The Importance of Shabbat

On our last day in Israel, we needed to find a restaurant before we headed to the airport for our Friday 10:30 p.m. flight, but every Jewish owned establishment in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv closed at sundown because of Shabbat, so we had to locate an alternative.

Jewish people in Israel take the Sabbath seriously. There is no work, no striving, and no shopping. Saturday is designed for worship and time at home relaxing with family.

I thought, We used to do that in the United States. It was common for shopping malls to be closed down, grocery stores to open after Sunday worship, businesses to be closed, but now the closed business is an exception to the rule. Major chains Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-a are two businesses that only operate Monday-Saturday. I can’t think of any others.

It isn’t easy to keep the Sabbath in the U.S. or Israel. It hardly exists in our country, and there have been long-running “Sabbath wars” in Israel with the city’s secular Jewish population pitted against the ultra-Orthodox community. According to an April, 2014 Los Angeles Times article, last April, a group of protesters gathered at a grand opening of a large movie theatre in Jerusalem chanting “Jerusalem, wake up! Nonreligious people are equal too!”

However, I think our sovereign God is saying, “My people wake up!”

As believers, we have a tendency to pick and choose which part of the Bible we will follow. In this case, keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments we regularly overlook.

“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, neighbor 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.”

The word “Sabbath” or “Shabbat” means “to cease, to end or to rest. According to an educational Jewish website, http://www.jewfaq.org the Shabbat is actually “a precious gift from G-d, a day of great joy eagerly awaited throughout the week, a time when we can set aside all of our weekday concerns and devote ourselves to higher pursuits.”

If it’s a gift from God, why is it one of the most difficult commandments to keep?

Before you think I am judging, I know I regularly break my Abba Father’s heart, because I am the worst at keeping the Sabbath. I clean, I work, I host groups, and still occasionally grocery shop on Sunday’s. I have tried to rest on the Sabbath before, but my old ways always sneak back in. My message in Israel was to return to my Hebraic roots, but I know I cannot return and disregard Shabbat.

Today, as I attempt to overcome my second respiratory infection in four months, I see it as a wake up call. I am not invincible. Perhaps I am speaking to you right now. I need rest, at least one day a week. Even God rested, and I am just a fallen creature. I wonder how healthy I will be with a once-a-week Sabbath break from activity?

Are you ready to try this with me?

If my arguments are not convincing enough, in Isaiah 58:13-14, God promises joy if we keep he Sabbath:

“’If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.’
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’”

Did you hear that? Keeping the Sabbath should be a delight. By doing so, it will cause us to ride in triumph, and there will be joy.  I’m in!

I pray Lord that your Holy Spirit will help us to keep the Sabbath from this day forward. If we are committed to serve at church on Sunday’s, then remind us to set aside another day of rest, where we cease from the busyness of life and spend more time with you and family. We know it’s your will for our lives, and in our best interest. Give us the determination to give up our personal pursuits, and devote one day a week to the rest we require as fragile, human creatures. AMEN