The Sabbath - a deeper glimpse

During this past Wednesday meeting at the church I attend, during the testimony period I had some time to really think about what this Sabbath day concept and what it meant for the children of Israel as they began their journey in the wilderness toward the promised land, especially in relation to their freedom. (Here is the set of citations read at that meeting, if you want to check them out.) You know, it really struck me that the whole concept of a day of rest must have been so incredibly amazing to those people!

[As a side note: I don't know if you've been to a Wednesday testimony meeting at a Church of Christ, Scientist somewhere or not, but if you haven't, here's what happens. Attendees sing; they hear a selection of readings from the Bible and Science and Health put together by the person who has been elected to be First Reader; they pray; and they share testimonies. These testimonies can be anything from some great insight they've gained in their spiritual study to reporting of healing that have occured from the action of God's word in their lives. About half the time is spent on the latter, typically. There's usually some quite moments between sharing to pray and ponder.]

Think about it for a moment. Here are thousands of people who, for many generations - at least for all of each individual's life - have know nothing but slavery. And that meant work - constant, consistent, daily work. No days off, no weekends, no holidays, no vacations - just work. Some may have had things better than others depending on their specific role and/or owner, but still - work, work, work. Probably from as early as they could contribute. And even if they weren't working for someone, probably they were working for their family - gathering food as best they could, preparing it, supplying family with other needs. Never a moment of freedom, time to pause and reflect, just quick back. Phew!

So here they are. They've been taken away from everything they know by a God they'd heard about for generations and likely wondered about more than knew for the most part - who is He really? where was He? when will He help us? And now it was happening. They're leaving Egypt and captivity.

But life was still hard, especially at first. It was travel in the desert, after all! No rest stops with McDonald's to be found anywhere. And no food. But God is good. He provided for their needs. Daily, food was literally at their doorstep (or tent flap, I suppose). Manna in the morning; quails at night - enough to feed them all in the right amount each day.

But, as is described in Exodus 16, one day each week was different - the Sabbath day. On that day, no food was provided, no food collection and preparation was required. That didn't mean they went hungry. No way! They got enough for two days on the day before. The extra portion of food collected on day six lasted through the next day so the people had good food to eat then (and, to emphasize the specialness of the food lasting for two day, you should know that on other days of the week, anything left over went bad overnight - very bad).

God wanted them to take the day off. He didn't want them to work. After all, they were free now. What would that concept have seemed like if work was all you'd ever known?

It seems to me that the concept could have been very difficult to even grasp. Not to work, not even to provide that day's food for the family? How could that even be? Beyond comprehension when that was all you'd ever known!

That story in Exodus describes how the Israelites went out on the first Sabbath day to collect food anyway. God didn't appreciate this at all. Why weren't they trusting Him? They didn't have to work - they weren't slaves any more. But, I wonder, maybe for some it was more habit than lack of trust. They were used to working each and every day. What would they do if they weren't working?

Celebrate their freedom, that's what they could do! And give thanks to the Divine One that gave this special gift to them. They were being given a day off, not so they could just kick back and relax, do whatever they wanted, but so they could have the time to really contemplate Divinity without other distractions. A day just made for giving thoughts, prayers and gratitude to God.

And this idea of Sabbath was so important, it was put in the Commandments - number 4 - right up there near the top of the list. [You may know that Bible scholars, etc. tend to look at the list of Commandments in two parts - the first part (being either one through four or five, depending on how you want to look at the fifth commandment) being God-focused commandments (The "love the Lord with all your heart" portion) and the second part describing our relationship with others ("love thy neighbor as thyself").] Don't forget this special opportunity - "Remember the Sabbath day...."

My appreciation for this idea of a day of rest grew immensely that evening. What an incredible gift from a gracious, wonderful God! The meaning of it appeared as so much more than I'd ever realized before. Our gift as His loved children is freedom to have the time, opportunity, space to get to know Him, to think about Him and His creation, to express Her joy and goodness in our lives in ways that glorify Her. I think this feeling is reflected in this statement from Science and Health: "Citizens of the world, accept the "glorious liberty of the children of God," and be free! This is your divine right." (page 227)

So what is my take-away from this? Certainly a greater respect for the idea of Sabbath. And hopefully this respect will be demonstrated in my life in fuller use of the concept - not just in taking a particular day of the week to pray and give thanks. I'm thinking it can be much fuller than this. I'll be looking for more Sabbath moments in each day to be grateful for the freedom to experience the dominion that God has given all of Her loved children and to have the time to pause, at least in my thinking, and celebrate!