— by David D. Herring
Growing up, and until recently, I saw no point in the fourth commandment. All nine of the other commandments made sense to me, but I didn’t get this business about doing no work on every seventh day. It seemed like a throw-in to me, or worse: like the Israelites were sentenced to endure a weekly “time out” period. What was the point?
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner dwelling in your town. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
God rested on the seventh day and, because He did, so should we? To me, this commandment didn’t rise to the same level of seriousness as the others and so habitually breaking it seemed like no big deal. What if someone has a really good work ethic, or is an overachiever, or just enjoys working? What if someone really needs to work because they’re short on cash? All of these seemed like fine excuses to me, so I reckoned the fourth commandment was “safe to ignore” and pretty much forgot about it.
The Sabbath day is important. It is one of my appointed times.
God reminded Moses to observe the Sabbath on multiple occasions. Jesus Himself observed the Sabbath. In fact, there are 73 verses about it in The Bible. So why would I disregard this commandment? If God says it’s important then why didn’t I believe Him? God had called my attention to the fact that I didn’t completely trust Him. This revelation came as a surprise to me at first but, upon reflection, I had to admit it was true: I didn’t completely trust Him. I wanted to trust God completely, but I didn’t. If I did, I wouldn’t question His Word, I would rely upon His wisdom, and I would obey His instructions. Why didn’t I? How could I overcome my distrust?
The Sabbath seemed like a good place to start. So I looked into it… The Hebrew word for sabbath is shabbat, which means “ceasing,” “stopping,” or “a time of rest.” To the Israelites, the Sabbath day was a moedim, or “God’s appointed time.” In other words, the Creator of the Universe and Author of Life made appointments with His chosen people. How cool is that?? God wants to spend close, intimate, quality time with you and me!
When reading the stories in the Old Testament, we tend to focus on the characters and the amazing (or stupid) things they did, or the things that happened to them. We routinely ignore, or gloss over, God’s moedim (appointed times). To do so, I learned, is to miss out on much of the key context and deeper meaning of the greatest events recorded in The Bible. Because they were God’s moedim, He should have had the undivided attention of His people so that they wouldn’t miss out on the great thing He would do at that appointed time, in the fullness of time. Our lives are noisy, distracted places — way more so than the Israelites’ lives 3,000 years ago. We will miss out on the great things God is doing around us and in our lives if we always only focus on the material world.
Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)
The moedim were an integral part of Israel’s history and culture, ritually observed for almost 1,500 years before Jesus’ birth. They were also symbolic representations — prophecies and parables about the coming Messiah, what He would do, and what His deeds would mean in the lives of those who follow Him, spiritually speaking.1,2 In literary terms, you might say, the Author of Life used the moedim to foreshadow how His story would unfold and to instruct people on how they should live accordingly. His appointed times provided a fractal image of His purpose and His plan — a way of showing that went beyond telling. The Sabbath represents God’s ultimate plans for our rest, redemption, and relationship.2
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
The Sabbath day is a weekly reminder that God wants to be in a relationship with us. Not because He needs us but because He loves us and He knows we need Him. Specifically, the Sabbath is a recurring opportunity for us to turn our attention away from the trials and tribulations of the material world and to focus on Him. It is a time of rest and meditation; a time of reflection and prayer; a time to bask in His supernatural love and peace; a time to speak to the Lord and, most importantly, to listen to Him.
Listen and obey my voice, and I will be your God and you will be my people: walk in all the ways that I have instructed you that it may be well with you. (Jeremiah 7:23)
God speaks to us often; He speaks to all of us. For those who don’t hear His voice, the Sabbath is a time to learn to listen. The fourth commandment isn’t arbitrary nor is it a form of punishment. Quite the opposite: it’s an opportunity for us to spend quality time with our Heavenly Father; to have our spirits refreshed and revitalized; to renew and reinforce our sense of purpose, focus, and self-discipline; to glorify, and be glorified by, Him.
The Sabbath day symbolizes the fulfillment of God’s promise that those who believe in Jesus will live eternally with Him.1 On the sixth day His work in creation was finished. So He rested on the seventh day. When Jesus died on the cross, His mission of redemption was finished. He had become our ultimate means of rest. Consider the parallels between these two events, each on a similar scale to the other in their magnitude of importance, and each a foreshadow of what is still yet to come.1,2
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:2) “Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” The wine vinegar that Jesus drank moments before He died represented the sins of mankind — foul and bitter tasting. But He drank it into Himself and took it to the grave.
Jesus’ words were deliberate. He used the word “finished” to both signify the finality of what He had accomplished and to echo the word used in Genesis in reference to God’s completion of creation. Jesus knew well the Old Testament scriptures; better than anyone.
