the people with the Good News and to reveal God’s will to them by healing them, setting them free and feeding them; to reconcile man with God through the cross of the Calvary and to give them authority over the devil in the power of His name. While doing all these, He endured persecutions, slander and was threatened with death, “…[they] rose up and thrust Him out of the city… to the brow of the hill… that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way” (Lk. 4:29-30).
Why Jesus wasn’t getting weary? The secret was, He did everything according to the Father’s will, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner” (Jn. 5.19). “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (Jn. 5:30).
When a person does everything the way God wants it, they have no mistakes to correct and nothing to regret. When God the Creator of the universe created man, He had constant relationship with them in mind. Genesis 1:26 says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…”. The Hebrew word image means likeness in reflection or form, and the word likeness means a shadow.
This means mankind was created in God’s likeness and they are God’s shadow. The shadow can do nothing of itself. It is seen only when a physical body is present. It is the Lord’s will to have constant fellowship with man, so that man can escape the snares of the devil.
Jesus the Savior always spent time alone with the Lord, to fellowship with Him and to receive from Him everything that was necessary for Himself. “And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there” (Mt. 14:23).
We can see that a person can easily be recovered from physical or mental work by laying down, having a rest, sleeping or having a good time. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find rest when one is constantly having storms, snares, slander, betrayal and arguments… these can only be endured by someone whose inner person is built by the Holy Spirit, which means the fruit of the Spirit has been ripened in their life, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).
While speaking to His disciples, Jesus used examples of everyday life and nature. The Lord created this world in a way that by observing it, people can learn whatever they need in life.
Let us look at a characteristic of bald eagles. There is an interesting fact. An eagle’s speed in calm weather is 50 miles per hour. And if it is windy, it can gain momentum and go three times faster, that is up to 150 miles per hour. And it doesn’t matter to which direction the wind is blowing. Moreover, not only eagles can fly at a contrary wind, but they fly up exactly at the streams of a contrary wind. They do not fly up at a fair wind, but at a contrary wind, which carries away other birds. Eagles can change the angle of their wings and rudder-tail in a way that the contrary wind streams give it the strongest impetus to fly up. The stronger the wind is, the quicker the eagle soars up. Eagles can fly up at a storm or a hurricane. They are not afraid of them as they have learned how to use the force of the contrary wind.
During hurricanes, the eagle, breaking through the winds, flies higher up, leaving the hurricane below. The feathers of the eagle are damaged in the process, but the eagle is not afraid of it, as a day comes when its strength is renewed. “Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Ps. 103:5). How in the world an eagle can do this? Of course, it is due to its God-given abilities. In the same way, through the Holy Spirit, people receive opportunities to restore their strength. The fruit of the Holy Spirit and His almighty power that raised Jesus the Savior from the dead help us to overcome every and any resistance and weariness.
It is crucial to have understanding of the times to separate what is urgent from what is important. As they say, “Not everything that seems urgent is important”. When Lazarus was near death, people demanded that Jesus hurried to heal him. Jesus was submitted to the Lord, and at that time, He was busy doing quite a different thing, “…Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” …Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”” (Jn. 11:2-7).
If Jesus had obeyed the demands of men, the glory of the Lord wouldn’t have been revealed. It is these urgent tasks that pile up on a person and keep them from doing the most important things, and moreover, steal their strength and give no satisfaction to their souls.
There are times when people start doing a right thing at the right time, but lose the knowledge of the times; they go on with their work when actually they need to stop and have a rest. As a result, they get stress and overfatigue…
Everything is beautiful in its measure. God put sand as a border to the sea, “When He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command…” (Pr. 8:29). Can you imagine what destruction the beautiful seas or oceans would have caused mankind, if the Lord hadn’t set a border for them. When the limits or borders are transgressed, people no longer have peace of mind. Our Lord has created everything in a wonderful way, but nothing happens right away; trees do not bear fruit nor babies are formed in their mothers’ wombs in an instant. In the same way, no one can have a significant result in a very short time by wearing themselves out and having no rest.
Weariness can also destroy people when they try to take upon themselves what only the Lord can do, “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord” (Pr. 21:31). People must receive the strategy of “preparing the horses for the battle” from the Lord. The Holy Spirit might lead someone only to pray, worship or do a specific thing, as He told Joshua what to do to conquer the city of Ai, “…Lay an ambush for the city behind it…” (Jos. 8:2-29).
People must never limit the unlimited God. They must never complain of being weary or grumble that no one helps them or that people spitefully use them. Complaining or grumbling make your path longer in the same way as the people of Israel passed a forty days’ distance in forty years; moreover, no unbelieving and grumbling person entered the Promised Land.
One must simply manage their work schedule in a right way, and to make sure they are not seen as a “victim”, because there are people who like to share their problems with those who they think can help and go away from them relieved and expecting that they will do what only God can do.
You must not say, “It is impossible for me to keep all the things you say…”, “If you lived in the conditions that I have…”, “If you had such children that are sick five days a week and when they are not, they do not give me rest by acting up…”, or “If not the attacks, slander and opposition that has befallen me…”, etcetera.
My beloved, unfortunately, this is natural. And this is why God wants us to speak these words from our heart and believe them, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want… He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me… You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…” (Ps. 23:1-6).
Praise be to the Lord of lords, Who has found us and Who offers His help! Man must simply accept it, because “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Is. 40:29-31).
You just need to stay alone and open your heart before Him, rend your heart before Him, “So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness…” (Jl. 2:13).