As I write Sunday
is two days away. There is a busy work day ahead tomorrow. Saturday, the last
day of the calendar week is full of family activities. Things that need to be
done. Places we need to be.
But then,
many weekends we have the same thing stacked up for Sunday. Our lives are about
doing “stuff.” Have you noticed that?
Stuff
intrudes into every corner of who we are and what we do. Even on Sunday, that
day we are supposed to observe that Sabbath. That day which The Lord has deemed
so important it finds its way into the middle of the Ten Commandments.
Yet where
are we at with it?
We are there
doing more stuff. And yes, its stuff we have to do. Or stuff the World has
convinced us we need to do. So hard to break away from it!
All of us
buy into activities. Especially if we have children. They have things they like
to do. They have sport, or play music, or something else. Events are scheduled for
times on the weekend that suit the masses rather than being friendly to those
of us who might be Christian, and want to attend church.
Sunday is a
day of joy in God, Sunday is that day that is given to the concept found in
Genesis 2:2. Sunday is that day that Christian’s observe Sabbath.
After the
six momentous days of creation, God rested. God ceased His work. What He had
done, what He did, what He needed to do was now complete. He could step back
and view all that was now before him as the result of His great love and
declare that it was Good.
And yet we
do not observe the Sabbath as we should. The Bible declares that “Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work.”
(Exo 20:8-9) Note here verse 10. This is the cruncher. “…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.”
The
interesting thing here is that the verse quoted above comes from the Ten
Commandments. Right smack in the middle of God’s declaration to Moses and to
the people of those laws that they must countenance in order to remain His
people is this admonition. Observe the Sabbath.
But you know
what? We aren’t doing it people!
Where are we
on a Sunday? Lip service to church, an hour and a half, done, then back into
the “busy” that life crowds in on us! Wow. I am guilty of this as much as
others. I feel it. It bites.
I take my
bible to church, and never open it. I listen to the sermon that may or may not
resonate with me, that may or may not have a sense of the Spirit moving. Sorry
guys in a lot of cases mostly not. And I feel that I have missed something,
missed another opportunity of being closer to God on that day He wants me to
sit back and think about Him and pray into my relationship with Him, and to
observe that deep abstinence from Work and the World.
So what is
it that should happen on the Sabbath?
For a start
I should be acknowledging God for who He is and what He has done and what He
continues to do in my life and the life of my family.
In Jewish
tradition the Sabbath was a mitzvah, a duty, before God. In the Old Testament
profaning the Sabbath meant death! You bet it did. God rested, so therefore we also
should rest.
For on that
day of His rest, we affirm His Creation. And by affirming His Creation we
affirm Him. Take a moment to think about that. We affirm Him. But if we aren’t there affirming the Sabbath as we have
been told we need to then how is that affirmation going to flow? Are we not
then quenching the Holy Spirit and His vital presence in our lives?
In that
affirmation we are as Israel, remembering what God has done for us, leading us
out of the bondage of Sin into that land of His great promise.
As we
observe the Sabbath we recognize that God has sanctified that day and through
this also sanctifies us to be His in covenant relationship!
Think about
that for a minute. In Covenant Relationship with the Creator God, by way of the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit who came to us only after and because of the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
If we take
that a step further, we have to think about what Jesus said on the Cross. “It
is finished.” His labours on earth were done. He had completed His work. He had
done His job. Now He could …. Rest!
And in that
rest visit us with that Joy of salvation that was only available through the
completion of His Salvation work.
Wow.
Take a
moment to turn to Isaiah 58 verse 13. “Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue
you own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with
delight as the LORDS’s holy Day. Honour the Sabbath in
everything you do on that day, and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.”
I fall way
short of that. Every Sunday. I am nowhere near close.
Now here’s
the whammy. Verse 14. “Then the LORD will be your delight. I will give you
great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor
Jacob. I, the LORD, have spoken!”
Oh, wow.
Right about
now I fall on my knees and confess I am not worthy of such this.
What can I
do to redress that shortfall?
And yet I
live in the world and the world lives in me. And I am sorry.
O, Lord my
God, that I can freely turn to you not just on the Sabbath but every day, and
every moment of every day, as your child, embraced and forgiven, resting in You
forever in that room You have prepared for me in Your house.
I am so
deeply blessed by His Love.
Amen.