Sabbath

What is the Sabbath?

I was sitting in church yesterday reading Exodus 20; one of three passages I have to memorize for my cell assignment. Yes! We memorize Scriptures as assignments!

Exodus 20 lists the Ten Commandments, and commandment number 4 is the Sabbath:

"8Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 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 manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 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." .

I felt God wanting me to stop and ponder regarding the Sabbath. A few questions started to jump out at me.

Why did God call the Sabbath holy?

Why did He use himself as the example? (verse 11)

What is the principle of the Sabbath that we are supposed to understand?

These questions are especially relevant to me as I have been feeling really tired lately, from working six days a week, most days 7 am to 12 am. And when the weekend comes, I wonder how I should rest. Rather, how does God want me to rest? What is true rest? What is a holy rest?

I continued to think about these things but couldn't get very far. But it was enough to make me rest that day (Saturday) and not think about work. That was why the next day, I was delighted to hear it being taught by E Chan in his IDMC talks. Here are some insights:

Why did God call the Sabbath holy?

The word 'holiness' meant literally to 'cut'. It means to 'separate'. To be set apart. To be different, and unique.

When the Bible says. 'The Lord our God is ONE GOD, it means 'One', not as a numerical description, but as in being 'unique' and 'different'. In other words, God wants the Sabbath, a day of rest to be unique day, and set apart. It is not just another day, but a special day. What makes it special? Why is it so special?

It is special because on that day, we do not WORK. In other words, we are to set apart this day NOT to work. And it is special because every other day in the week, we WORK. Our whole life is SO DEFINED by work.

This is given to us in Exodus 20.
"On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates."

When we get up in the morning six days a week, we get dressed and go to work. Day in, day out. Every day is a work day, until the Sabbath, and then we wake up and it is not just another work day.

It is a different day!

A rest day instead of a work day.

God knows we are so saturated and immersed in our work that He calls us to set apart one day just to rest, and he calls it the Sabbath and declares it a special day...not just another work day. He wants to know that it is a different day!

Our first response to the Sabbath should therefore be...this is not just another work day.

Our second response is then to dedicate the whole day to Him, and to seek Him through times of reflection and intimacy...on the Sabbath Day.

In other words, keep it holy by not working.

But this is not simple, rather, it is not as simple as it sounds.

Because the underlying principle of Sabbath relates not just to Sunday, the 7th Day, but to the other six days as well.

The other six days are for work. And we are to work as hard as we can in order to finish the work God calls us to do. In other words, without working, the Sabbath, in a sense, has no meaning as the Sabbath can only really be understood in the context of the other six days and not on its own. People who strive to understand what to do on the Sabbath will fail to do so as they need to understand it in the bigger picture of the entire week - both the six days and the seventh day.

What are we supposed to understand exactly with regards to other six days? Again, in Exodus 20, God gave the answer:

"11 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."

Why did the Lord rest on the seventh day? And why did He use himself as the example?

Did God rest because He was tired? No! God grows neither tired nor weary. Isaiah 40 tells us that.

Did God rest because he simply want to set an example...work Monday to Saturday, then Sunday go to church, and then carried on his work on Monday? Again, I just don't think that is correct.

So why did God rest? In Genesis 1-2, the answer is given to us. God rested on the seventh day because He finished what He wanted to do.

What we are supposed to understand is that in these six days, we are to FINISH our work so we can REST.

You see, you and I would never truly rest unless we have finished what we have supposed to do.

And the reason why God used Himself as an example to teach us about the Sabbath was to tell us that just as He rested after finishing His work on the seventh day, we can also trust Him to let us rest after finishing our work on the seventh day.

when we understand this, we soon begin to realise the Sabbath is not the only day that we have to dedicate to the Lord...but also the other six days of our work. By dedicating the entire week to Him, we can trust Him to help us finish our work so that we can rest on the seventh day.

But...what if I have so much work I cannot finish it by the sixth day? Trust that the Lord knows! And that what He has enabled you to achieve in six days is sufficient.

It means trusting Him that we will finish what we need to finish. It also means trusting Him to handle any interruptions or delays in our work schedule...because He is in control.

The Sabbath is all about a matter of trust...not simply a matter of rest.

Understanding this gives me a sense of perspective and assurance even in midweek, where my work seems to be never ending. I feel reassured because I know He is watching over my working week, to ensure I finish what I need to before the seventh day.

There is a sense of direction. There is a beginning and an end. It is not just an endless list of tasks that needs to be completed, with another ten lists waiting once this list is finished.

