 Remember to keep the Sabbath holy!
The Role of Memory Memory is vital to long-term relationships. Remembering anniversaries, re-telling the stories of special events we have shared together, scheduling regular dates to get away together, and dressing up or otherwise marking those dates as special--these are all important to keeping the passion alive. It should not come as a surprise, then, that this "Fourth Word," as it is related in Exodus 20:8, begins with a command to remember! It is similar in form to the command that Moses gives in Exodus 13:3 (see Deuteronomy 16:3, Esther 9:28), "Remember this day!" There it means to "commemorate" or "celebrate" the anniversary of a major event in the life of the people, the day that God brought them out of the land of Egypt and delivered them from the house of bondage. It was the day they stopped serving the death-dealing god, Pharaoh, and started to worship the life-dealing LORD God. They were to commemorate it by eating "unleavened bread" (bread with no yeast) to celebrate the Passover. God is the very best example of someone who honors his long-term relationships with people by keeping their names and situations alive in his memory--and keeping the appointments he makes. (Psalm 8:4, 103:14-18, 105:8, 42) God especially remembers Noah and his family, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Rachel and Hannah. (Genesis 8:1, 19:29, 30:22, Exodus 2:24, Leviticus 26:45, I Samuel 1:19) God remembers his covenant (a binding agreement, like marriage) with various people and also with "all living, breathing things," but especially with Israel. (Genesis 9:15-16, Exodus 6:5, Isaiah 44:21) God even remembers the land. (Leviticus 26:42) God can be counted on, and in some cases "called on," to remember all of his promises. (Exodus 32:13) God's capacious memory will prod him to bring his people deliverance from their enemies. (Numbers 10:9) On the other hand, God can also wipe evil-doers from his memory, ending their existence. (Exodus 17:14, Psalm 34:16, 109:15; or as in Deuteronomy 32:26, God will "give the memory of them a sabbath") Or, in mercy and love, God may remember only his promises--and wipe his memory of our offending misdeeds. (Deuteronomy 9:27, Psalm 25:7, 79:8, 106:45, Isaiah 43:25-26, Habakkuk 3:2, Ezekiel 33:16) God asks that we remember him over the whole course of our lifetimes with the same sort of diligence that he shows in remembering us. God asks that we remember him with honor and respect, that we keep the relationship fresh by setting aside special times to renew the passion and recall the good times we have enjoyed together. For God's name and memory to continue alive with humankind for longer than the brief span of one individual's existence, requires that we make of the LORD's name and memory an enduring legacy, a memorial, to be passed on with diligence and care from one generation to the next. (Exodus 3:15, Deuteronomy 32:7, Psalm 6:5, 45:17) If we cultivate our relationship with God, eventually the whole world will remember the LORD. (Psalm 22:27, Jeremiah 31:34) The way that we act out this rememberance of the LORD may be very simple; it may be a crude, earthen altar, nothing at all elaborate. (Exodus 20:24) But we are encouraged to use some sort of aide-mémoire to help our sinfully defective memories recall God's commandments. (Numbers 15:39-40, Judges 8:34, Psalm 78:42, Isaiah 17:10) And we are to remember the times in our relationship with God that we have failed to keep our promises. (Deuteronomy 9:7, Ezekiel 36:31) In no instance should we give place in our memories or on our lips to the names of other gods. (Exodus 23:13, Joshua 23:7, Isaiah 26:13-14, Zechariah 13:2) Nor should we use our memories of better days to accuse God of present-day neglect in his care for us. (Numbers 11:5-6) Rather, we should use our memories of worse days past to increase our thankfulness to God for the rescue and loving care we have now received. (Deuteronomy 5:15, 15:15, 16:12, 24:18, etc.) When God seems far away and we feel lonely and alone, missing the one we love, we can recall these special times we spent together and remember the love we share. (Psalm 42:5-7, 63:6, Song of Solomon 1:4) Remembering God's strong deliverance bolsters our faith and trust in God's deliverance. (Deuteronomy 7:18, 8:2; Psalm 20:7) Remembering God's punishments steers us toward the right path. (Deuteronomy 24:9) But there are also times, when the relationship needs a "reset" so that we can head in a new direction--times when God wants us to forget all about the past so that we can get on with our brand new future together. (Isaiah 43:18, 65:17) Not Just Another Appointment to Keep  Passover is not the special day God tells us to remember in Exodus 20:8, it is the Sabbath. In the Fourth Commandment our "memorial day" is not an annual event but a weekly occurrence. It is not so much the anniversary of a major event that happened to us long ago, but the scheduling (and keeping) of an upcoming date night. We have an appointment to keep with God! (Actually, a "standing appointment," "regularly recurring appointments," Leviticus 19:3.) But unlike our other appointments and the other items on our to-do lists, there is nothing for us to do to keep this appointment. Keeping this appointment means, simply, coming to a full stop. The verb (Hebrew, shabat) means, literally, to stop what we are doing.  