The Feast of Tabernacles serves as a foretaste of God's rest, symbolizing the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ as King of kings. This feast offers a significant sense of rest, allowing us to step away from the world for seven days, plus the Last Great Day, and to envision, in a small way, what life will be like during the Millennium. There exists a general misconception about God's rest, often referred to as the rest of God, which ties directly to the Millennium. Scriptural references, such as II Peter 3 and Psalm 90, highlight that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, suggesting that God's day, or the day of God, spans a thousand years. Revelation 20 confirms this duration for the Millennium, the period of Christ's reign. In Genesis 2, the first allusion to God's rest appears, framed as the seventh-day Sabbath. This creation week prefigures man's time under satan's influence for six thousand years, followed by the seventh day, God's rest, a thousand years where He becomes the primary influence on humanity. The Feast of Tabernacles further embodies this rest, representing a process of judgment and harvest, ultimately pointing to the thousand-year reign of Christ. Psalm 95 directly addresses God's rest, linking it to the Sabbath day and the Millennium. It combines settings of creation, personal salvation, and the future reign of God, portraying the rest as both a place and a period of peace after a journey, akin to the Promised Land for the Israelites. The Hebrew terms for rest, such as "menuchah" and "nuwach," denote a resting place or time of repose, while "sha'bat" in Genesis 2 emphasizes cessation or stopping rather than mere rest. This distinction reveals that God's rest involves stopping certain activities, not because He needs rest, but to shift focus to divine purposes. In Isaiah 58, the Sabbath day, tied to God's rest, involves stopping personal labors and starting to engage in God's works, honoring Him through godly actions. Hebrews 3 and 4 further clarify this concept, using Greek terms like "katapausis" for cessation and "anapausis" for uplifting rest, showing that entering God's rest means ceasing from personal works as God ceased from His at creation. This links the weekly Sabbath with the future rest of God, characterizing it as a time of stopping ungodly activities and beginning godly ones. Ultimately, God's rest in the millennial sense is about the conversion of humanity, turning mankind from rebellion to godliness, providing rest for their souls as described in Matthew 11:29. The Millennium will not be a time of inactivity but of great, properly directed activity with a divine goal. Isaiah 56 extends this rest to include Gentiles, foreigners, and all whom God calls, transforming the earth into a place of justice and righteousness, where all will enter God's rest and be converted.

At the culmination of the re-creation in Genesis 1:31 through Genesis 2:4, the process reaches its highest point with the concept of rest. The key term here is "rested," which is the root of Sabbath, indicating that God Sabbathed. This rest arises because God's will is accomplished through His Word, bringing order and light from chaos. A major principle emerges: true rest occurs only when His will is done, whether for us, in us, or through us. It is God who rests from His work, not from weariness, but from satisfaction in a job well done, taking joy and pleasure in His accomplishment. His labor transforms chaos into beauty, peace, and rest, so that He might rest in us, satisfied with His creative efforts. God blessed and sanctified the day of His rest as a memorial of His labors, set aside for His use in our lives. This day is not for idleness but for intense spiritual activity, focusing on prayer, study, meditation, and conversation about God and His spiritual creation within us. Unlike the other six days of creation, evening is not mentioned, subtly indicating a future time when the light of God's truth will never diminish as a result of His labor. God never stops working, yet He takes pleasure in what He does, and we are to imitate Him by stopping our customary labor on this day and devoting it entirely to His purposes. The concept of rest also appears in Hebrews 4, involving three related issues with symbolic meaning. First, it points to a future entering into a Sabbath rest, picturing the fulfillment of God's purpose when He stops His labors. Second, it involves the literal keeping of each Sabbath as a type of that culmination, mirroring God's cessation of customary work. Third, rest implies entering into God's favor and blessing now, as a small foretaste of the future rest. This rest is not yet fully reached, as God's work began in the indefinite past and continues to the present moment, with both the Father and Jesus involved in the same spiritual labor toward the same goal. Observing the Sabbath looks both backward to God's resting during the creation week and forward to His rest when He completes His spiritual plan. It is a time for evaluation and resolve to do better, recharging physically and spiritually, so that greater satisfaction and spiritual well-being can be achieved. This rest is not complete until we yield to God's will, producing peace and a sense of well-being. However, it will not be fully reached until God Himself is satisfied with His work in us, acceptable for His kingdom. Even now, what we experience is a small foretaste of the future rest we have entered into.

Rest is an essential element for mankind. It is also a metaphor for God's short- and long-term message of His Kingdom (Psalm 127:1-2). There is an exploration of sleep as to how it benefits us in the short-term daily interactions with each day's new set of problems, and how it ties into the great rest at the end of earthly time. Physical rest helps the mind reset and solve problems, while helping to heal the body. Genesis 28 shows that God often communicates to us with direct messaging such as He did with Joseph, and through inspirations from the holy spirit. Physical death is another form of sleep, even though many of us fear it. Everyone, good or evil, finally "rests with their fathers" and we must keep in mind during our daily lives that we will be going back to them. Godly rest is the ultimate form, and all the other forms of rest point towards that. We have a relationship with the Master of these forms of sleep, and we receive the ultimate benefit of that relationship (I Corinthians 15).