Take a load off, man

The fact that one of the Ten Commandments is about rest tells me two important things. First, it tells me that God takes rest very seriously. It also tells me that people have always been so focused on getting stuff that they have to be told to take a day off. 

The fourth commandment says to honor God one day in every seven. And what does he demand of his people on that day? Not some special ritual. Not that we gather together to worship him. Not that we do anything at all, but that we rest. That we "do no work". This isn't something new that came in with the Law of Moses; it was based in the creation itself, on God's rest on the seventh day. Now, God didn't need to rest any more than he needed six days to create the universe. It was an illustration for his people, be they Hebrews in 1000BC or us.

People always want more, whether it's more money, more power, or more security. And they're willing to work for them. It turns into a deadly trap when we come to depend more on what we can get than on God. We get to the point that we're willing to disobey him to get a little more of whatever we're after. This temptation is so strong that a prohibition against it had to be included in the Decalogue. People weren't meant to work all the time. We're made to need rest, and because we won't take care of ourselves, God has to make us.