The people of the suburban town of Ridgewood, New
Jersey stumbled into a startling discovery. I say it was startling
because they made this discovery collectively. This discovery dawned on
the majority of the people at the same time. They discovered that they
were not spending enough quality time with their families because they
were overscheduling their children.
So they took out their PalmPilots® and
Daytimers® and set up meetings with community leaders and
school officials to discuss the dilemma. And they came up with a very
simple plan. One night in the year would be declared family night and
everyone was encouraged to set aside their agendas and do nothing but
relax with their families. The school board of Ridgewood agreed not to
assign any homework for that night. The town sports council cancelled
all athletic practices, churches cancelled all programs and meetings.
Now I find all of this interesting and intriguing. But
the what happened next is even more interesting. It seems that as the
designated day approached the stress level in many families increased.
Why? Because they did not know how to use the evening. It was so novel
to spend an evening together doing nothing but enjoying each other's
company. They didn't know what to do if they weren't racing to this
practice, or participating in that event.
It really is a commentary on our North American
culture. We no longer know how to stop, to cease, to be, and not do. I
would like to suggest to you today that the whole idea of ceasing, of
stopping, of not doing, is very Biblical and vital for our spiritual
health.
God speaks at length about the idea of ceasing in what
we call the Ten Commandments. Of course He models the idea much earlier
in the book of Genesis but He puts the idea of ceasing one day a week,
of stopping - He puts that idea formally in the Ten Commandments. And
I'd like us to look at this command today because I believe that we have
forgotten why we should practice it and how to keep it. And some of us
are suffering for its neglect, suffering emotionally, physically, and in
our families. Let's think about a day of the week that God has given us
to do nothing.
The text is Exodus 20:8-11. Beginning at verse 8 we
read "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." Now there is nothing
devout about that word "Sabbath". It simply means quit. Stop. Take a
break. Cool it.
So we are to take a day to stop, we are to keep it
holy. That word has many meanings in Scripture but here it means to be
set apart. So we are take a day and set it apart from all the other days
by stopping, ceasing.
What are we to do the other days? Verse 9 and 10, "Six
days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a
Sabbath to the Lord your God."
What does that mean "the seventh day is a Sabbath to
the Lord your God?" It means that the seventh day is a day when we quit
our working in order to honour God. There is a purpose to our ceasing.
It is a day to think about God, praise God, talk to God, trust God.
Now this is something we don't think of often. God is
honored when we take a day to do no work. God is honored when we stop
our doing and simply be. To be sure we don't want to compartmentalize
life, God is isn't saying that our work is wrong or bad. Indeed, work is
a very good thing and it too is a gift from God and needs to be given to
God for His glory.
But we humans have this nature, this idea that if we
are of worth only when we are doing. In fact, we are scared to admit
that we have nothing to do. We are afraid to stop work. If we work five
or six days a week in the office or factory, we use the one or two other
days to do work at home.
People ask us what are you doing this weekend? Do you
say nothing? Never! We say we've got a busy weekend, got to cut the
grass, do the grocery shopping, take the kids here and there. It's going
to be busy.
We all know that busyness is praised and applauded. It
has become a virtue. There is a fellow I often speak to on the phone and
every time I call him he begins the conversation with a question and a
statement - "Tom how are you? I hope you are keeping busy." And I'm
afraid to answer that - I'm at a loss for words. If I say, "Well no I'm
not busy at all." I'm afraid that he may think less of me. For a good
person, a moral person, a productive person in our society is always a
busy person.
You see we have this nature and it carries over into
our relationship with God and we begin to think that we do not please
God unless we are doing. But here the text says that in my ceasing,
stopping, I am honouring God. It is so contrary to our nature and to our
values, but it is so in line with the God who was revealed to us in
Jesus Christ. Jesus came and told us that we are loved by God and cared
for by God not because of anything we have done but simply because we
are.
That is so freeing. In a world that has so many
expectations of us to produce and to accomplish and to be busy, isn't it
good to know that we worship a God who does not base His love for you,
His value of you according to what you have done?
Some of us come from families where there are
expectations - not a bad thing to hope and dream for your children - but
when love and affection is based on the successful completion of those
expectations that is very difficult to live with.
But God is not like that. His love for us is not based
on our accomplishments, but simply because we are. And He loves us. So
God is saying take a day a week and stop trying to produce and know that
I love you for who you are.
Our text continues with the middle of verse 10, "On it
you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor
your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within
your gates." So everyone is to take a day to cease. Now the Jewish
people got very caught up with the whole idea of the definition of work.
