Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour 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 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 (NIV)
My memories of the Sabbath day when I was growing up as a child aren’t that great. For a start, it fell on a Saturday which was the day when everybody else seemed to have lots of fun. We’d have a long morning at the synagogue and then we weren’t allowed to go shopping, handle money, carry anything, do cooking, watch TV, travel in the car or on public transport – the list goes on. It was also football day (that’s soccer to anyone from the US reading this!) – every game in the football league kicked-off at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon (none of this Sunday at 5.30pm nonsense that you have now just to cater for a television channel!). As football was my passion in those days, not to be allowed to go and watch the games was, I thought, a harsh restriction. The only answer for me to survive was a well-developed regime of rule breaking. To think all those years my mum thought I was at my friend’s house just ‘talking’ when, in fact, we were screaming our heads off at White Hart Lane watching Tottenham Hotspur!
My family didn’t even practice Judaism in an orthodox way – so you can imagine what it must be like in a real orthodox home – they often have things like automatic light switches to get round the hundreds of rules and regulations that the Rabbis have set down as their interpretations of how the Sabbath day should be lived out. It’s no surprise then that Jesus addressed the subject of the Sabbath and confronted religious leaders on a number of occasions – best summed up when He said:
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.†Mark 2:27 (NIV).
However, for most people living in western society the problem isn’t how to interpret Sabbath regulations, but rather how to include the Sabbath as a basic principle within a culture that has adopted the notion that nothing beats ‘24/7’. Even the church has bought into its deception – I mean, doesn’t it sound so much more spiritual to have a prayer session that goes on 24/7 than one that stops at 10pm so everyone can just go home and go to bed! It may sound cool for a service, shop, business etc. to be available 24/7 but the people that work these places are breaking (or being forced to break) a crucial principle that God Himself ordained – work six days and then take a break! This doesn’t have to be on any one particular day but it does need to happen otherwise people and society as a whole will suffer.
Since the Sabbath was made for man, it should be an enjoyable day, completely detached from work, where quality time can be spent alone or with family or friends. It’s not necessary to prescribe exactly what people should do or not do but certainly time could be given to anything that’s reflective, edifying and encouraging. Do you have a Sabbath day or are you 24/7?
9:41 pm
Very easy to get caught up in the business of life, but a great principle to live by. I remember reading a section about the sabbath with Rob a month ago, it came just after the section where Jesus explains that his burden is easy and his yoke is light. I think the sabbath is a great example of the freedom that there is in Jesus. Which is quite funny as that’s probably the opposite of what people outside the church (or inside) think. Often it is assumed that it is just a load of rules and regulations. Refreshing to be reminded that it’s not.