Troublesome Topic: The Sabbath Was Intended as a Celebration

Lesson 1 of 3

Remember and Celebrate So Rest Can Create Intimacy

Isaiah 58:13 and 14 teach us that we will find our joy in the Lord when we call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of YHVH (read Adonai) honorable. The Rabbis say, “It is a sin to be sad on the Sabbath day.”

And “The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight.”

To observe the seventh day does not mean merely to obey or to conform to the strictness of a divine command. To observe is to celebrate the creation of the world and to create the seventh day all over again, “the majesty of holiness in time.”

“The Sabbath is not dedicated exclusively to spiritual goals. It is a day of the soul as well as the body; comfort and pleasure are an integral part of the Sabbath observance. Man in his entirety, all his faculties, must share its blessing. . .. The soul cannot celebrate alone, so the body must be invited to partake in the rejoicing of the Sabbath.”

When the Bible says: “Remember the Sabbath day in order to set it apart as holy” (Ex 20:8) the Hebrew word “to sanctify, or set apart” also means, “to betroth,” or “to marry.” The Jews saw the Sabbath as a bride, and as a queen.”

Remember in Order to Get Your Bearings

We must understand where we have come from in order to see what direction we are heading.

The foundation for the Old Testament Law was their redemption from Egypt; notice how many times in the OT you read: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt,” or something similar. The Israelites were repeatedly told to remember where they had come from and what God had done for them. Dt 5:15 ties Sabbath to remembering. It reads:

Deuteronomy 5:15

Translation

Remember that you were a slave in the land of EGYPT and that YHVH (read Adonai) your ELOHIM brought you out of there with

a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Therefore, YHVH (read Adonai) your ELOHIM has commanded you to observe

the Sabbath day.

Paraphrase

Call to mind often the fact that you were a slave in the land that is BOUND BY SIN and that THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD who is also your CREATER AND RULER rescued you from that place with demonstrations of His powerful acts and with

proof of His concern for you. That is why the THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD who is also your CREATER AND RULER has commanded you to

do everything required in relation to the day on which we pause.

The Early Christians connected their “set aside day” with the remembrance of Christ’s resurrection. That is how we ended up worshipping on Sunday instead of Saturday (although the first believers, being Jews, worshipped on Saturday and Sunday).

To get our bearings we must remember, and to remember, we must be quiet.

Remember in Order to Stay Focused

Modernism places the emphasis on our ability to figure it out on our own. Postmodernism says “it doesn’t matter, there are no good answers anyway, only more questions.” Neither Modernism nor Postmodernism cares to look at the lessons to be learned from history. Yet we know that he who ignores history is doomed to repeat it.

We cannot focus on the lessons of history during the frenetic pace of today’s endeavors. This is because we so easily shift our focus onto the needs of the present. Therefore, proper focus requires tranquility.

Staying focused is one of the reasons we participate in communion. Through this act we refocus our attention on what really matters, the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Sabbath has a similar effect. “Sabbath is a feast of remembrance and anticipation wrapped into a twenty-four-hour period of time.”

Remembrance and anticipation go together. Rest is both an anchor keeping us from drifting away from our past, and it is a balloon floating into the future and calling us to join in its exciting possibilities. Both remembering the past and anticipating the future can help us stay focused on the right goals. Being absorbed by the present is where danger is encountered, danger of losing our bearings and going off course. Few things describe American culture better than being absorbed with the moment.

Celebrate in Order to Stay Focused

Not only should we remember, but we should also celebrate. How can we have a grateful heart if we are always focused on our wants or our problems? Use your time with God to thank Him, not just to ask Him for something.

We participate in communion not only to remember but to celebrate. We usually don’t think of it as “celebrating,” but it is, in a reverent kind of way. And when we do this kind of remembering and celebrating, it helps us stay focused, focused on God rather than self, on what Jesus did for us rather than what we want to do for ourselves. As with remembering, Sabbathing has a similar effect.

Celebrate in Order to Keep out the Toxins

Proverbs 17:22 says: “A joyful heart does good like medicine, but a spirit that is afflicted and beaten down dries up the bones.”

It does very little good to detoxify our system if we then turn around and pump poison back into our system Negative thinking is a spiritual toxin! Celebrating is more than just “positive thinking,” it is giving to God what He deserves. Thank God even for the difficult times; acknowledge that He knows what He is doing. This encourages trust to grow in our hearts.

The next lesson is Rest Creates Intimacy.

Footnotes

1

Abraham Heschel, The Sabbath, p. 31.

2

Dan Allender, Sabbath, p. 4.

3

Abraham Heschel, The Sabbath, pp. 19-20.

4

Abraham Heschel, The Sabbath, p. 19.

5

Abraham Heschel, The Sabbath, pp. 53-55.

6: “Outstretched”

His arm was not limp by His side; He chose to do something. This shows initiative, which shows concern.

7: “observe”

This is actually the verb “to do, or to make,” although it has a number of secondary uses, such as “to observe” a holiday or a religious ritual. However, the ancient Hebrews never lost sight of the fact that the command was to “do something,” i.e. “do that thing or set of things associated with that day” or “Make happen everything you need to make happen in order to appropriately celebrate this day”. In this way the verb “to do” is fully inclusive of everything required on that day, and it is a concise yet powerful way to communicate all those requirements. However, “to observe” or “to keep” the Sabbath are acceptable translates in that they imply a proper “doing” of all that is expected on that holiday (the Sabbath is indeed a type of holiday, which means holy day).

8

Dan Allender, Sabbath, p. 14.