And they got caught up in a whole legalistic idea of what could be done
and what could not be done. It was so bad that Jesus couldn't even heal
on the Sabbath without raising the anger of the Jewish leaders.
The point of setting a day a part is not that we come
up with a whole list of prohibitions. Each of us will be able to keep
the day in different ways according to our personality and situation in
life. The point is that we do keep a day apart to cease and in so doing
honour God. Jesus certainly did not have a set of rules for the keeping
of this special day called the Sabbath, but at the same time is very
clear that Jesus did keep this special day called the Sabbath.
When we come to verse 11 we come to another reason why
we need to set aside one day in seven to stop. Verse 11 - "For in six
days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is
in them, and He rested on the seventh day." We learn here that we are to
cease on the seventh day because this is what God did. We are following
his example when we cease.
Does this text mean that God needed to take a nap? No,
God is boundless energy. We know from Scripture that He who watches over
Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. No, what it means is that God set
this day apart to enjoy His creation. AND I would suggest He set it
apart for Himself to be with Himself - as an example to us. It was not
because God is full of pride and self- love - we know He isn't. But He
did this to show us that there needs to be a day when we do not
concentrate on work, when we do not focus on activity, when we do not
think about productivity, but instead concentrate on Him, when we stop
and recognize Him as the giver of all that we have.
Have you ever considered this - Adam and Eve,
according to the Genesis account were created on the sixth day. Humanity
is then, the pinnacle of God's creation. Now Adam and Eve went to bed
that night (I'm sure they got a full eight hours sleep) and then they
woke up the next morning - the seventh day. And Eve looked at Adam and
said, "What are we doing today, Adam?" And Adam looked at Eve and said,
"Nothing, it's a day off. Let's go and enjoy God."
Why? It's not that being created was so hard for Adam
and Eve. But God was establishing from the very beginning, from the very
start, that what was of first importance was that His creation enjoy
Him, spend time with Him, trust Him.
So we could say that the pinnacle of that week was not
the sixth day when humanity was created, but the seventh day, when
humanity rested in the presence and joy of God Himself. And that's the
way the Jewish people have always looked at the Sabbath, it is not the
start of the week, but the climatic end to the week.
So what have we learned so far? First, God has asked
that we set aside one day in seven to chill out, to stop to cease.
Second - This is not because He's a grump in heaven, but rather He wants
us to stop striving, working, trying and to know that we are loved by
Him simply because we are. Thirdly, the point of it all is not that we
draw up a set of rules, but that we cease, and that will be different
for each one of us, we cease our work and honor God. Fourthly, we do
this because it is the example that God has given us.
Finally, there is one more point here - one more
sentence at the end of verse 11 - "Therefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and made it holy." We've looked at that the word holy, it
means to set apart as special. The Lord has set the seventh day apart
and made it special.
But there is one more word that we haven't examined,
the word "blessed". Sometimes it means "favoured". But I believe that it
means more than that here - it means that God has brought about
fruitfulness. We see the word blessed used in this way in Psalm 1. We
read, "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers but his
delight in the law of the Lord."
And then we are given the description of this blessed
state. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, says the text,
which yields its fruit in seas and whose leaf does not whither. Whatever
He does prospers.
The idea of fruitfulness. So God has blessed this
special day, that is He has made it fruitful. And so we come to that
counterculture idea that we can be fruitful when we stop work. It really
is an extraordinary, wonderful idea. But one that we would all fully
agree with
Wouldn't we say that a day was fruitful if in our
cessation of work you came to realize that God loves you for who you are
and not what you are able to accomplish? Wouldn't you say that it was a
fruitful day if in your cessation of work you had a deeper sense of
God's love for you? Wouldn't you say that it was a fruitful day if after
spending the day thinking about God and following His example of ceasing
work you were refreshed and renewed?
Certainly that is the result for anyone who spends
time with God. You can try every form of recreation and its power will
soon leave you and you'll be tired and drained again. But as Henry
Jowett has said, "Get the soul restored then every part of you will be
restored and rejuvenated." He went on to say there is more real
recreation in one hour of communion with God than a whole weekend at the
beach.
My friends, Jesus said that the Sabbath was designed
for you and for me. The seventh day is not supposed to be a downer. It
is a God designed day so that we could stop our working, and striving
and accomplishing and embrace His love for each one of us. May that be a
reality for you as you seek to follow in His way.
