In the Exodus story, when Moses first goes to Pharaoh, he relays this word from God. "Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness." I'm not sure if this original request, time off for a festival, was a ruse of sorts. Would it all have ended right here if Pharaoh had said something different? "Sure, take a few days off to worship. The bricks can wait."
Of course Pharaoh says no such thing. He's not about to give the Israelites a day off, much less several for a festival in the wilderness. The demand for bricks is too great. "Bricks, more bricks," is the never ending cry. And for even suggesting a day off, Pharaoh demands the same productions quotas with less raw material. It sounds a bit like modern factory systems that demand greater and greater efficiency, more and more production from fewer and fewer workers.
One of today's morning psalms praises the God "who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free." In the biblical story, and in my own experience, God can be excruciatingly slow to act, but God does act on behalf the oppressed, the hungry, the poor, the prisoner. However, the poor, oppressed, and prisoner aren't always amenable to God's intervention. In the Exodus story, the people of Israel struggle to trust this God who frees them. At every sign of difficulty, they long for their old slavery, where they had shelter and knew where their next meal came from. That seems preferable to becoming dependent on the provision of God.
It strikes me that the modern "rat race" is not so different. People speak of being caught up in it, being captive to it, but rare is the person who works very hard to break free. God, both in the Old Testament story and through the words of Jesus, speaks of a relaxed trust in the surety of divine provision. At Mt. Sinai, God command Sabbath, a break from the rat race. But anxious people can't stop. "Bricks, more bricks," the cry continues. Or perhaps, "Stuff, more stuff. Never enough stuff." Jesus tells us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear, but we can't stop worrying. And so we cannot stop at all. We prefer the voice of Pharaoh, "Get to your labors!" over the voice of the one who calls us to Sabbath.
But "the LORD sets the prisoners free." Please, Lord. A lot of us could use a little freeing.
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(My own spiritual reflections on this are much influenced of late by Walter Brueggemann's book, Sabbath as Resistance.)
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