Body

Body

There is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who enter into God’s rest will find rest from their labors, just as God rested after creating the world. Let us do our best to enter that place of rest. For anyone who disobeys God, as the people of Israel did, will fall.

Hebrews 4:9-11

When one of our sons wrote a report about the Ten Commandments during high school, my husband noticed that something was curiously missing—the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8, NIV). Jim and I concluded that we must not have been doing a very good job of modeling this commandment. How many times had we started the week physically weary because we hadn’t relaxed on Sunday, failing to give our bodies some “Sabbath rest”?

In our goal-driven culture, the commandment to keep the Sabbath seems out of place. But before we dismiss its obligation as having passed with the coming of Christ, we might remember that we take seriously the other commandments such as those against murder, lying, and adultery. Since the Sabbath concept runs throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, surely this must be important to God.

Why rest one day each week? Our bodies need a break from the day-to-day routine of work. Our souls need strength—and so we worship with other believers and spend time in fellowship. Our emotions need refreshment—so we choose to focus on different things than we do the rest of the week. Beyond this, God has commanded us to rest, and when we obey his commands, we demonstrate our willingness to submit to his authority. Resting becomes a step of faith as we trust God to help us accomplish in six days what might otherwise take seven days each week.

Keeping the Sabbath is not something we do to earn salvation. It reminds us, though, that God rested on the seventh day, and that he has prepared a “special rest” for us on that final day when he calls us to himself in heaven.

Great Creator,

Since you rested from all your work on the seventh day, help us to be faithful and obedient in following your example. In Jesus’ name, amen.