I was in the midst of writing a post for this week on an entirely different subject, when it suddenly hit me. “Oh no!” I thought. “Is it really Labor Day weekend again? Did we just skip past August, or does it just feel like that to me?” People say time flies when you’re having fun, but I didn’t realize I was having that much fun. 

A Special Day to Consider ~
But what that meant for me regarding this edition is that I get to share a few brief thoughts about a subject that’s been special to God since the beginning, and one that we Western Christians don’t tend to think much about or take very seriously. Since this is Labor Day weekend and this post happens to be published on Saturday morning, we’ll take a moment and consider the ”Sabbath.” Obviously, this day has been important to God since the earth was six days old, so ignoring it probably isn’t in our best interest. We’re going to ask what, if anything, we are to do about this special day and beyond that, we’ll consider whether we might be missing out on something God’s been trying to bless us with.  

When I was growing up, the Sabbath day was considered to be on Sunday. In our town, only those businesses that were considered vital could be open on Sunday. Only one of our two drug stores was open, and they didn’t open till after 12:00 pm when church services were over. Sports and games were forbidden, and if we wanted to do anything that remotely looked like fun, my friends and I had to sneak off to some place where the adults couldn’t see us. It felt especially frustrating to me, because we weren’t even churchgoers.

Clarifying the Command ~
Those days have long since disappeared, and when it comes to business and personal activities, few people pay any attention to the day on the calendar or the hour on the clock. Most self-identified Christians in today’s culture, especially among the younger generations, tend to consider the Sabbath to be a primarily Jewish thing and not something they should be concerned about. If asked what the term, “Sabbath,” means, the response is almost always one of two words, either “Sunday,” or “rest.” Oddly enough, it means neither. The word, Sabbath, or the Hebrew, Shabbat, simply means “to cease working.” It’s often interpreted to imply or include the idea of “rest,” but physical rest wasn’t what God declared to be holy, and it wasn’t what God wanted commemorated throughout history. When God ended His work, it wasn’t because He was tired. The six days of creation didn’t wear Him out, and the Sabbath command isn’t for us to engage in physical rest. It’s just to stop working … but also for a specific purpose. 

Whatever we might think about the Sabbath issue, at least this much is beyond debate. God takes it seriously. That seventh day was the first thing God ever referred to as holy (Genesis 2:3).  He included it in that eternally relevant and irrevocably established set of laws He gave Moses on Mt. Sinai. Like the rest of them, the Sabbath command was given for our good. It was meant to bless us, not to punish us. So, we will endeavor not to take it lightly or to ignore it, but it’s too expansive a subject to try to (as preachers love to say these days) “unpack” in a simple blog post. Instead, what we might endeavor to do is to encourage a desire to embrace some of the blessings and benefits God intended Shabbat to bring us. But before continuing that endeavor, we should at least review the command that God delivered to Moses:  

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 [ceased His work] the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [made it holy]. (Exodus 20:8–11 NKJV)

A Divinely Mandated Day Off ~
The basic command is in those first eight words. The rest is an explanation of what God intended. From Friday evening at sundown to Saturday evening at sundown, God commanded everyone to cease their work, to just stop. The command was intended for everyone, not just the Jews. Even the slaves among them who had never known what a day off was and their working animals were relieved from their burdens on that day. The Sabbath was a time to look forward to, to celebrate, to lay aside the demands and enjoy a time of strengthening rejuvenation. But how do we address the issue here and now? Do we refuse to work on Saturday? Do we transfer the mandate to another day and claim that one as our Sabbath? I don’t think that’s the way God would have us move.

The command is also to remember, but remember what? It’s to remember the Sabbath day, but which Sabbath day? I think God’s intention was to first remember that specific day that He initially sanctified. In those six days of omniscient creative genius, God invaded darkness with light, brought order out of chaos, filled the world with an incredible array of living creatures and adorned it all with radiant beauty. Finally, He gathered a wad of lifeless clay, fashioned it into a small replica of Himself, breathed His life into it, and gave it function and purpose. Then He just stopped. Why was that? Here are a few thoughts:

• • He stopped because nothing else was needed.
  • He stopped because everything worked precisely as it should.
  • He stopped because there was absolute harmony. The “Shalom” He sought was perfected, and the love He exemplified prevailed in every part, at every point, and by every creature.
  • He stopped because the world and everything in it was exactly as He intended it to be.

On that seventh day, the world God beheld was absolutely perfect. All that was needed to sustain everything in it was in place and functioning exactly as He intended. The world was a perfect expression of Him on that day, a place where He could walk in total communion with His creation. That’s what made that day holy and that’s what God wanted to be remembered and sanctified forever. Sin would soon invade and infect His perfect world, but God was going to vindicate His love and His power by restoring it. Shabbat is a day to remember the perfection that God created AND to celebrate the ultimate restoration that He is in the process of accomplishing even now. In this chaotic, sin-cursed evil world, Sabbath is a call to just stop for a while, remember what He’s proven He can do, and celebrate the restoration. 

A Space for God to Fill ~
A teacher I love says that if we’ll make a space for Him, God will come and fill it. Sabbath isn’t about a bunch of burdensome restrictions. It’s about making a space for God in our hectic, driven, anxiety ridden world – and it doesn’t always have to be on Saturday. Sabbath can be any of those times when we need to simply stop, remember, and celebrate His power to restore what sin has done to His world. Since this post does happen to go out on Saturday, the  Sabbath, maybe it’s a good time for all of us to just stop . . .

• • Just stop – and remember those times when everything seemed so dark you couldn’t see where to turn, but God showed up with just the light you needed. Then celebrate God’s restoration and goodness to you.
  • Just stop – and recall that episode when your life felt like a hopeless, tangled mess but God showed up and brought order and purpose. Then celebrate God’s restoration and goodness to you.
  • Just stop – and reflect on those days when you were totally spent, when you couldn’t take another step, lift another piece of work, solve another problem, or deal with another issue, but God somehow gave you strength you didn’t have, patience you couldn’t produce, and answers you never expected. Then celebrate God’s restoration and goodness to you.

The Sabbath is God’s recurrent guarantee that the darkness can’t prevail, the chaos won’t last, the pain and ugliness of sin is doomed, and death was left dead in Jesus’ empty tomb. It’s worth taking time to just stop and to celebrate the One who is making that possible.

“Shabbat, Shalom,” Everyone ~ And Happy Labor Day!