I was recently challenged by a friend to consider the benefits of deciding to set aside a Sabbath rest day for myself once every week. And the idea has got my mind whirring.
My friend proposes that having a day where I force myself to rest will help my mental health and physical health and will help eliminate the constant feeling of drowning in “to-do’s”. On the one hand, the idea of having a day where I’m required to do nothing but rest and enjoy life, sounds amazing. But, on the other hand, the idea that I’ll feel less rushed by setting aside time to not work on my “to-do’s”, sounds counterintuitive.
In order to sort out my thoughts on this, I think it’s important to first get informed; so, let’s take a deeper look at the Sabbath.
Why did God create the Sabbath in the first place?
The Sabbath is an example of, and a remembrance of what God did after He created our existence.
Genesis 2:2–3 (ESV) says, “And 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.”
It can be logically deduced that if it is good for God to rest, then it is good for us–His creation which was created in His image–to rest as well.
Then we see later on in the Bible that God put resting on the 7th day into His Laws for the Israelites.
Exodus 20:8–11 (ESV) says, “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 to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and 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.”
Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (ESV) says, “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor 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, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.’”
We also see in Isaiah that when people follow the Law about the Sabbath, they are blessed by doing so.
Isaiah 56:2 (NIV) says, “Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Crossway.org says, “The Sabbath is a covenant sign that represents a lifestyle of devotion to the Lord, for it requires the practical reorganization of every week around him (Ex. 31:12–17; Ezek. 20:18–20). True observance of the Sabbath entails not just refraining from work but also refraining from doing any evil.”
So, resting on the Sabbath gives us time to reflect on our decisions and that allows us more time to train our minds away from choosing evil. And of course, a life lived away from evil will be a blessed one.
When Jesus walked the earth He enlightened us even more about the Sabbath and its intention.
A couple of His major confrontations with the Jewish religious leaders were about the Sabbath.
The events in Mark 2:23-28, took place on the Sabbath. Jesus and His disciples were walking through a grainfield and the disciples began picking heads of grain and eating them because they were hungry. Of course, the Pharisees confronted them about this. Here was Jesus’ reply:
Mark 2:27-28 (NIV): “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Then in Mark 3:1-6 Jesus heals a man’s shriveled hand on the Sabbath and this angers the Pharisees so much that they begin to plot to kill Jesus. But, before Jesus had healed the man’s hand he had asked them the following:
Mark 3:5 (NIV): “Jesus asked them, ‘Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they remained silent.”
GotQuestions.org says, “The Sabbath was intended to help people, not burden them. In contrast with the grueling daily work as slaves in Egypt, the Israelites were commanded to take a full day of rest each week under the Mosaic Law. Pharisaical law had morphed the Sabbath into a burden, adding restrictions beyond what God’s law said…The Sabbath was not intended to burden people but to ease their burden. For someone to forbid acts of mercy and goodness on God’s day of rest is contrary to all that is right.”
Jesus stated that the Sabbath was made for the people and not the people for the Sabbath. His focus was on the heart behind the Law, not the letter of the Law. The Pharisees were focusing on the Letter of the Law and they were so worried about breaking the Sabbath that they even went so far as to add on extra regulations to the Law in the hopes that it would keep them far away from breaking the actual Law; but, with time, they started to treat the extra regulations as actual Law. And Jesus said all of that was wrong–their entire perspective as to the purpose of the Sabbath had been skewed and they weren’t using it as it was intended to be used.
But, is the Sabbath meant only to give us rest and to help us avoid evil? Or is there more to it?
Romans 14:5–6 says, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.”
This section in Romans could obviously be applied to views about the Sabbath. According to Paul, “the week” think some days are more important than others; while “the strong” think every day is the same; and both views are permissible. Each person must follow his own conscience. What is remarkable is that the Sabbath is no longer a binding commitment for Paul but a matter of one’s personal conviction. Unlike the other nine commandments in Ex. 20:1–17, the Sabbath commandment seems to have been part of the “ceremonial laws” of the Mosaic covenant, like the dietary laws and the laws about sacrifices, all of which are no longer binding on new covenant believers (Gal. 4:10; Col. 2:16–17). However, it is still wise to take regular times of rest from work, and regular times of worship are commanded for Christians (Heb. 10:24–25; Acts 20:7).
Whether one observes a special day, or eats all foods, or abstains from some foods, the important thing is to honor the Lord and to give thanks to God.
We see from other things in the Bible that a primary theme which God is trying to teach us throughout the Bible is that He wants us to learn to be dependent on Him. For example, there is the year of Jubilee–where they are required to rely on God’s provision for an entire year. And when God sent manna to the Israelites and told them to only gather enough for one single day at a time. God was trying to teach them to have faith that He will provide.
“God was trying to teach them to have faith that He will provide.”
If we work our tails off 24/7 then we are prone to start believing that our hard work is the only thing which gets us through life. But that is a narrow perspective. No matter how much we work and provide for ourselves, there will always be things we need for survival which are out of our reach and can only be provided by God– like the air we breathe and the rain which waters our plants and brings us fresh water. Working all of the time doesn’t get rid of our dependance on God, it only skews our perception of reality and erases our ability to realize we are dependent on Him. Taking a Sabbath rest, forces us–and allows us–the opportunity to reflect on everything God does for us. It is a time set aside to rest in faith that God is good, that He loves us, and that He will provide.
Okay, but how exactly do you rest? How do I know what is restful?
Eryn Lynum, author of “The Nature of Rest: What the Bible and Creation Teach Us about Sabbath Living”, has some great advice on this matter. While being interviewed by Focus on the Family, she said, “What rest does is it opens up this space for truth to root down in our souls. When we are: go go go hustle hustle we don't have time to truly process what the Lord is doing inside of us…When we rest, our minds operate to their fullest potential as God meant them to. When we rest, we grow in truth because His truth goes forth and does not return void. Like Isaiah 55 says, God’s word brings forth life in our souls. And we grow in love because we are able to have these new connections with our family.”
She goes on to advise that even if you can’t find a whole day to set aside on the regular, try to find a block of four hours a week and start there. But, if you’re anything like me, your next question is…how? How do I rest? What do I do and what don’t I do? Eryn has some great advice for that as well.
She said, “Write two lists. First, write a list of everything that’s heavy, everything during your week that is stressful. That might be text messages, notifications, emails…write a list of those things that are heavy and that’s what you want to step away from during that time of rest. And then write a second list of those things that fill you up, things that delight you. It’s those things you think of during the week and say, ‘Oh, I’d really like to do that,’ but you don’t make time for it. It might be creating, painting, music, walking outside, gardening–people ask me, isn’t gardening work? Do on Sabbath what delights your soul. Maybe throughout the week you work with a computer, and you might want to go outside and do some creating. Do what delights your soul. Make a list of those things and start enjoying them.”
Honestly, after this research, it’d be kind of weird for me to be resistant to taking a Sabbath rest, because all of this sounds great.
Do I want to have time to bask in hobbies that make me feel happy and accomplished? Yes.
Do I want to have time to let God’s truth sink deep roots into my soul? Yes.
Do I want to have time to meditate on all of the ways God has provided for me and build my faith in the fact that He will continue to do so? Yes.
I’m pretty sure this means you can “sign me up” for Sabbath rest.
This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”