Sabbath Commanded

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy." -Exodus 20.8-11

Commandment four is God telling them something they have already heard. Back when the manna was being given God told them to gather enough on day six for two days. He told them to prepare whatever needed to be done the night before because the seventh day was to be a sabbath day of rest. Here, as it is commanded, not suggested, that the seventh day is to be a day of rest. And here there is some explanation.

God created everything in six days and on the seventh He rested. If God rests after creating the universe, man should rest too. There are six days to get done what we need. There are six days to do our job in, and six days to work around the house and do yard work. But on the seventh day, we need to rest.

Men, do you have a sabbath? It doesn't have to be Sunday, back when I was in professional ministry I had to work on Sundays, and so I took Friday as my sabbath. I would spend the day resting, maybe take a long walk with my dog. I'd get alone and just try to enjoy nature, something that refreshes me.

The sabbath doesn't mean we sit around and do nothing, that often ends up leaving us more drained. Instead we need to rest, we need to do something that is refreshing. It needs to include a time of worship, set aside to fully focus on God more than every other day. And on it, we need to let others rest as well, they also need a sabbath. We need to make sure our families have time to rest, and to worship together.

The Sabbath is not a suggestion, but a commandment from God. We are to remember it, to fiercely guard it, and keep it holy.

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

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor

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