Sabbath
One of our community members posed a great question this week that I thought might be good fodder for blog discussion. His question was related to the Sabbath, commanded in Exodus 20:9-11: 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 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. 11 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.
Here is the question: Do you have a day set aside for rest? Do we sin if we do not take a Sabbath? Does the Bible set out parameters on what we can and can not do during the Sabbath? (i.e. Can I sit and watch movies all day? Can I clean the house and run errands?) These are just some of the thoughts running through my head. Does anyone else struggle with observing Sabbath?
I think this will be a tremendously useful discussion, because if there's one thing Americans DON'T do well, it's resting. Blog away.
posted by Bob | 6:13 AM
7 Comments:
Bob, obviously we've all been to busy & rushed to comment on this post.
The church I grew up in dismissed Sabbath as part of the Mosaic Law we are no longer bound to. I don't agree. I think that you can make a case, on the grounds of passages such as Hebrews 3, that while we're not required to observe the sabbath exactly as the Jews did with rest from sundown Saturday until dusk Sunday, a pattern of rest is ordained by God and ought be practiced for his glory and our good. Such rest is modeled by God in creation and finds its ultimate fulfillment in the eschaton. The goal is not primarily idleness, but interruption into our daily routine of hurry to reorient our lives around God, to stop from our busyness of building our kingdom ("six days shall you labor and do all your work") to remember our place in his.
comments, refinements, further perspectives?
I think the "do we have too. . .or not" discussion kind of misses the point.
We SHOULD Sabbath because we should WANT to Sabbath, and it's a gift from God.
The nuance of the Sabbath is a bit harder for me. I think somewhere in the middle of "watching movies all day" and "24 hours of prayer and fasting" is something to shoot for. I think you should, as hooley said, interrupt your life to spend time in the Word, be refreshed, de-stress, enjoy your family, etc. . . .
I think the principle goes alot deeper than one 24 hour period. I think, sabbathing a few minutes an hour. . an hour a day, etc. are good practices.
my 2 cents,
Aaron
So, I have been trying to read up on this as much as I can. I think I have learned a lot from my new hero - John Calvin. Here are links to a two-part series he did in 1555. These two sermons are amazing! They are long, but definitely worth the read. I hope everyone gets a chance to read through these. I am convicted, upon reading these, that I have been blatantly sinning, by not fully observing the Lord's Day. If what John says is solid (which I imagine it is) then I have a lot of work to do in my life to reorganize my way of thinking and doing. This may be a long process and I will definitely need the Holy Spirit's guidance in this area, but I can no longer go about life selfishly doing what brings me my own satisfaction. Thoughts??
http://www.ondoctrine.com/2cal0502.htm
http://www.ondoctrine.com/2cal0503.htm
Something else I learned from these sermons is why the Ten Commandments were written on two tablets and not one. Something I have never thought about before. Is this the type of stuff they teach you in Seminary?
-Nathan
- one big tablet is heavier, therefore harder, to carry than two smaller ones? Don't know but that's a heavy thought.
In all acutality there were, in fact three stone tablets with 15 commandments. Moses dropped one of them and it broke, thus we have ten (I sincerely hope there is another Mel Brooks fan that reads this blog so that i am not condemned for heresy).
interesting new article about Moses' "trip" up the mountain.
sorry, forgot to paste the link http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4392361&page=1
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