Understanding this allows us to rest once the Sabbath arrives. It also prevents the harmful effects of chronic stress and unrest that comes from the feeling 'that work can never be done', while always wishing we are somewhere else doing something else.

It takes away the inability to slow down and enjoy the simpler things in life. More importantly, it allows us to experience the sense of accomplishment from a job well done...which is so important in nourishing our souls.

In order to experience this, we need to trust Him. Not just for Sunday, but also for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Not just for Sunday 11 am to 1 pm (church time), but for 8-6 pm every work day (or in my case, 7 to 12 am).

The Sabbath is all about a matter of trust...not simply a matter of rest.

This is the Sabbath principle.

In Leviticus 25, God allows us to see this principle at work, by showing us how He will MAKE SURE we can rest on the Sabbath:

"1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards."

Typically, we will then ask the question God gave in verse 20:

"20 You may ask, "What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?" 21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. 22 While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in."

In other words, God want us to trust Him that He will ensure we finish what we need to finish by the time the Sabbath comes, so that we can rest!

This trust is reflected in many ways that are real to us:

"I have so much work! How can I sacrifice the time and go to church?"

"I have so much work! How can I NOT do any work on a Sunday?"

In Taiwan, I am loaded with so many papers to write. The only time I can write it is at the weekend. But church time stretches from 530 pm to 10 pm on a Saturday (my Sabbath day). How can I affod to go while my work is piling up?

Trust God...that by the time Saturday comes, He has made sure I have finished enough work to be able to rest and set apart the day for Him.

The Sabbath is all about a matter of trust...not simply a matter of rest.

Understanding this Sabbath principle allows us to experience the adventure of not only trusting Him enough to rest on a single day, but also to see how He provides an abundance in the other six days, and to see the goodness of the Lord in the 'sixth year' supplying the needs of the sixth, seventh and eighth year!

In the same way He wants us to trust Jesus as our Saviour who has completed all the work of redemption when he called out "Tetelestai"!...He wants us to trust Him when He says our work in His Hands is finished for the week...so we can rest.

There is a need to understand the changing seasons of the week, and of life.

As E Chan puts it:

Obedience is a greater expression of stewardship than working.

Obedeince is a greater expression of leadership than serving.

The Sabbath is all about a matter of trust...not simply a matter of rest.

One final thing about the Sabbath from Leviticus that reinforces this principle and helps us to trust Him:

Firstly, Lev 25:54:
"'Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee, 55 for the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

In this passage God is talking about the year of Jubilee, which is the seventh time the seventh year is reached. In other words, the Sabbath of the Sabbath. And what He is saying is that the slaves are all to be released in that year. Before that, there are numerous verses detailing the buying and selling of slaves, including the price, the rights, the agreement etc. But all these changes when it is the year of Jubilee! The slaves are released! Why? Because ultimately, the slaves belong to Him and not to us.

Another passage, Lev 27:22-24:
22 " 'If a man dedicates to the LORD a field he has bought, which is not part of his family land, 23 the priest will determine its value up to the Year of Jubilee, and the man must pay its value on that day as something holy to the LORD. 24 In the Year of Jubilee the field will revert to the person from whom he bought it, the one whose land it was."

Same thing...if a man bought a field before the year of Jubilee, he must pay a price. But in that year, he must give it back to the guy he bought it from!

What is the principle in these two passages?

Eveything belongs to the Lord.

The Sabbath tutors us in this important truth. We often feel that because we have worked so hard, everything kind of belongs to us. We don't say that, but subconsciously because we have been working so hard, and earning money...that somehow...the house, the car, the clothes, the luxuries...the time, all belongs to us.

And one of the reasons why we struggle with NOT WORKING and RESTING on the Sabbathh is simply because we feel it is our WORK that has allowed us to achieve all these things, and therefore it is very difficult to STOP WORK.

Because when we stop work, we fear losing these things.

We feel we need to keep it up. The future belongs to us, and depends on how hard we work.

And when God tells us to give it all up on the Sabbath, He is trying to tell us that everything actually belongs to Him.

He is the one who has given us everything.

Of course I am not saying that He is telling us to give everything away this coming Sunday...but by stripping off these illusions, God allows us to see that nothing belongs to us, and that it is NOT out work that has earned these good things in our lives, but His goodness towards us.

And that is how we trust. And let go. And rest.

Have a nice Sabbath, but also...have a nice working week. Because both are enjoyable...because both belongs to Him.