Sabbath

"Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, 'This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.' So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. Moses said, 'Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.'" -Exodus 16.22-26

Israel is given another trust exercise. On the sixth day gather enough manna for two days, because the seventh day is a sabbath, a day of rest. They go out to gather and trust that God will preserve it and not have worms and the foul smell that happens every other day. There is trust that it will come again on the first day of the next week. And we see the beginning of an important lesson, man needs to rest.

For four hundred and thirty years they had been worked every day of the week, slaves don't get a day off. But now God is teaching them that each week needs a day to be set aside for rest and refreshment. There is a lot that can be said on this subject, but one of the first lessons with preaching/teaching is "Don't put everything you know into a single sermon/lesson." The same is true of blogging. There will be much more of this to come. Here we find God teaching His people about how He intended life to be lived, with a day of rest.

Men, it is crucial that we take a day and rest. It is crucial to our sanity and survival that we have one day set aside where we don't focus on the things we have to do every other day of the week. We need one day to set aside our job, and the chores we need to take care of, and focus on rejuvenating our bodies, minds, and souls. What does a sabbath look like? More on that when we get to Jesus and the New Testament.

I know what it's like to be busy. I know what it's like to want to squeeze as much work as you can into the one free day you have, because it's the only time you have to get it done, but this is something we need to avoid. We need to learn to rest and relax. We need to learn how to let things go, and just unwind for a while. We weren't made to run seven days a week, God created the sabbath so we don't have to.

We have an amazing gift in the sabbath day, don't forget to observe it.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor