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Gratefully, there is a day at the end of each busy week which God has declared to be sacred, holy, and a time during which we can rest as we worship Him and enjoy His creation. That day is the seventh day of the week, and unfortunately it’s the center of a controversy which involves the question, “Which is the correct day of worship—Sunday or Saturday?”
Sabbath Rest
By Alexis A. Goring
“I work seven days a week,” a stressed-out teacher told me the other day.
“You can rest when you die,” one postal worker told her colleague after overhearing her conversation about how she needed a break.
“What do you do all day Sabbath?” one curious employee asked his boss.
What do all three of these scenarios share in common? All three of the people desired rest.
Gratefully, there is a day at the end of each busy week which God has declared to be sacred, holy, and a time during which we can rest as we worship Him and enjoy His creation. That day is the seventh day of the week, and unfortunately it’s the center of a controversy which involves the question, “Which is the correct day of worship—Sunday or Saturday?”
The Creator of humankind has made the answer clear: “ ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God’ ” (Exod. 20:10, NKJV). Why? “ ‘For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it’ ” (Exod. 20:11, NKJV; also see Genesis 2:2, 3).
According to “Guidelines for Sabbath Observance”
the Sabbath encompassesour entire relationship with God. It is an indication of God’s action on our behalf in the past, present, and future. The Sabbath protects man’s friendship with God and provides the time essential for the development of that relationship. The Sabbath clarifies the relationship between God and the human family, for it points to God as Creator at a time when human beings would like to usurp God’s position in the universe. In this age of materialism, the Sabbath points men and women to the spiritual and to the personal. The consequences for forgetting the Sabbath day to keep it holy are serious. It will lead to the distortion and eventual destruction of a person's relationship with God. When the Sabbath is kept, it is a witness to the rest that comes from trusting God alone as our Sustainer, as the basis of our salvation, and as the ground of our hope in the future. As such, the Sabbath is a delight because we have entered God’s rest and have accepted the invitation to fellowship with Him. When God asks us to remember the Sabbath day, He does so because He wants us to remember Him.*
How wonderful is that! The Creator of the Universe wants us, His creation, to remember Him!
Let’s go back to the teacher who works seven days a week. She’s tired and understandably stressed. She may think that she has to work every day to pay the bills or help out a family member. Whatever her situation, imagine how she would feel if she made room in her life to experience the beauty and rejuvenating power of Sabbath rest. Imagine her life with 24 hours of peace and prayer (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday). I imagine this teacher returning to work on Monday with a soft smile gracing her face.
What does the Sabbath rest mean to you? How could it help you cope with whatever you need to accomplish next week, the rest of this month, or the rest of this year? As you contemplate the answers to these questions, consider what God has done for you through Jesus Christ and what He longs to do for you whenever you take time out on the Sabbath to spend 24 hours in a special way with Him.
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*Guidelines for Sabbath Observance. “Sabbath—A Safeguard of Our Relationship With God.” http ://www.adventist.org/beliefs/other_documents/other_doc6.html (accessed March 29, 2010).