Sabbath

As part of the discipleship course I help to run, we spend 9 months going through the bible, following it's narrative.

We call it 'God's Story' because that's what the bible is!

It's the story of who God is, how He interacts with His creation and what His plan is for the world. It's proved to be a really powerful way to read the bible as it helps prevent the bible from being that intimidating book on the shelf and uncovers the really exciting and interesting story that we now find ourselves in!

Anyway, this week we have started in Genesis (in the beginning and all that) and once again I've been struck by the importance of 'Sabbath', which is translated to mean 'Stop'.

How often do I stop?

How often do I take the time to just ask those tough questions of life?

How often do I stop and just realise I am alive?

How often do I stop and look at the stars in the sky and allow myself to get lost?

How often do I stop and just ask God how He is doing?

To Sabbath was a commandment to the Jewish people. Why? Two reasons;

1) God did (Genesis 2:1-3), which is good enough for me.

2) To remind them that they weren't slaves anymore (Deut 5:15). When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, they worked long hours, seven days a week. By Sabbathing, they were being reminded that they were free from oppression and their identity was not in what they did or produced, but in God.

They were saved from something, for something.

I think many of us understand that we should Sabbath because God did and it's good to rest, but how many of us realise that Sabbathing is vital in understanding who we are in God.

In our Western consumeristic culture, it's so easy to fill our days with stuff (tv, shopping etc), or to work longer hours so we can have more free time in the future (which never seems to happen) or to just want to climb that corporate ladder, but is there are a danger that we are creeping back into slavery?

When we 'Shabbat' or stop from the day-to-day activities of life, we begin to realise that the world in not in our control. We again realise that we are not the centre of the universe and that there is so much more going on around us that is beyond us. We find enjoyment again in creation both in nature and in the people around us who are made in God's image.

Euguene Petersen put's it like this;

“Sabbath is a deliberate act of interference, an interruption of our week each week, a decree of no-work so that we are able to notice, to attend, to listen, to assimilate this comprehensive and majestic work of God, to orient our work in the work of God.”

To Sabbath is a deliberate act. It doesn't just happen!

My prayer for you is that you would rediscover the joy of Sabbathing and that you would find your true identity in it's midst.