Never Forsaken: God's Gift of Rest

 

The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. Exodus 31:16

 God has done a beautiful thing for us throughout history, He has led by example. He has done things that He did not need to do simply so that we would have an example to follow because we would need to do them. Today we look at one of these examples in the Sabbath.

 Originally, in Genesis when we read about God creating the world, God demonstrated for us taking a rest on the seventh day. Was He tired? Had He hit His limit and needed a break? No. God doesn’t get tired, but He knew we would. He knew that if left to our own devices, we would run ourselves into the ground. In addition, He knew that when we got to working the ground and doing “jobs,” that we would get the mistaken impression that we were providing for ourselves. Even the Israelites who were being provided with their daily bread through manna in the wilderness might lose track of it being God who was providing for them. So, each week, He wanted them to take a break from their work and trust that God would provide for them on that day. Through the manna specifically, God provided in advance on the sixth day enough for them to eat for two days, so they would not have to perform the work of gathering it on the Sabbath.

 That said, it seems like there was still a great deal of work that happened on the Sabbath. You’d better bet there were a lot of little Israelites running around that needed looked after! Parents couldn’t just let them run wild and unsupervised one day a week. And then there was the “work” of getting up and dressed and fed. Sure the food had been prepared the day before, but it still had to be put out for everyone and cleaned up after. I didn’t see anything in what God said prohibiting these things, but I can empathize with why the Israelite leaders saw fit to “add to” God’s Law with some specific instructions. I wrote last fall when we were looking at Genesis about some of the Sabbath Laws created by the Jews. They ended up with an extensive, incredibly specific list with thirty-nine different categories and innumerable specific laws beneath them. I don’t think this is what God intended for us as Jesus said that, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27). Jesus didn’t adhere, nor did He caution His disciples to adhere, to the specific, literal laws of the religious leaders. But Jesus did honor the Sabbath in its original intention.

 So, how do I honor the Sabbath without getting caught up in technicalities and making it more of a burden than a blessing? I think the important thing is to honor it in my heart. To recognize that one day a week needs to be set aside to rest from the “work” that God has given me. Today that is much easier than when my work was raising young children, so there’s that. I think each person needs to prayerfully decide for themselves what it looks like to set aside their work. I have designated options trading as my work in this season, and so one day a week I don’t open my spreadsheets or check my charts or make my trading plans. I do make food for my family. I do take care of myself. I don’t have any individual rules for how much activity I do or don’t do. But I try to honor God in this day. I either attend church, or participate in another spiritual learning activity as my location/day allows. I spend time in prayer and worship.

Here’s the Thing: Is it perfect? Am I doing exactly what I should? Probably not, but as I wrote recently, I also believe that God sees my heart and knows that I am trying. I also believe that if there is a specific aspect of this, or any other direction He gives in the Bible, that He wants me to follow differently, He will make it clear.