Commandment #4- God-Given Rest
So That You Will Be Blessed
“Observe the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy. Work six days and do everything
you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath
to God, your God.” (Exodus
20:8-10a)
We live in a rushed, stressed,
and anxious world. Our lives are pushed and
pulled in every direction and show little sign of slowing down. While things seem to have increased in the
past few decades, this has been a universal problem throughout history. Is it any wonder that God told the Israelites
early on that they need to take a break from life’s active pace?
Someone said that we
are so addicted to speed that even our language
reflects this constant preoccupation. “So our language, in our day, is marked by phrases like time crunch, fast food, rush hour, frequent flyer, rapid transit.
We send packages by Federal Express, use a long-distance company called Sprint, pay our bills with Quicken, schedule our appointments with a Day Runner, diet with Slim Fast in swimming trunks made by Speedo.”
reflects this constant preoccupation. “So our language, in our day, is marked by phrases like time crunch, fast food, rush hour, frequent flyer, rapid transit.
We send packages by Federal Express, use a long-distance company called Sprint, pay our bills with Quicken, schedule our appointments with a Day Runner, diet with Slim Fast in swimming trunks made by Speedo.”
Our pocket calendars are
stuffed with appointments. Our meals eaten in the car. Evening after evening, we spend time away from
home. Our weekends are busier than weekdays. We have trouble sleeping and
trouble waking up. We are feeling less peaceful and feeling more stressed. In
the 1991, The Overworked American, economist Juliet Schor
reported that work hours and stress are up, and sleep and family time are down
for all classes of employed Americans. Wives working outside the home return to
find a “second shift” of housework awaiting them. Husbands add overtime or
second jobs to their schedules. Single parents stretch in so many directions
that they sometimes feel they can’t manage. Simultaneously, everyone is
bombarded by messages that urge them to spend more (and so, ultimately, work
more), to keep their homes cleaner (standards keep rising), and to improve
themselves as investors, parents, and athletes.
Supposedly to make all this possible, grocery stores stay open all night
long, and entertainment options are available around the clock.
We are a rushed
people indeed. But God’s message
rings true whether thousands of years ago or to our current age. He says, “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a
Sabbath to God, your God.” (Exodus
20:8-10a) To
"remember" or “observe” in
Hebrew means to "commemorate," much like we remember our wedding
anniversary by buying a gift, or we remember a child’s birthday by throwing a
party. The idea is time separated
with loved ones to honor God for all that He has done through worship and
restoration. This commemoration of the Sabbath is for the purpose of keeping
the Sabbath holy, that is, for it to be set apart to God. Here we learn that
God wants us to work, that work isn’t bad or evil. Since we bear God’s image,
our labor is a noble, godly part of our existence. God wants us to work, to
labor, to use our energies and our creativity to supply our needs. But on the
seventh day—-which is Saturday—-God commands Israel to stop working. In fact,
the word "Sabbath" comes from the word for "stop" or
"cease.”. The idea here is an interruption of the work being done the
other six days.
Significant figures
in history have certainly felt that keeping the Sabbath had great
significance. Voltaire said, "I
can never hope to destroy Christianity until I first destroy the Christian
Sabbath." Gladstone
said, "Tell me what the young men of England
are doing on Sunday, and I will tell what the future of England will be." We can very
easily fall into the trap of becoming indifferent or apathetic to the Sabbath,
if not careful. Making sure that we not
only rest but set aside time to honor God in a weekly manner will ultimately
make or break our spiritual growth.
In the movie,
Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell, the "Flying Scot" who was expected to
run in and win the 100-meter dash in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, refused
to run because the heats for the 100-meter dash were on Sunday afternoon. His
sister - they were children of missionaries to China , and they planned to return
there - didn't want him to run at all.
But he said to her, "I believe God made me for a purpose; he also
made me fast." And so he ran in and
won the 400-meter run later in the games.
Liddell might be accused simply of living by a rigid set of rules and
laws because he would not run on the Sabbath, but more than that he had a
relationship with the living Christ. In Hm he had discovered a purpose for his
life, as the film suggests, for at the end of the movie a postscript told how
he went to China as a missionary and died there at the end of World War II, and
"All Scotland mourned for him." I’m not here to argue whether some
occupation might require attention on Sunday.
Some of the great sports heroes of our day would be out of work with
games on Sunday and many have jobs that can occasionally pull us. But we need to mention we need to honor God
with a day or possibly increments as well to strengthen our spiritual life.
In Deuteronomy 5:12-15
The weekly observance
of the Sabbath was the foundation, where they stopped working and spent time
worshipping God together one day a week. It moved beyond stopping working
it moves to starting Worship . Both of these are true in our day…we need to
stop work and we need to start worshipping.
While it changed to Sunday for Christians due to Resurrection Sunday, a
day of honor remains important.
So this week, take
time to “remember.” Pascal wrote,
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
However, just as true, the “unexamined faith is not worth
delaying.” David wrote in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” Take time to rest…and watch how your life
will be blessed.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) What has been your Sabbath
pattern?
2) How can it make a difference
in your spiritual, emotional, relational and emotional well-being?
Consider reading the Word today:
Copyright 2014- Terry Risser
No comments:
Post a Comment