Sabbath Rest in a Restless WorldChikamu

The Sabbath as a Gift

Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (v. 11)

There are two places in the Old Testament where the Ten Commandments are recorded: Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Both list Sabbath-keeping as the fourth commandment, but they differ slightly in their reasons. Exodus 20 grounds the Sabbath in creation, whereas Deuteronomy 6 grounds it in liberation. Today, let’s look at the creation account.

In Exodus 20, God’s people are commanded to keep the Sabbath as a way of remembering Eden. God worked for six days, and on the seventh day, God rested. As divine image bearers, we are commanded to follow God’s pattern by resting on the seventh day as well. As we saw in yesterday’s reading, God doesn’t need rest like we need rest. But in his kindness, God gives us a model of a healthy work/rest rhythm. Mark Buchanan points out the hidden irony of the fourth commandment: we are called to imitate God to remember that we are not God. He writes, “We mirror divine behavior only to freshly discover our human limitations. Sabbath-keeping involves recognition of our own weakness and smallness, that we are made from dust, that we hold our treasure in clay jars, and that without proper care we break” (The Rest of God).

Sabbath is not just a command; it is God’s gift to us. When we observe the Sabbath and learn to embrace our limits, we discover the joy and freedom of what it means to be truly human.

As you pray, thank God for the gift of the Sabbath and ask him to help you embrace your limits today.