The Gift of the Sabbath

   Rest- real rest- seems to be in short supply in our culture. Work-weeks take up much of our time, and/or running a house and running after the kids. Even our leisure hours are often spent in frantic activity. Though we don't have to work as hard just to survive as people in other times and cultures have had to, we still run ourselves in circles with busyness.

   God knows the human tendency to be "human doings" rather than "human beings." That's why he gave Israel a mandate to rest on the Sabbath, and to make sure that those under their care did so as well-servants, visitors and animals alike. It was meant to preserve them, give them time off, to renew their strength as a people. He gave them the Sabbath as a holy remembrance of how he had created the earth in six days, and how he had saved them as a people. It was to be a sign of his covenant with them, a day to go His way and not their own, and do as He pleased, not as they pleased.

   Israel, of course, proceeded to regulate the gift of the Sabbath into legalism. They sliced that law into a thousand nit-picking, joyless pieces. It took Jesus to restore the Sabbath to God's original intention. He tried to get the Pharisees to see it this way when he said, "The Sabboth was made for man, not man for the Sabboth". He taught that it was lawful to heal, to do good, to be merciful, to find rest in the freedom he brought, for "the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath".

   Today, some Christians observe the Sabbath with rules and regulations. Others treat the Sabbath as any other day. But there's another way. We can accept the gift of the Sabbath as a day of celebration- a day set aside to spend with God, to remember his faithfulness, to trust him for our livelihood, to "call the Sabboth a delight" (Isaiah 58:13). Then, God promises, we will find our "joy in the Lord" (Isaiah 58:14). It's a great day to spend time with God, with his creation, with each other. The Sabbath is a holy gift!

                                                                AUTHOR: Ruth Dejager

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