Boring. Limiting. Annoying. Interrupting. Tiresome.
Those are just a few of the adjectives used to describe the Sabbath by some. The sports enthusiast reluctantly turns off ESPN to keep the fourth commandment. The businessman hesitates to close his shop on Sabbath. The student feels torn to close her books and set aside homework to remember this day. Did God create the Sabbath primarily to remind us who’s in charge?
The Sabbath does, undoubtedly, reveal God as our holy Creator, who asks us to acknowledge Him as the source of all things. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:8–10). God is our rightful ruler, and He commanded we keep His day holy.
But our perception of God is distorted when we view His commandments as a burden. Likewise, how we perceive the Lord can shape our ideas about how to keep the Sabbath. Rachel Smith wrestled with keeping the Sabbath as a busy college student.
In her online article, “
The Sabbath Is Still Holy,” she confessed, “As many children did, I learned the Ten Commandments in Sunday school. When we talked about keeping the Sabbath holy, I pictured bearded old men lying on dirt floors in hut-like houses, staring at their thatched ceilings and doing nothing all day. I don’t think those mental images were at all historically accurate, but it wasn’t until college that I realized my perception of the Sabbath in general was also flawed.”
Like a camera lens, Jesus is the focal point of Scripture and through the life of Christ we gain a crystal clear picture of God and the Sabbath. The Savior shows us that not only is God filled with love and compassion for lost humans, but He gave us the Sabbath as a day of healing and refreshment. Jesus explained, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
The Lord did not haphazardly make up the idea of Sabbath to make life boring and tiresome. This law was given as a gift to renew our minds and bodies through a deeper communion with Him.
Want to learn more about how to keep the Sabbath holy?
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