Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (Exodus 20: 8-11, NKJV).
Gracious Father, thank You for the Sabbath and the rest it provides for us. Help us to keep it according to Your will. This we ask in the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
I have often wondered what life would be like without the Sabbath. How do people live without that rest that God, the Creator considered so vital that He made it a part of the moral law given to the human race. Notice how all-inclusive the Sabbath is – everyone, children, hired help, even the beasts of burden are invited to this rest. It is a God-given right! Granted by the Creator Himself!
After all, it is God who made us, and He, more than anyone else, knows the needs of the human body. Notice where God placed the day of rest – at the end of the work week. In this, God was also showing His approval of a good six days of work. Then, when our task is done, the body is ready to take its rest. It is noteworthy that God did not only emphasize rest, He also justified work. Could it be that He saw the need of balance in the life of the individual? That too much of one and none, or not enough of the other, is not healthy for us.
For one thing, after a conscientious day of labor has come to its close, sleep comes naturally and “sweet.” Listen to these words from the wise man: The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep” (Ecclesiastes 5:12). Could it be that because the rich have no need to work , they do not experience the sweet rest of the laborer?
Be that as it is, God saw the need for labor to be followed by rest – even in a perfect world. How much more today, when human beings’ insatiable desire for “more” have people working themselves to death. Every time I come to the end of a week of hard labor I thank God, that of all the gifts He could have given humanity, He chose the gift of “time!” Not just quantitative but qualitative time as well. Twenty four hours for Jesus and me to become better acquainted; for us to share worship with the family of God, to look over the week and give Him thanks for the blessings I have enjoyed. Thank God for His gift! He also left instructions on when the Sabbath begins and when it ends: “. . . from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.” (Leviticus 23:32b).
If you have never experienced this kind of relationship with the Savior before, today is the best time to start “keeping the Sabbath holy” by spending time with the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2: 28)