Yeshua Explored
26th June 2023
Rest
Do we need a day of rest?
“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 residing in your towns. 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)
This has become …
Work, rest and play. You have freedom to choose what works for you, but you also have a responsibility for your family and your sense of self-worth to be a good citizen and help support the economy. No day is extra special and no-one has the right to impose their ancient traditions on your daily life.
Earlier, I wrote the following: It’s the function of Sabbath that we must keep returning to, even if we remove the religious trappings. It is a day of rest. We need rest. We need time to take a breath, away from the rat-race, to enjoy friends and family. It’s our society that sees us as economic units rather than human beings, as consumers rather than people. God saw all this coming, He reminds us continually through His eternal Word of the importance of rest, specifically a day of rest, preferably on the assigned day, the Saturday Sabbath but, if that isn’t possible, any day is better than no day!
So Sabbath is generally a good thing because we are both following a direct command from God that He hasn’t rescinded and enriching our family life through earmarking a day for rest and fellowship with man and God. Two thousand years of dodgy Christian history, misunderstanding and error have determined that the issue of the Sabbath is always going to be controversial and potentially divisive, particularly for Christians. One should always look beyond the façade and form and consider the function behind any situation. The volume of negativity thrown at the Sabbath indicates that surely it is a battleground with every possibility that most of the artillery thrown at it derives from an infernal abode, if you get my meaning.
How can Christians embrace this without being labelled as heretic, cultist or Judaiser by “traditional” Christians?
So let’s say we are going to dip our toe in the water, just to get a flavour of what we may be missing. If there are blessings involved in obeying one of God’s commands, then we should at least give it a go, there is really nothing to lose. Taking the ‘minimum configuration’, once we have set aside some time to do so (not necessarily a Saturday), there are two aspects to Sabbath, what we say and what we do, the liturgy and the practice. In all of this we must have our eyes on the function of the Sabbath, finding rest in each other and in the Lord, rather than getting bogged down in calendars, ritual or even accepted practices. Let’s imagine that all we have as a guide is the Scriptures. Here are the relevant passages:
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. (Genesis 2:2-3)
This tells us that the Sabbath is a God-initiated enterprise. In fact, He was the first to keep it!
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 residing in your towns. (Exodus 20:8-10)
Here the fourth commandment reminds us that the purpose of the Sabbath for us, is as a day of rest.
Then he said to them, “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 (Hebrews 4:9-11)
When we read the context of this passage, Jesus is telling us that we should not be bound by man-made traditions on how we keep the Sabbath.
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)
You act in the way you have personally been led. This means not judging others for not doing likewise and not being under judgement from those who disagree with you.
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. (Romans 14:5-6)
As long as you and God are on the same page!
So, armed with the Scriptural foundation, we are reminded that God both indulged Himself and asks us to consider this day as a day of rest, that we should not be condemned by either tradition or other people, as long as we are following God’s specific leading, understanding that this may not be the leading for others.
So, to begin … next week.
This is an extract from the book, Sinner’s Charter: Are the ten commandments for today?, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/the-sinners-charter-260-p.asp
