Sleep is needed by all of us; some more than others. Our natural bodies need to rest from their labors so they can rejuvenate and be ready to tackle whatever the next day brings. We find that the human body of our Lord Jesus Christ needed sleep as indicated in Mark 4:38.

The question may be asked if God Himself requires sleep. The answer is NO! David, in penning down the inspired word of God, wrote - “...he that keepeth thee will will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:3-4). This verse emphasizes that the Lord is always watchful of our needs and our welfare. There is a great benefit for God’s children due to His watch care. The providential care of our Lord was felt strongly by David in Psalm 4:8, “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” A popular child’s prayer often repeated by parents to their small children is taken from this verse.

Sleep in the Bible does not always mean the closing of the eyes and the getting of much needed rest for the natural body. It can be a representation of laziness as indicated by Solomon in Proverbs 6:9-10, “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:...”

Sleep can also refer to death. One can be “asleep” and it mean corporal death of the body as in the case of Lazarus when Jesus first spoke of him as being asleep, then clarified it in clearer terms for the Apostles to better understand that he was dead. To those who loved Lazarus, he WAS dead. The natural body no longer had life in it and would be in the tomb for four days. But to Christ, who has all power in heaven and on earth, natural death is no more than sleep. Notice John 11:11, “...Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.”

Sleep is spoken of by Paul when he speaks in Romans 13:11 of one being in a state of doing the works of darkness, rather than putting on the armour of light. He said, “...knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Then again, Paul tells the Ephesian brethren to “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14). Paul is telling them to wake up, or, come out from among the dead, and be up and about praising, honoring, and glorifying God. When God’s children find themselves entangled with worldly things, they are the same as being asleep as they cannot serve God and the world. Matthew 6:24 says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

What then should we do and how should we do it? Mark 13:37 gives us such admonition, “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” In closing, notice I Thessalonians 5:3-6, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”