Holy Ceasing

I am in my last week of pre-sabbatical preparations and will be posting some thoughts that have been running through my mind and showing up in my sermons as I spend this week getting things in order.  I feel a little bit like an Orthodox Jew who is making last minute Sabbath preparations on Friday morning, so that when sundown comes there will be nothing to do but “cease”. 

And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. (Genesis 2:1-3)

Once again, the word for “rest” here is more accurately translated as “cease.”  On the sabbath we cease our working, because God ceased his.  And even though God doesn’t need a rest, he gives us one whether we think we need it or not. It is that first description of Sabbath from Genesis that is at the heart of the command to keep the Sabbath in Exodus. 

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. (Exodus 20:8-11)

Because of God’s ceasing, all of God’s people are to cease.  All of them.  No one is forced to work without the rhythm of rest and restoration built in.  Not you, not your children, not your employees, not the laborers, not even your animals.  Because if a God who didn’t need rest, rested, then we who do need rest will be granted it whether we need it or anyone thinks we deserve it or not. 

Sabbath is about regularly setting apart a period of time to cease ordinary activities and engage in holy activities.

In the Bible, “holy” activities doesn’t refer just to “religious” activities but to any activity that is set apart for divine use.  For something to be holy it is taken out of its ordinary context and set apart for a specific spiritual context.  So ordinary dishes, plates, tools, people and yes, days, are then “set apart” from their ordinary use to be consecrated to God, to be for holy use.  So, by “Holy activities”, I mean those activities which are “set apart” from the every day so that we can live every day with a greater sense of holiness and faithfulness to God.

For that is exactly the wording we find in our Exodus text:  "Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy…(because) the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it."  One day a week is kept “holy”, “consecrated”, “set apart” from the ordinary so that the whole of ordinary life will be more “holy,” “consecrated” and “set apart.” 

An understanding and commitment to Sabbath doesn’t just change the way we spend Sundays, it changes our whole week.  By setting apart one day a week as Sabbath is about living differently.  It’s about using the discipline of one day a week (and, indeed, also one year out of seven) to be set apart from our ordinary activities so that we can engage in “holy,” “consecrated” “set apart” activities.  Which leads to what I think of as a Sabbath lifestyle. A lifestyle that has a purposeful rhythm to it that follows God’s own rhythm.

Doing and Ceasing
Creating and Recreating
Work and Resting
Living and Reflecting

Sabbath is about regularly setting apart a period of time to cease ordinary activities and engage in holy activities: Ceasing, Recreating, Resting, and Reflecting.

Again, God is our model here.  God the Creator is the first Sabbath Keeper.  There is a different Sabbath picture in Genesis than we are used to considering.  It is what is implied in Genesis 3:8 (which is one of my favorite verses in the Scripture).  We read about the “Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze…”  The text implies that this is a regular habit.  God strolls through the garden after a good week of creating, now simply enjoying.  I can almost picture God wearing Rainbow sandals and sipping a cold one, watering his lawn and looking to chat up Adam and Eve.  This is life as he made it.  This is what it is supposed to be.  I get this picture of a pretty contented deity, enjoying the garden and what he has made, a sigh escapes from his lips and a smile on his face. 

This picture should guide our understanding of Sabbath.  God enjoying his creation.  God recreating in his creation.  God ceasing from creation so that he can enjoy communion.  A period of activity that is “consecrated”, “set apart”, made “holy” so that the rest of life will be living differently. 

Comments

[David Mackey]

Thanks. That was encouraging and thought provoking. Do you believe we must take a Sabbath? What role does the OT play in the believer's life?

[Mark Goodyear]

I felt the need to comment before you turned off the comments. Your messages lately have been very interesting! Enjoy your Sabbath rest.