Different Life: 3rd CommandmentSample

Here’s the third commandment. It’s worth repeating in full: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exod 20:8-11 NIV).

Many people think the third commandment is about going to church. It’s not about going to church. It’s about rest. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Israel is told to remember that. God rested. We should, too.

Even in an age of five-day work weeks and modern conveniences, there’s still more to do than can ever be done. How much more in a day and age of subsistence-level farming and pioneer-like self-sufficiency? Today, “to-do” lists demand our every moment. In Israel’s day, survival did.

Here, God invites us to trust him with our most precious resource. Time. People scramble to maximize and hold onto every second. God invites us to trust he is over time, outside of time, and controls time. That the time we give him, he can pour back on us seven-fold. So we can rest because life and our future do not depend on us. Will you trust that God will provide? Will you trust that all things are under his control? Will you trust your needs and future and most precious commodity to him? That’s the invitation of the Sabbath.