Friday, July 2, 2010

Keeping the Sabbath: A Delight

"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. 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. 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." - Exodus 20:8-11

This being the fourth of the Ten Commandments, my husband and I started recognizing the Sabbath day earlier this year. Why we hadn't done it sooner, I really don't know. I guess we figured since we go to church on Sunday, that we were sort of recognizing that commandment already. But then, I started questioning what if there was some significance to the actual "seventh day" (being Saturday) deserving our observance?

In Matthew 24 Jesus spoke to his disciples concerning Signs of the End of the Age. He said in verse 20, "Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath." That reference indicated to me a specific day still being recognized even after Jesus' resurrection.

Then my attention was drawn to Genesis 2:3 and the tail end of the Commandment itself, "the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." This day is blessed by God himself...He set it apart from the rest of the week. All we are asked to do is remember/observe it, by keeping it set apart, and to refrain from our work.

"'If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.' The mouth of the LORD has spoken." - Isaiah 58:13-14


The Sabbath truly is a delight: a 24-hour date with the Creator of the Universe; a gift made specifically for all mankind to enjoy; a weekly vacation from the workaday world; a family retreat like no other. I highly recommend it!

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