Day of Rest

I am not Jewish. Nor am I a Gentile follower of Jesus who believes we must observe the law. I am not legalistic, yet I want to commend to you the weekly practice of setting one day apart from the other days of the week for a day of rest. I have been taking baby steps in this direction exploring and experiencing this for the last few years. For me, setting aside one day of the week for rest has become a discipline of the heart.

I am reticent to share this with you because I am just a beginner. I have never been in a church that has even talked about this, my family growing up didn’t either. Plus I am reluctant to advertise this, it is really something between me and the Lord. But I will share with you what I am learning because I see the value in it and want you to explore this discipline of the heart for yourself. I recommend it.

God through Moses commanded the Jewish people to observe the Sabbath as a sign of their covenant with God in Exodus 31:12-17. It is to be a time of refreshment. “He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” Exodus 31:17. Mark Buchanan in his book, The Rest of God commends keeping the Sabbath, “setting apart an entire day, one out of seven, for feasting and resting and worship and play, it is a gift and not a burden, and neglecting the gift too long will make your soul, like soil never left fallow, hard and dry and spent.”

The Sabbath can be a time to get centered upon God, a time of realignment. Shabbat (the name Jews use for Sabbath) is a day of rest in a typical contemporary observant Jewish home. It is not only a day of refraining from work it is also a day of refreshment and spiritual enrichment. At the heart of the Jewish Shabbat is the family dinner on Friday evening that begins with the woman of the home lighting a candle and saying a blessing. Meals are enjoyed, generations are engaged, God is honored. These customs are worthy of emulation by all of us.

Over the years in their zeal to keep the Sabbath the ancient Jews made more “laws” which were really traditions to ensure they were obedient. For instance it was required of a tailor to take a needle out of his coat lapel on the Sabbath, because carrying a needle around was work. By the time of Christ these traditions were observed as if they were equal with the law. Jesus spent a lot of time in the Gospels going out of his way to provoke discussions with the Pharisees about their legalistic practice of the Sabbath. They were saddling people with traditions instead of following the spirit of the law. Jesus sums up His teaching on the Sabbath in two verses. It is really very simple, follow the Lord and do good.“The Son of Man (Jesus) is Lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:8 and “So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:12.

At its heart, keeping the Sabbath is all about trusting God— trusting God that if you don’t work for one day (or whatever it is He shows you) God will provide for you. Trusting God that He can run the universe without your help one day a week. Remember the ancient Israelites in the wilderness in Exodus 16. They were told to collect manna each day for their daily needs. They were instructed not to hoard any for the next day. They were also told on the day before the Sabbath to take extra manna and cook it so they would not have to gather food on the Sabbath.

Some of the Israelites did not follow these instructions. Some took more than their share and hoarded the manna. They were horrified to discover the leftover manna turned into worms! Some didn’t follow the instruction to get extra manna on the day before the Sabbath. They went hungry when there was no manna to gather. The ones who followed the Lord’s instructions and gathered the extra manna found that on that one day, the Sabbath, their extra manna did not turn into worms.

Resting on the Sabbath provided a test for the ancient Israelites. Would they obey God? Would God provide and protect them even if they refrained from work? It is also a test for us. Will God provide for us if we don’t take measures to provide for ourselves one day a week? Can He run the world without our help? Basically, can we trust God? These are important questions He answers every week when we set aside a day for rest.

The Hebrew word for Sabbath simply means rest. The concept predates the giving of the law in Exodus 20 and is not just for Jews but for all people. The concept of the Sabbath goes back to Genesis 2 when God created the world in six days then rested. “And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Genesis 2:2-3. God who is infinite energy rested from the work of creating the world. He set forth a pattern for us.

I believe God made us for a weekly Sabbath. He made our bodies, souls and spirits so that we need a weekly day of rest. We have circadian rhythms built into our bodies. We have daily rhythms as well as weekly and seasonal ones. Even in music there is a note that signifies rest. Music would sound rushed and garbled if there was no rest. Just think about working out with weights. No one recommends seven days a week of weight training. It is not the work-out that builds our body’s muscles, our muscles are built up during the times of rest.

So what does marking out one day of rest look like in the life of a believer? I think it will look different in each life. The only given is that it will be for a 24 hour period of time. The Jewish 24 hour Shabbat begins at sunset on Friday and ends at sunset on Saturday. You can observe the day of rest from sunrise to sunrise, or midnight to midnight, it really doesn’t matter. And it can be any day of the week. Many believers in Jesus consider Sunday as their Sabbath because that is the day the Lord was resurrected. John called it the Lord’s day in Revelation. A pastor or someone who works on Sundays may choose another day of the week for their day of rest. We don’t need to be legalistic about which day of the week we chose or the hour on the clock when we begin.

From what do we rest? This is really a matter of seeking the Lord’s plan for you. If you ask Him, He will show you. If you work outside or even inside the home it may be refraining from work that one day. It might be turning your phone off and not answering emails or looking at social media for 24 hours. Or it may be something that you are not doing the other days of the week and the Lord wants you to add to your life that one day. When I first heard about keeping a day of rest as a discipline of the heart, the example I heard about was someone fasting from gambling on their day of rest. I can’t vouch for gambling the other six days, but that example shows you that we will will have to seek the Lord’s plan for ourselves!

I don’t know what your day of rest will look like, but the Lord will let you know as you seek Him. For me right now the Lord has me resting/fasting from the news — tv, radio, newspapers, internet. I am on a 24 hour blackout. That may seem like no problem for you, but for me I have to intentionally choose to disconnect and rely on God’s grace to unplug. One thing the Lord is teaching me through this is the world goes on without me!

Dear Heavenly Father,
Are you leading me to set aside a day of rest each week? Show me what this looks like in my life —when, how and what. Give me your plan for a day of rest and the grace to follow You. Keep me from a legalistic approach. May I delight in you. Develop in me a deeper trust of You through this discipline of the heart.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen