It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
The promise is that God gives sleep to those He loves as His beloved. He gives it because they need rest to revive exhausted strength, and He does not require them to sacrifice needed rest or to endanger their lives. In this He is unlike them, for He Himself never slumbers or sleeps while He bestows sleep upon them.
Christ's deep sleep in the storm shows what this gift looks like, for after exhausting Himself in service to the sick and sorrowing He rested even amid wind and rain and crashing waves. His weariness came from effort to help others, not from sin. The sleep given also includes death, which is peaceful and gentle without struggle. The long night of waiting until the morning of the resurrection is only a moment to those who sleep in death.
For those who remain alive the time of waiting will also not be long, because Jesus is coming soon to gather His loved ones home. The same care that gives sleep also provides suitable, nourishing and strengthening food to sustain the body in a healthy condition. He is willing for His beloved to have such food to nourish their strength.
Nourishing food and restful sleep are both His gifts, and eating or drinking wrongly can harm health and disturb quiet rest. The verse does not require people to deprive themselves of nourishing food or to adopt a rigid economy that weakens or injures the body. Making such hardship for oneself is not a duty, for denying the body through harmful practices is not His purpose. Servants who need rest of mind and sleep should not be distressed and burdened by others until they are nearly crushed, but can leave the load with the Lord and wait.
The promise is that God gives sleep to those He loves as His beloved. He gives it because they need rest to revive exhausted strength, and He does not require them to sacrifice needed rest or to endanger their lives. In this He is unlike them, for He Himself never slumbers or sleeps while He bestows sleep upon them.
Christ's deep sleep in the storm shows what this gift looks like, for after exhausting Himself in service to the sick and sorrowing He rested even amid wind and rain and crashing waves. His weariness came from effort to help others, not from sin. The sleep given also includes death, which is peaceful and gentle without struggle. The long night of waiting until the morning of the resurrection is only a moment to those who sleep in death.
For those who remain alive the time of waiting will also not be long, because Jesus is coming soon to gather His loved ones home. The same care that gives sleep also provides suitable, nourishing and strengthening food to sustain the body in a healthy condition. He is willing for His beloved to have such food to nourish their strength.
Nourishing food and restful sleep are both His gifts, and eating or drinking wrongly can harm health and disturb quiet rest. The verse does not require people to deprive themselves of nourishing food or to adopt a rigid economy that weakens or injures the body. Making such hardship for oneself is not a duty, for denying the body through harmful practices is not His purpose. Servants who need rest of mind and sleep should not be distressed and burdened by others until they are nearly crushed, but can leave the load with the Lord and wait.