![]() ![]() On the Sabbath, he enjoyed it it was a celebration. God stopped, say the rabbis, because he had found the object of his creation. The Hebrew word sabat, from which the English word ‘Sabbath’ derives, conveys more than just ceasing activity there is a sense of arriving at a destination. It is not a rule made for us to follow arbitrarily, but designed because God knows us – and our needs – intimately. A weekly block of time to rest and recalibrate our emotions and thoughts is part of God’s antidote to stress and burnout. We are made in God’s image and designed with the Sabbath in mind. God told the Israelites to observe the Sabbath rest because he also rested after creation. In ceasing production and considering the values that we are embodying, the Sabbath remains as countercultural as ever, just as we are called to be. The Sabbath corrects this imbalance and answers the call to a simpler life. Work becomes an idol, instead of a means to partner with God’s purposes. Without Sabbath, we can lose perspective. Each week, as we stop work and let go of the identities that define us there, we can return to our truest identity as the children of a loving God. Like the Israelites, resting from work reminds us that our true source of prosperity is God himself. Its regularity encourages us to find God in the ordinary patterns of life. ![]() Sabbath reminds us to walk in rhythm with God, not depend on the alignment of perfect circumstances. WHEN THE PROPHETS BROUGHT GOD’S JUDGEMENT AGAINST ISRAEL THEY SPOKE OF THREE ISSUES – IDOLATRY, A LACK OF JUSTICE, AND FAILURE TO OBSERVE THE SABBATH There was nothing like it in the ancient world. It was one way the Israelites stood out as God’s people. For an agrarian society, this was a radical and seemingly illogical idea. God specifically told the children of Israel to stop even during ploughing and harvest. We do not stop because we have finished our work, but because we trust God. SABBATH BENEFITSĬelebrating the Sabbath is an act of faith. As such, we should not neglect it but, instead, unwrap it and find out how to use it the way he intended. Instead, he was reminding them of its true meaning and purpose as a gift from God. Jesus pushed back against the hypocritical approach of the Pharisees, but he was not advocating the abolition of the Sabbath, nor suggesting it was no longer relevant. Jesus echoed this when he said the Sabbath was made “to meet the needs of people” (Mark 2:27, NLT). It is, say the rabbis, the last thing that God created, in order to make everything complete.Įxodus 16:29 says: “the Lord has given you the Sabbath”. And it is the only thing in the creation story to be described as such: “Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (Genesis 2:3). Heschel points out that the first use of the word ‘holy’ in the Bible is not to describe a person or a place, but the Sabbath itself. The absence of work provides a space for something else. The late great Jewish theologian, Abraham Joshua Heschel, said that the aim of Sabbath is “creating menuha, a restfulness that is also a celebration”. These rituals help to usher in a different mindset, so we can experience oneg Shabbat – or Sabbath joy – following God’s instruction to “call the Sabbath a delight” (Isaiah 58:13). As Sabbath begins at nightfall on Friday, Jewish people will light candles and take wine and bread. But in today’s busy, information-saturated world, the practise of Sabbath rest is more vital than ever.įollowing the principle laid down in Genesis 1:5 (“there was evening, and there was morning – the first day”), all Jewish days start at sunset. Sadly the Church has, too often, thrown out the baby of learning with the bathwater of legalism, and nowhere is this more apparent than with the Sabbath. I discovered that far from being a burden, the Sabbath is life-giving and life changing. But it was only after I became a follower of Jesus that I started to explore and understand the full significance of this day of rest. I grew up in a Jewish family where the Sabbath was celebrated with bagels, salt beef and all manner of Jewish delicacies. Remembering Her Majesty: 15 Christian leaders pay tribute.Why the Queen was Britain’s best evangelist.
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