Sabbath

Not a Very Good Waiter

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Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Exodus 31:15 ESV

It is amazing how resting, which after a long hard work-week, you might think would be kind of desirable and natural. And yet to those Israelites as much as with us today it was such a struggle that God had to prescribe the death penalty, in order to get everyone’s attention about obeying this commandment. And you might also assume that since I am now in my early seventies and still struggling through Covid, that I would be smart enough to listen to my wife and rest. But no! The lawn needed mowing, the weather was perfect, and no one was around outside. What could it hurt? Stumbling back inside a while later, I learned what it could hurt and that was my body! God has not only designed us to rest, and to rest in Him, but He has also made it so there will be consequences when we fail to do so. Since rest is something, I am still trying to learn after 50 plus years as a Christian, I hope that this upcoming series on rest may be of benefit to others as well. Today was just a teaser, but we’ll begin in earnest on Monday (I have to rest tomorrow!). I am looking forward to hearing your comments, feedback or personal stories on how you are learning to rest.

Not a Very Good Waiter
I’m not a very good waiter
Doing nothing seems simply a waste
But our Father who loves to walk slowly
Does nothing in hurry or haste!

A Sabbath Day’s Flight

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I have always been delighted to watch birds in flight. The effortless way they spread their wings reminds me of the way God intends for us to rest in His grace. Just as birds are made for flight (Minus the Ostrich and his cousins) God intends for us to rise up by faith into the air and show off the inner beauty of Christ who lies hidden as long as we walk on the ground with our faith wings folded. And what speaks more clearly of grace than God’s Holy Sabbath? The Sabbath is a weekly reminder that on the morning when Adam and Eve rose from their first night’s sleep, God gave to them a day, and He blessed it, and called it Holy!

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. - Genesis 2:3 ESV  
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Mark 2:27 ESV

For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:10 ESV

The Sabbath Rest For Healing

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And a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Matthew 12:10

Call me old fashioned, but I hate to shop on Sundays! On the rare occasions when we do go out to a store for something vital, I am saddened to see that now it looks to be the busiest shopping day of the week. Of course, we weren’t any holier back in the day when almost everything was shut down on Sunday, but it gave us a taste of something that I believe the Lord meant for it to be. In this 21st century world of rushing about, 365 days a year, it is more important than ever to remember that what some of us still call, “The Lord’s Day”, remains a wonderful though overlooked blessing. There are a variety of opinions on the matter, but I believe that understanding how we can keep the Sabbath, begins by seeing how Jesus acted on that day. One thing we find over and over in the gospels is that He took special delight in choosing it for healing. This usually got Him in trouble with the Pharisees and in today’s verse, when they heatedly argued with Him about it, Jesus responded by saying –

“It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” Matthew 12:12.  

In other words, God didn’t mean for the day of rest to simply be a day for ceasing all activity. We see that for Jesus, the Sabbath was a day for miraculous restoration. At the finish of creation, God’s assessment of His work was,

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good…” Genesis 1:31 

But when we look around our world, even the rosiest of the rosiest views, is that not all is good any longer. In fact, there is incredible pain, suffering, sin and loss. The breath of life that God once breathed into Adam’s nostrils seems to have been replaced by an evil wind of warfare and hatred that is sweeping across our world. The good news is that Jesus came to give us the healing breath of life again. But for us to experience God’s Sabbath healing, we must learn to rest as Jesus did. After all, He brought more healing to a Samaritan woman’s heart and ultimately to her village when He rested by a well, than His disciples did while busily going into town to buy food. God has given us His special day, whether the world remembers that it is special or not. Now He waits to see if we will use it just for ourselves, or to share the living water of His healing with the people who are all around us who desperately need the rest that only God can give.

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