I must admit, until a couple of
years ago, I was extremely cynical about the Sabbath, and any form of practice
of it. I thought of it as an antiquated
practice of religion, rather than trying to figure out why the Lord commanded
his people to do it in the first place.
But the Christian practice of Sabbath was never really explained to me,
and as a minister (who works on Sunday) I just assumed that I wouldn’t be able
to take Sabbath.
And the thought of taking
Saturday off seemed impossible with all the important stuff I had to do
throughout the week. (As arrogant of a
statement as I have ever made…)
However, after hearing a sermon
by Matt Chandler on the practice of the Sabbath, I was amazed by the implication
that is made in the scripture. The practice
of the Sabbath is as much about work, as it is about relaxation. Not that our practice of the Sabbath is as
much work as the New Testament Pharisees made it out to be, but that we must
prepare ourselves, or occupation, and our homes in advance if we are ever to
hope to actually take rest.
Exodus 20:8-11
8 “Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor,
and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to
the Lord your God. On it you shall
not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your
female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For
in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and made it holy.
As I read this passage, I am
primarily interested in verse 9. The
command is not simply that we cant work on Sabbath, but instead, that in 6
days, we must complete all of our work.
If we are to take this passage literally, we must prepare the Sabbath,
by working diligently for 6 days so that we have completed all the work that
must be done. Once that is done, we have
the freedom to take the Sabbath with our family, without worrying about our
job.
It seems simple, and a little bit
naïve that we can actually do this, but before you try to talk yourself out of
taking Sabbath, answer this question first.
Have you ever, worked 6 days
straight, to make room for rest?
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