THE BLESSING OF THE SABBATH REST
Exodus 20 and Luke 6
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
The practice of a day of rest, holy and blessed, came from God himself but was not instituted until the law was given to Moses and the Israelites.
Why did God institute it as a practice to be observed by his people?
In the command given as part of the 10 Commandments, God linked it to his rest at the end of Creation. When we follow the narrative of Creation, it would not be wrong to understand that God also considered the rest to be “good” as well since he blessed it and made it holy. In other words, the work is good and the rest is also good.
Over time, the Jews have focused on the “not working” aspect of the Sabbath and treated the command as a religious duty; in other words, for God’s sake. Failure to do so would incur the wrath of God and so they focused on detailed definitions of what would be construed as “work”.
However, the goodness of work and the goodness of rest, both seen in the Creation narrative before the Fall, should be understood as activities for the good of man rather than to rein in the evil of man, as Jesus explained in the Mark version of the narrative we considered in Luke, “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).
In the rush to distance ourselves from the Jews and Pharisees, Christians might have missed God’s intention for the Sabbath. It is not meant to enslave but to bless. Resting from work refreshes and renews our mind and body. Making it holy, meaning setting it apart for spiritual concerns, refreshes and renews our spirit. We impoverish ourselves when we set aside God’s command to us to be mindful of the Sabbath and keep it holy.
There is much we can do when we give ourselves one day a week to say yes to. Catching up with friends, visiting the sick and the prisoners, volunteering for good causes, spending time with children and family and ageing parents and relatives, and with the Father of us all—in this day and age when the world takes as much out of us as possible and there is little time for the “unnecessary”, God commands us to set aside such a time because it is truly “chicken soup” for the soul.
The practice of freeing up one whole day, not to sleep and vegetate but to do the things that will refresh us mentally, physically and spiritually is a wonderful gift from God. On top of that this is a day that the Lord blesses. Would we not wholeheartedly embrace it?
“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)