Sacred Rest

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

—Exodus 20:8

The fourth of the Ten Commandments is “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” It is a day off; a day set apart to rest and honor the Lord (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 14:26,16:2; Hebrews 10:24-25). The Jewish Sabbath established by God was on Saturday, but because our Lord rose on the “first day of the week” (Matthew 28:1), which was Sunday, Sunday became known as the Sabbath day in the early church. And in the United States, during the early twentieth century, there was a conflict among labor workers. In an effort to accommodate the Jewish workers and their Sabbath (which is Saturday) and the Christian workers and their Sabbath (which is Sunday), the modern weekend was born.

The Sabbath is rooted in creation itself, a day set aside to rest from our work. When God created the heavens and the earth, He did so in six days, as the Scripture tells us:  

“On the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation”—Genesis 2:2-3.

The Sabbath was built into creation not for God’s benefit, but for ours. God didn’t need to rest because He never gets tired. If God were to get tired, then He wouldn’t be God. Therefore, when God rested it was not for His benefit, but ours. We are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). And God knew that we would need rest, so He set aside a day to rest and honor Him. As Ezekiel 20:12 says,  

“Moreover, I gave them My Sabbaths, as a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them”—Ezekiel 20:12.

So, God gave the Sabbath so that we might know who He is, and so that we may know who we are not. We are not God—all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere. We have a tendency to set ourselves up as mini-gods, deceiving ourselves into believing that things couldn’t be done without us. But the Sabbath is a reminder that we are mortal, God is not; that we need rest, and that God is the one who is ultimately in control of our lives.

It has been said that “Satan never takes a day off, he is at work seven days a week.” As believers in Christ, we hear such a statement and think that we need to be working seven days a week. We rationalize our neglect of the Sabbath by appealing to verses such as Matthew 12:12b, “So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." It is good to do good on the Sabbath, but we must rest because Satan is not our example, God is. He rested and so should we.

On what day should we rest? The Scripture set aside Saturday for Jews, but because of Christ’s resurrection, Sunday became the preferred day. But is that the day we should continue to observe? That’s a much more difficult question. In our world today, many men and women work on Sundays for a variety of reasons. While I believe that Sunday is the day set aside for gathering together with other believers in Christ to worship and honor Him, I know that some, for whatever reason, cannot. Therefore, whether Sunday or not, it seems best that we work six and take one off to rest and honor the Lord.

The question remains, are we honoring God by taking a day to rest and honor His name? The Sabbath was made for our benefit—so that we might rest, honor God, and maintain a proper perspective on our own humanity while coming to a greater knowledge of His divinity. So, let’s take today to go and worship, to relax our bodies and minds, to be refreshed not by worldly activities, but by a time of extended worship and reflection on the risen Christ who created us for Himself, to reflect by the mirrors of our lives how much He means to us. Amen.