Sabbath

Monday, October 9, 2023

“Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.  You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.  On that day no one in your household may do any work.  This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys and other livestock, and any foreigners living among you.  All your male and female servants must rest as you do.  Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out with his strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.  Deuteronomy 5:12-15

The Ten Commandments are urban legends to many people, a series of trite, religious no-no’s, fraught with threats of what will happen to you if you trespass.  There used to be those Blue Laws, where businesses had to be closed, no selling on Sunday.  Those who chose to skip worship on Sundays were something of a pariah in the last century.  Many pastors would deliver blistering sermons on how heathens would pass-by the church on their way to heaven-knows-what kind of evil practices.  (In full-disclosure I did my share of a somewhat lower-temperature veiled-threat of those…a gentler kind of God will get you if you transgress against His Sabbath rule!).

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still have a very strong-commitment to worship attendance; I believe a Christian cannot grow without consistent Bible Study, worship, and devotional life.  I mostly call it The Surrendered Life.  However, I do believe many people mistake the Sabbath as being the rules of no-no’s, rather than the blessing of do this! 

The difference between the no-no and the this-do is in what God intended for His creation.  With Sabbath, the point is cycles and limitations.  A closer study of why God doesn’t want us to touch some things, and not do some things is that they are harmful to us.  Electricity is good when used properly; it is death when you grab a live wire for the thrill.  Sabbath for the human is a preventative measure against forfeiting a two-fold blessing.

1.    We were designed to rest periodically.  Everything in nature cycles.  Our bodies need rest in these cycles…time to kick-back, recharge, and enjoy.

2.    We need reminders because we are so prone to distraction.  A chief purpose in God’s commandment to keep the Sabbath holy is a reminder of how we need worship, so we will keep our perspective of what is important, right, pure, lovely, and wholesome.  Without those positive grace-reminders, we will degenerate from being children of God, and become wide-open to the enemy’s temptations.

For You Today 

Feeling a little weary?  Sabbath is waiting.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Title Image(s) courtesy of Russell Brownworth (own work…and feet)                   

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

A Day of REST

 

Monday, February 28, 2022

Then Moses called together the whole community of Israel and told them, “These are the instructions the Lord has commanded you to follow.  You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day must be a Sabbath day of complete rest, a holy day dedicated to the Lord.  Anyone who works on that day must be put to death.  You must not even light a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath.”  Exodus 35:1-3

When it comes to chilling-out, or relaxing, the whole idea of following the rules seems rather an oxymoron.  How do you alertly follow each detail when you’re busy escaping working at anything?  And how can you “rest” if you’re busy following the rules?  

My dog, Wellie understands being at rest; he is a world-class lazybones!  The little man could sleep through a tornado.

God chose the rhythm of cycles.  Part of that rhythm is one day out of seven dedicated exclusively to the Lord.  “Sabbath” is a Hebrew word meaning “rest”.  It is meant to be restorative in the same way vacation, or day off, has the purpose of regaining strength that has been expended in the everyday tasks of life.  That the Jewish community took Sabbath seriously can hardly be debated…being put to death for taking a Saturday morning shift at work doesn’t restore anything.

The question becomes:  If Sabbath is so important, and recognized as valuable for wellbeing, health, and wholeness, why do so many people ignore it? 

Perhaps my dog can teach us an important lesson of Sabbath-keeping.  Wellie’s interests are centered on sniffing and munching.  When we walk with him in a park, it is mostly waiting for him to finish sniffing every pole, tree, park bench, and square inch of anything else.  If sniffing to see what other dogs may have crossed the path is like reading the newspaper, Wellie’s brand of sniffing is more like doing research for a doctoral degree – he’s never done!  But it is his interest that drives him to sniff unendingly. 

The other half of Mr. Wellington’s life’s-work is food.  He has, as previously noted, a finely-tuned sense of smell.  Added to that gift is a sense of hearing worthy of a submarine’s sonar and radar, the difference being, a sub’s detection is for the danger of any enemy vessels, while Wellie’s nose and ears are more infallible than a King James Bible to detect a morsel of food…ANYWHERE!  He can pretend he doesn’t hear me as well as any other child who doesn't want to come in from playing yet, but he can hear the crinkle of a potato-chip bag being opened ten miles down the road. 

By comparison, an open Bible, praise songs, and prayer don’t hold the slightest bit of interest for my fur-child; food is what drives his attention.  He loves to rest, except when the possiblity of eating or keeping track of other dogs is presented.  But sometimes my dog is better at practicing Sabbath than I am, which is awkward for me; I always work on the Christian Sabbath day.  And here I am, about to encourage us all to use Sunday for that day of rest. 

I’m sure God never intended for Sabbath to be a burden.  Jesus even said Sabbath was made for man – not the other way around.  It is the blessing of rest our bodies, minds, and souls crave.

For You Today

If you’ve filled every moment available with stuff that crowds out the kind of rest which can happen in worship, prayer, and fellowship, has it really been Sabbath?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©