Sabbath

Exodus 16:5, 22-30
cf: Ex. 20:8-11, 23:12, 31:12-17, 34:21, 35:2-3; Lev. 19:3, 19:30, 23:3; Deut. 5:12-15

In the Ten Commandments, God includes a time to stop working for worship. There are something like 600 commands in the first five books of the Bible, but the Sabbath made the "Top Ten." I have already posted about the idea that God might have created us with a need for rest. Some of us take a 5-day work week for granted, but the idea of a day of not working was very counter cultural at the time. It probably made Israel stand out, given that most other nations would work every day. But notice that the Sabbath was not just a day off. There was nothing in the command about going to the lake or getting caught up on yard work. This was to be a time of worship (a "Sabbath to the Lord," 20:10).

So in Exodus 16, God is providing manna and quail for the Israelites in the desert. He tells them that He will provide for them in such a way that they can have a time of rest. And He tells them that they will have to trust him. Every other day, if they gather too much food, it spoils. But they have to trust on the 6th day that it won't spoil because they have to gather two days' worth then.

So what is the application for us today? That is a matter of some debate. There are those in church circles who say that Christians take a Sabbath and not work once a week. On the far opposite end, there are some who say that, because "keep the Sabbath holy" was never repeated in the New Testament, Christians can ignore that commandment. I don't have the answer for that debate, but I welcome comments.

But perhaps there's a bigger picture. Perhaps, a better way to look at this concerns how we use our time (whether we are working or not). There is considerable evidence that taking time off can be beneficial, mentally and physically. That is, your body was never designed to work every waking hour. Perhaps Sabbath was instituted with that in mind. One preacher told me that he was amazed that people could get excited about extra innings in a three hour baseball game or overtime at the end of a three to four hour football game, but if the sermon went five minutes over, everyone was squirming in their seats. Perhaps the call from Sabbath passages is to set aside large portions of time for worship and then rigorously protect that time.

As I blogged earlier, I believe that part of Sabbath is that work time is finite. Even those who are not on 8-5 schedules or shift work need to recognize the finiteness of work in order to allow time for the infiniteness of worship.