Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy:
Exodus 20:8
Sabbath? So what?
We were making plans for Sunday shopping after church, but then we missed church. Some Sundays we hurry out of time-extended gatherings at our church to join the crowds in local restaurants. This week we had no Sabbath and no rest.
As Christians we were raised to know that actually Saturday is the Sabbath – שַׁבָּת – shabbath, the seventh day of the week; however Christians call Sunday, our ‘day of rest.’ Yet when was the last time you felt like you had ‘a day of rest?’
So what’s this “rest day” all about?
And what does the Sabbath have to do with God?
After all, when we attended church last week for more than three hours, it seemed alright to slip out early (before the music and worship mercifully concluded).
Lot’s of rules, but little holiness
You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.
You must not do any work —
Exodus 20:10
—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates.
So who’s working?
We are shopping… and we have to eat. It’s all those kitchen and superstore slaves who are working, not us.
Isn’t a day off a sort of ‘Sabbath?’
The Bible seems to have a lot of old rules that don’t apply to Sunday.
Rest from Above
“Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. – Exodus 31:13
Imagine anyone, even devout Christians and most Jews, calling for capital punishment for someone profaning the Sabbath. Yet the Lord established this holiness of routine for a set-aside culture to make us different.
שָׁבַת shabath: Rest, when no one else rests; worship, when no one else acknowledges the LORD.
Holiness and rest require separation. These are more than a command, but a gift from the Lord to set us apart from the world.
“Observe the Sabbath because it is holy to you…
LORD, who is like you among the gods?
Exodus 15:11 CSB
Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
revered with praises, performing wonders?
The One True God is unlike any other god!
He is not like the angels nor is the LORD like a man. We were created in His Image from the dust of the earth and the Lord breathed spirit into our lowly being. GOD is above all, separated by the glory of His holiness, and He commands us to rest, making the Sabbath holy.
An archaic common understanding was that the LORD is like a King, therefore man is a common subject of this heavenly King or Kings. Mankind is separated from the Eternal Highest by His own holiness.
We are commoners, yet made in His Image.
Chaos reigns in the life of man, while in the creation of God righteousness will reign, providing rest in our purpose and meaning.
Rest requires our holy separation from the chaotic fallen daily drudgery of this selfish failing flesh.
Jesus and Sabbath Controversies
Mark 2:
23 On the Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to make their way, picking some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was in need and hungry — 26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the Presence —which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests —and also gave some to his companions?”
27 Then he told them,
Mark 2:27
“The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
A Sabbath for mankind
Dear sojourner through this difficult life,
Are you not famished for the bread of heaven?
Jesus journeyed from town to town with good news for all and as he does so, even on the Sabbath, the Lord and His disciples snack on the grain of the fields.
(You eat on the Sabbath, right?) It is no sin, according to Jesus.
In fact, the Lord refers to a time when David, anointed King of Israel, fled Saul and was fed by a priest, who replaced the Bread of the Presence set aside for worship with warm bread.
“The Sabbath was made for man,” Jesus assures us; but rest a little.
It is the Lord’s will that we separate this day of rest from our week, dedicating our Sabbath-rest to Him.
Lord of the Sabbath
Jesus also assures us that “the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
In another place in scripture Jesus refers to Himself as the manna – the bread of heaven. Jesus IS the bread and wine, the body and blood Present on the altar of Sacrifice. He IS the manna of life sent down from heaven, that we might have eternal life.
The Son of God IS the Son of Man, He who commanded us to rest on the Sabbath. He IS Lord of the Sabbath and the rest of your week.
Will you set aside a time of holiness to worship the Lord?
Consider the Lord of שָׁבַת [the Sabbath] this Sabbath. Set aside a time of rest.
To be continued...
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