Today is Sunday. Though I longed to observe a sabbath, my day filled up, ended with a shift of working at Macy’s in Patrick Henry Mall tonight.
But what is Sabbath? Even had I had the entire day off, even if I had safeguarded the day, would I truly be at rest? Would my heart and soul be able to be still and know that God is God? Why is that so difficult to do?
I appreciated what John Piper had to say about “Rest” and the “Sabbath”.
The reason given in both Genesis 2:3 and Exodus 20:11 why God blessed and hallowed the seventh day is that “on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.” What does it mean that God rested? It means at least that he was satisfied that his work of creation was complete and was “very good.” His rest means that he wanted to now stand back as it were in leisure and savor the beauty and completeness of his creative work.
This is the real basis of his hallowing and blessing the day of rest. He is saying in effect, “Let my highest creature, the one in my image, stop every seven days and commemorate with me the fact that I am the creator who has done all this. Let him stop working and focus on me, that I am the source of all that he has. I am the fountain of blessing. I have made the very hands and mind with which he works. Let one day out of seven demonstrate that all land and all animals and all raw materials and all breath and strength and thought and emotion and everything come from me. Let man look to me in leisure one day out of seven for the blessing that is so elusive in the affairs of this world.”
The beautiful thing about the sabbath is that God instituted it as a weekly reminder of two things. One is that all true blessing comes from his grace, not our labor. The other is that we hallow him and honor him and keep the day holy if we seek the fullness of his blessing by giving our special attention to him on that day.