Re:Verse passage – Exodus 20:8-11 (day two)
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
Sabbath = Rest Holy = Set Apart
I have sat looking at those two words for several minutes. What comes most to my mind is indictment. I struggle to understand holy rest. I get exhaustion and general fatigue, but not a regularly recurring respite from the world. If I’m really honest it sounds lazy. That is my confession, but it comes by way of a cultural understanding that there are many that struggle with Sabbath. One of the chronic conditions facing many Americans today is poor mental health. There is no simple fix, but as believers I would challenge everyone to consider how we are treating this commandment and what the consequences are for us and our children. Why is something so seemingly easy, so dreadfully hard for us to obey? Talk with your family today. How are you going to actively pursue rest?
As I read back through this commandment I am struck by the phrasing, “but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God”. I’ve never thought of it this way before, but it strikes me the same way my tithe does. God lets me keep 90% of all He gives me and only asks 10%. God gives me 6 days to work. And that work is to be like unto the Lord. And we are asked to give Him back one day of rest. And when I write it that way, it seems almost silly for me to struggle with giving up one day to rest in the Lord. But it is a struggle. And I know that is the case for many. The feeling that, the world won’t go on without us there to keep things going, is idolizing ourselves, even if we can’t see it that way.