I came not to abolish the laws or the prophets but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17)
How ironic, almost comical, that the Pharisees tried to use scriptures to trap Jesus in logical dilemmas. Jesus rebuked them, saying: “...the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (John 5:37-40)
The Sabbath is a little time of rest that is symbolic of our eternal time of rest in Jesus. He came to us offering love, wisdom, and peace, but we must go to Him to receive these gifts. This is how the relationship works. He cannot force these gifts upon us; we always keep our free will (another gift He gave us). But Jesus made it clear that the moedim in the Old Testament scriptures referred to Him — especially the fourth commandment. “...[Jesus] said to [the Pharisees], ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’” (Mark 2:27-28)
It’s awesome and amazing to me to think that God wove a weekly reminder into the lives of His chosen people that He loves us, He wants us to be with Him, and He provided a way for this to happen. Though the details of our lives are still playing out, those who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior can rest assured in their ultimate purpose and destination. We need only repent of our sins and profess our belief in and acceptance of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Nothing else we do can earn our way into heaven. Jesus alone could do that for us, and He did it. It is finished. We need only to accept it.
Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” When Jesus said this, He used the Hebrew word for rest: shabbat.
Will you sabbath with me? Consider spending time with Me in the early morning hours of peace and quiet just after you wake up; or perhaps in those late night hours of stillness just before you go to sleep; or perhaps in your mid-day meditations. If you will sabbath with Me, I will show you what it means to truly rest in peace.
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1 Chumney, Edward (1998): The Seven Festivals of the Messiah. 2nd ed. Treasure House Books, Inc. (Available online at http://www.hebroots.com/sevenfestivals.htm)
2 Nadler, Sam (2011): Feasts of the Bible. Rose Publishing, Inc. (Available online at http://www.feastsofthebible.com/)
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Discussion Questions:
1. How would you feel if someone you love and care about stopped talking to you, and stopped spending time with you? How do you think Jesus feels when we ignore Him?
2. Why do you think God instructed Moses and the Israelites to observe and honor His moedim? What was the point of having “appointed times”?
3. Are you willing to make time to sabbath with Jesus, whether for just a few minutes a day or once per week (however you feel led)?
6 comments:
David, I LOVE this article! Learning about the Sabbath day was a revelation to me too! Mike & I have been keeping it ever since. We feel blessed to have realized the truths that you’ve brought out in this blog so articulately. Did you know that the Word calls the Sabbath a “sign” between us and Yahweh? (Exodus 31:13) Sort of like an engagement ring is a sign to the world that you belong to another; the Sabbath Day shows the world that you belong to the Heavenly Father.
I always wonder why this seems so hard for others to grasp, but I believe it’s partially because people are wrongly taught that the “10 commandments & the law are done away with.” When people respond to me that we are “no longer under the law,” I now ask them, “Which of the 10 commandments do you feel free to break?” Interesting, eh?
I love ALL of your articles; keep 'em coming!
Too many Christians are saved by grace and then live by the law. We need to learn to call the law fulfilled and live our lives by the Spirit of God and in the Grace of Jesus Christ. God's Spirit will not violate His own Law. The Law tells us not to murder that man that just did us wrong. Too many of us are content, even proud to live by that measure. The Spirit and Grace of Jesus allow us to see that man through God's eyes and lead us to our part in loving that man to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Law tells us not to commit adultery. The Spirit and Grace of Jesus tells us how to respect and love our particular spouse in such a way as to deepen their relationship with us and their walk with the Lord. The Law tells us to keep the Sabbath. The Spirit and Grace of Jesus teaches us how to release working for righteousness and simple obedience to the law and live by grace and faith and become the Children of the Most High God resting in Him and waiting on Him to fulfill His promises.
We need to be very clear that the strength of sin is the Law. And that we would not have known what sin was except for the law.
Thank you, Melissa!
And very well said, Helen!
These two perspectives may at first seem to differ, but I think not. The Bible teaches us that God is eternal and does not change. He gave us the law and the festivals to instruct in the ways that are pleasing to Him, and ways that are displeasing. I see Melissa's point that even as she walks with Jesus under grace, all the more she wants to please our Heavenly Father by observing His laws. Is this *her* work of service to Him and thus a potential pitfall; or is this His spirit of grace and truth in her responding to His call?
I see Helen's point that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath -- He has authority over the law and He has fulfilled it. When we truly are walking with Him, He is in us and we are in Him. He will not be untrue or unfaithful, most especially to Himself. The law will be fulfilled in us, even as He has fulfilled it on the cross.
I will expound a bit more on that last point in a future blog. Meanwhile, I love dialog like this. :-) Keep the comments coming! God bless you both!
Ha! How great. I've decided to spend tomorrow in sabbath with this blog after church and maybe even share 2 cents' worth here and there in the comments section. This a marvelous opportunity, and platform, for keeping some sabbath.
