Exodus 20: 8-11 (KJV)
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
I would love to have some feedback on this commandment please! What I am wondering is if the Sabbath is definitely every Sunday or is it a day you need to take every week... if it is every Sunday.. then why? Why is Sunday the last day of the week? This commandment confuses me.
What I do think is that we definitely need to take a day every week to relax, spend time with God and our family. We need to 'escape' from the stresses of work and everything we do during the week, or else we will explode!
Here are somethings that come to mind when I think of the importance of a Sabbath:
- Rest & Relaxation
- A day to focus on God (although I think every minute should be spent this way!)
- Quality time with family
- Time to refocus
And he also mentioned how he likes to go into the wilderness to be alone and to just spend time with God and to listen. How many of us do that? How many of us quiet our hearts and minds enough to listen to God?
Do you feel like your week just rushes by? Like you are strapped into a roller coaster and don't have any control over what is coming! I think it is a good thing to have an 'end' to a week. Because it gives you the motivation to start a new week fresh.
I think it would be helpful to me to ask myself every week (if not every minute), "Do I know that I am where God wants me to be?"
If you have some insight into this commandment I would love to hear it!
Shew! That's a good question that could spur hours worth of conversation! I'll try to keep my understanding short.
ReplyDeleteThe law on the tablets given to Moses (Exodus 20 through 31) were moral laws, judicial laws, and ritual laws. The Sabbath is a ritual law given to show a sign of a covenant between God and an elect people (the Israelites) Ex. 31:12. This law does not apply to us because we are not Jews under mosaic law but, we are an elect people grafted to the vine through Christ who is the fulfillment of the law Romans 8:3-4. In short, the moral laws are eternal but the ritual and judicial laws were specific to that covenant and those people.
Celeste ☺
Thanks Celeste! I have never heard that put so well! I am still confused by the whole concept, I realize that when Jesus came he brought a whole new way of life but I think the principles are still good and helpful... Like taking time to sabbath every week. But more importantly I am trying to live in constant companionship with God instead of just once a week. I guess that's what changed... we can now have a living relationship with Jesus instead of being commanded to do so every week.
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