The Seventh Day
The keeping of the Sabbath made Israel distinct, but the Creation account tells us clearly that the Sabbath day actually precedes Israel: there is a Sabbath from the very beginning of everything.
The Sabbath does not depend on a celestial calendar; the cycles of the moon or the stars have no bearing on the Sabbath: it just comes every seven days, no matter what.
On the Sabbath, the people of God rest, because God rested, and when the people of God rest, they are showing with their lives that they trust God to provide for them. Every seven days there is a reminder: God provides, and he can be trusted.
Keeping Sabbath Today
There is much more to discuss about this topic than I have time for in this post, but I would like to say something provocative: I’m beginning to think Christians should keep the Sabbath today. I don’t think Sunday worship is the same as Sabbath, and though I understand why the early Christians got away from the Sabbath—they wanted to show that a person is saved because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and not in the keeping of the Jewish Law—I think we should think hard about reclaiming it.
In practice, keeping the Sabbath would mean that Christians would deliberately structure their Saturdays to be about family and friends and celebration. No work would be done—no emails, no shopping, no yard work, no tax returns. Instead, we would have folks over for dinner, go to the park, read, play board games, go for walks, etc.
Can you imagine how America would change for the better if the Christians started keeping Sabbath?
Just as an experiment, why don’t you try it this Saturday?
Let me know how it goes.
Today’s Scripture