If you are used to working hard and putting food on your table by working hard, then it can be very difficult to learn to rest. I am not just talking about ancient Israel. I’m talking about American life now. Especially in cultures like the one I live in, Lancaster County. We are work-oriented. Generally-speaking, we can have a hard time resting, relaxing, and feeling okay about it. When our work day is done, in the evening, we’re often thinking what else we need to do around the house, or to try to make more money in a side hustle. We can feel guilty if we’re not using the time by some societal expectation of production and consumption.
That’s exactly what some of the Israelites do when God offers them the gift of rest. In the previous post, we looked at how God introduced the concept of sabbath to the newly free nation of Israel. In Exodus 17, verses 27–30, however, we learn that the idea of sabbath took some getting used to, especially for a formerly enslaved people:
“Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.’ So the people rested on the seventh day.”
In this sabbath rest, God says, “Stop. Trust in me.” He is desperate for the people of Israel to receive the good gift of rest that he wants to give them. He knows what they need and what will be good for them. It is for their best. Rest is a gift.
But the people don’t trust him enough to provide them. Their fear that they won’t have enough wins out. They don’t want to receive the gift of rest.
There in the wilderness desert, there is no Israelite alive who could remember rest like that. A whole day off. They had been enslaved in Egypt for so long that hard work, every day, is all they knew. What a wonderful gift that God gives them.
The gift of Sabbath is so important, God enshrines the gift as teaching in the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments chapter, we read about the Sabbath command in verses 8–11, “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.”
For the nation of Israel, the Sabbath was a day. A period of 24 hours. It was part of their covenant relationship with God. The Old Covenant.
You and I, as Christians, are not bound to the terms of that covenant, as we are under the New Covenant. That means we are not bound to abide by a 24 hour period of rest each week. A Christian can certainly choose to have that 24 hours of rest per week. It can even be on Sunday. But no Christian should attempt to make a new law suggesting that Sunday is the sabbath day for Christians. That is simply not a part of our new covenant that identifies us as Christians, as followers of Jesus.
The only reason most Christian churches meet for worship on Sundays is because that is the day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead. Eventually, this practice of Christians having worship services on Sundays became so prevalent, especially in countries that were majority Christian, that it became a day off work. Some people, interpreting the Bible incorrectly, declared that Sunday is the new sabbath, and tried to make new laws, like the Blue Laws (which we learned about in this post), to make it easier for people to go to church on Sunday and rest.
But there have always been people who needed to work on Sundays. Pastors. Worship leaders. Law enforcement, medical personnel, etc.
Instead of making blue laws, what Christians should have done, and what we still strive for today, is to implement the principle of sabbath in our lives regularly. Not a 24 hour period of rest each week, though that can be a very good thing if you are able to do that.
Instead, the principle of sabbath is radical trust in God. Walter Brueggemann calls it resistance. By practicing God’s principle of sabbath, we are resisting the pressures the world places on us to go, go, go, always doing something, multi-tasking, earning.
One of the things I love about my extended Kime family vacations to PA state parks is that they are often in cell phone dead zones. No cell service means we are not getting phone calls, alerts, text messages, emails, and we cannot be on social media. On those weeks, I turn my phone off, put it on shelf, and let it be. I give my phone a rest, and in turn I rest from my phone.
That is sabbath. A week of phone sabbath. A week of no longer being enslaved to the taskmaster that is the constant noise from our phones that says, “Pay attention to me!”
There are many other ways we can apply the principle of Sabbath. In the next post, we’ll talk about one of those ways Jesus introduced.
Engaging Scripture 