An interesting thought was brought to my attention yesterday...if you think about time spans, almost everything can be dictated and explained by nature.
A year is one trip around the sun, or a cycle of 4 seasons (if you're lucky enough to live somewhere that experiences all four seasons.)
A month can more or less be determined by the cycle of the moon.
A day is one rotation of the earth; a cycle of day and night...roughly 24 hours.
And while these things are all a direct product of God's wonderful design, they can be explained by those who don't believe as a result of nature.
But how do you explain a week? Almost every culture throughout history has lived their lives in a cycle of 7 days. And now, even in our postmodern society, people live for the weekend. There is nothing in nature (that I can discern) that can explain a cycle of 7 days making a week. And yet, the concept of a week goes back to the very creation of the world. So in some way or another, we are all acknowledging, if not recognizing, that original cycle of 7 days: the week.
In the Bible, 7 is the number of perfection. God created the world and everything in it in 6 days; on the 7th, His work was complete...it was a day of rest.
I've been convicted in the last few years that I don't do a very good job keeping the Sabbath. So now, Sunday is a day of worship and rest. The washing machine can wait. My school email doesn't need to be checked. Lesson plans don't need to happen. Saturday nights are often frantic, readying our home so that we can truly relax and enjoy our day of Sabbath rest. We're not there yet, but we are a work in progress.
So here are some thoughts about the Sabbath:
In Exodus 20, the Israelites were commanded to observe the Sabbath DAY (not the Sabbath hour.) I know of many people who work, work, work, but justify their workaholism on Sunday, because they go to church first.
The Sabbath should be the beginning of our week, not the end of our weekend. (Most calendar companies have this right...why is it so hard for us?) Am I giving God the firstfruits of my week by setting aside this day for Him?
Nowhere in Scripture is a specific day commanded to be the Sabbath, but one day should be set aside. It doesn't really matter if you attend a worship service on Saturday, Sunday, or Tuesday. Many people have no choice but to work on Sundays (special props go out to our pastors and church staff), but are you setting aside another day for God's work and the rest He's offering?
I guess I just find it very interesting that people who fight against God still embrace this unexplainable cycle called a week...the Sabbath was given as a gift to us, not a list of rules to shackle us to a legalistic religion.
December 19
51 minutes ago
2 comments:
Hi Alaina, I just happened to come across your post from someone's bloglist :) The Sabbath caught my attention, because I love His Sabbath :)
In case you might be interested to know, the Sabbath falls on our Saturday, if you look at our modern calendar, you'll see that Sunday is the first day of the week, with Saturday the seventh...
We can work out that Jesus kept the seventh day Sabbath on our Saturday because the Jewish people all over the world to this day, since the dispersion, has continued to keep the Sabbath which happens to be on our Saturday.
The first day of week, Sunday, if we read in the New Testament, is when the believers gather to worship our risen Saviour... and at the same time, most likely they still have kept God's rest on Sabbath, His day, because all over in the New Testament, we see Paul going to preach on Sabbaths and there were no instruction to stop observing the Sabbath.
Sunday = day of worship (worship can be on any day of the week, it can be every day, every time)
Sabbath = day of rest (since Creation)
Thought I'd share this in case you are interested :) There are many different views on it.
Thanks, Susan! We were discussing this at Bible Study the other night, and one of my friends (who is still learning a lot about God and what He says in His Word) was very confused about the whole idea of Sabbath being on Sunday. Her work schedule prohibits her from regularly having Sundays free, and she was questioning why it HAD to be on Sunday. The freedom is that it doesn't. But the command is that we somehow keep a Sabbath Day. But this takes intentionality...it's so hard in our culture to set that time aside and turn everything else off.
I do find it interesting that some separate worship and rest, and others view them together. Of course, I think we should be worshiping always...but like the Sabbath...easier said than done.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
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