It seems easy to agree on the theoretical importance of keeping this commandment, and difficult to put the agreed upon theory into practice...especially in light of the good questions you yourself brought up--namely, there are many in economic situations that require they work on Sunday. Is earning money really the sin? If someone has been out of work and praying for work to provide for the family, and then they feel overjoyed to be offered work, should they not take it if it requires their attendance on Sundays? Would you call the offer of work a gift from God, or the opportunity to turn it down a test from God? What would happen if all healthcare professionals refused to work on Sundays? Perhaps we're moving into the spirit vs. letter of the law/word with this sort of argument? Maybe healthcare professionals could decide on another day to keep their own personal sabbath? Doesn't God know their hearts? How much are you taking as literal truth and how much are you taking as subjectively interpretable meaning from the Bible's parables translated and relayed, cut up and re-knit, through the thousands of years?
I thought this entry was such a beautiful reminder to stay tuned to my relationship with Mother God, that I determined to spend yesterday enjoying this blog (after church) and to be nourished by it and to get involved with it. The huge snow gave me our first obstacle. I promised the children that if we could make it down the hill in our car and to church (because I figure I don't have to support why I would choose to go to church as a priority here, though the children believed sledding was first priority) I would FOR SURE take them sledding right after. The forecast called for rain by late morning, so there was a real threat of having no snow to sled on. And I aim to keep my promises to my children. So we churched--an incredibly beautiful, yet underattended-due-to-snow sermon by Lauren Winner ( https://www.google.com/search?q=Lauren+Winner&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a ) about being "clothed" in Jesus, and it was winsomely titled "Jesus as Cardigan Sweater." Hallelujah, the snow lasted. I felt great about making my commitment to attend church, and about keeping my promise to go sledding. I successfully opened to the glory of God during both activities. And then, as happens, life began crowding in. It would take too long to list everything (grocery, meal prep, shepherding through homework, violin---do these count as "work" ?? These things feel more like work than sitting down to do the work that earns my paycheck. So which of these would an interpreter of the Bible count as sinning against the 4th commandment? All of them, or just money earning?), but when I sat down to keep my promise to myself, God, and the author of this blog, to keep sabbath with it, enjoy it, get involved with it, I fell asleep, despite a mounting anxiety beforehand arising over the dread of falling asleep. Why should I wake up with a sense of failure? Whom did I fail? Oh right...the author of this blog. Awake at 3:30, I calmed myself by telling myself God knows my heart. I am loved. Maybe God laughs at me just about all the time? I sure hope it's that instead of crying.
Hey Pork N Peas,
Thank you for sharing that sweet slice of your life as well as your thoughtful observations and questions. I loved your post.
Your promise to your children — and then the love, warmth, and enjoyment you felt when you made good on that promise — is an image of our Mother God’s promise and how She feels when She fulfills it. (Yes, our Creator made both man and woman in God’s image and so God is in both and both are in God. We, who believe, are made one in Jesus.) Specifically, your promise and desire to keep it for your children is a fractal image of God’s promise and desire to keep it. As great as the warm fuzzy of fulfillment that followed your kept promise is, how much greater are those things in God and the fulfillment we have in Her?
Suppose you had kept your promise to take your kids sledding but they couldn’t be bothered to put down their gameboys or cell phones, and pretty much ignored you the whole time? In that scenario, you would have sledded and had a great time and they would have missed the point of the trip and the blessing that came along with it. (I’m glad that didn’t happen, btw.) This is the humiliating thing that we habitually do to God: we get busy and declare that our business is good while studiously ignoring Mother God and what She says is good.
It’s true, inevitably, life crowds in. Whose life? Whose life are we jamming in and whose life are we boxing out? Who is the Author of Life and Who is the pathway to eternal life? These are choices we all must make; or not make, which is also a choice. Choices come with consequences.
I hope you didn’t miss the point of my original article: “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) If you ever feel anxiety, dread, or a sense of failure, then I encourage you to prayerfully give those feelings over to God as a “living sacrifice” the next time you Sabbath with Her. Ask God to reveal to you the origins of those feelings; and to reveal Her calling for you. Listen carefully and listen for as long as it takes to receive God’s answer. (It has taken me a LONG time to learn to listen; and I’m only now just beginning to learn how.)
It doesn’t fail me if you choose not to Sabbath. I wouldn’t carry that yoke even if I could. Nor will you receive any judgment from me. It is solely between you and God. Specifically, the Sabbath is a blessing from God. If there was any sin involved then it lies in whatever became a stumbling block in your relationship with Her.
Ironically, it is possible to focus so much on the ritual and routine of keeping the Sabbath that we lose sight of its purpose. In that case, the routine becomes a stumbling block, a form of persecution that we perpetuate upon ourselves and/or others (as did the Pharisees). If you feel persecution then surrender it too to God. Ask Her when and where is a good time to meet. Maybe it’s that morning quiet time over a cup of coffee before the kids wake up. Maybe it’s a mid-day meditation. Maybe it’s a late nighter. Whenever… come prepared to give God a “living sacrifice” of your undivided attention and your unconditional surrender.
God knows the best hill where the sledding can’t be beat. When you go to meet Her there, leave your gameboy at home and get ready for excitement!
P.S. Last one down is a hard-boiled egg!
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