The Sabbath

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Exodus 20:8-11

I think one of the most widely unrecognized gifts God gives us is that of the Sabbath. Simply put, He commands to slow down every 7th day and take some time to rest and worship Him. Most Christians observe this day on Sunday to commerate Jesus' resurrection on that day.

But do we really observe it? We live in a crazy society, in which "24/7" has become a common term. Many of us never slow down. What would it be like if we were to set aside one day each week to cease from our jobs and even housework, yard work and other forms of labor, and just attend a worship service and rest our bodies and our minds?

We may think this would be difficult, or even impossible, but I don’t believe God ever intended for it to be a burden:

"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." The mouth of the LORD has spoken. Isaiah 52:13-14

It is between you and God to decide what is appropriate for you to do on the Sabbath and what isn’t. The Bible gives us some guidelines, but Jesus repeatedly rebuked the Pharisees and others who tried to be legalistic about it (Matthew 12, Mark 2, 3, Luke 6, 13 and 14). He did observe it, but didn’t hesitate to help others or do other necessary things that happened to come up on that day.

I can’t claim to have mastered this, but I do try, and honestly, it is very freeing, when I see something that needs to be done around the house and am able to remind myself that it is the Sabbath, and it can wait. I love my Sunday afternoon naps too!

I think our society would be a better place and we would probably be much healthier if we would all take some time to rest and focus on things that are eternally important one day a week, as God commands us to do.