Once again, God provides the supreme example of this way of nurturing our relationship. Busy as God is, the LORD keeps this regular appointment for our sake. (Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:11) The LORD who provides for us also sees to it that we receive enough of life's necessities, especially of food, in six days to live for the full seven. (Exodus 16:12-36, Deuteronomy 5:13; or enough in six years to last for seven, Leviticus 25:4, 6; or enough in forty-nine years for the fiftieth, Leviticus 25:8-10) [Illustrations. Norman Rockwell has two great illustrations of Sabbath-keeping (or Sabbath-breaking). The first is entitled "Freedom from Want," an illustration of a family at dinner, celebrating! The second is entitled "Sunday Morning" (05/16/1959)]Celebration In Deuteronomy 5:12, the commandment is to "keep" (watch, observe or celebrate, Hebrew shamor) the Sabbath. God wants the appointment we keep with him to be a time of special celebration. Sabbath is a holiday, a weekly holiday! The Sabbath is a day for coming together as the people of God, not only for a holy time but also at a holy place (Leviticus 19:30, 23:3, 26:2, 2 Kings 11:5-9, 16:18, 1 Chronicles 9:32, Ezekiel 23:38, etc.). It is a time to celebrate locally the deliverance won for all of us by God. (Leviticus 24:8) It is a time to bring offerings to demonstrate and communicate our love for God and our thanks for what God has done for us. (Leviticus 23:11, 15-16, 32, 38; Numbers 28:9-10, 1 Chronicles 23:31, etc.) Sabbath is worship time. (Isaiah 66:23) Contagious Holiness The LORD commands that we set aside one day in seven for our appointment with God, the Sabbath (Hebrew noun, shabbat). The only thing we need to do to keep this vital appointment, as we have said, is to stop all our usual preoccupations on this day so that we may focus on our relationship with God. This "Fourth Word" is also a word of outreach and evangelism. With it, we have come to the end of the commandments that comprise the first tablet and God has already begun to draw our attention to the needs of our neighbors. (Exodus 20:10, 23:12, Deuteronomy 5:14) Notice how it is not just us, but also the whole world that joins in Sabbath-keeping when we keep it well. By keeping our appointments with God, we open the opportunity and increase the chances that others will join in our celebration of God's grace. Even the land joins us for the keeping of the Sabbath. Just as God remembers the land (above) in his promises, we are also joined by the land and every living, breathing creature (even our enemies!) in remembering the LORD by our Sabbath keeping. (Leviticus 25:2, 4; 26:34-35, 43; 2 Chronicles 36:21; Isaiah 56:6) In the Year of Jubilee (the fiftieth year, the "sabbath year of sabbath years") those who are in slavery to us are to be freed, those who are in debt to us forgiven, those who have lost their homes restored to them as a visible sign of God's forgiveness, redemption, and deliverance for all of us. By attending only to our relationship with God on the Sabbath, we render the Sabbath holy for us and others, especially our children. (Exodus 31:13-17. Perhaps it is better to say that "God makes the Sabbath holy.") Holiness is an attribute of proximity to God. Our holiness is always holiness-by-association with God. The closer something is to God, the holier it is. The more of ordinary life and work (Exodus 34:21, 35:2-3, Numbers 15:32, Jeremiah 17:21-27) that we put down, cut off, stop, and leave behind on the Sabbath, the closer we come to attending only to our relationship with God and the holier our keeping of the Sabbath becomes. And the holier our Sabbaths become, the holier we become. (And vice versa, Ezekiel 22:26, etc.) The Christian Sabbath The first thing to note is that Jesus kept the Sabbath by doing the things we have already mentioned, especially by keeping an appointment to gather with the community of faith for celebration, Scripture reading, and prayer. (Mark 1:21; 6:2; Luke 4:16, 31; 13:10; a custom kept by the apostles and also by Paul, Acts 13:14, 13:42, 16:13, 17:2, etc.) However, Jesus was also known to have rather different ideas about Sabbath-keeping. For example, Jesus did not prohibit his disciples from picking grain to eat (doing ordinary "work") on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:1-5, Mark 2:23-28, Luke 6:1-5) When confronted about it, Jesus responded by appealing to the core meaning of the Sabbath ("mercy" or letting go, forgiveness) and his presence and authority as Lord of the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:6-8, Mark 2:28, Luke 6:5, John 5:18) As the Lord, he had authority to direct how Sabbath would be kept. He also indicated a clear set of priorities inherent in the order of creation: the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:24) His clear direction (and example) was that "doing good" (healing the sick and disabled, saving lives, and the like) is Sabbath-keeping, not Sabbath-breaking. (Matthew 12:10-12, Mark 3:2-4, Luke 6:6-9, 13:14-16, 14:1-5, John 5:9-18, 7:22-23, 9:1-16) For Christians, the observance of Sabbath took on a whole new meaning with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead on the first day of the week (the day following the Sabbath; Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1-2, 9; Luke 23:54-24:1; John 19:31-20:1). Everything that the Old Testament Sabbath means--forgiveness, freedom, redemption, rest, and the like--is now represented for Christians by the events of the First Day of the Week, the Lord's Day, the Christian Sabbath. It is a day of worship, a day of Scripture reading and prayer, a day of breaking bread in Christian fellowship, a day for offerings, a day for healing and forgiveness. (John 20:19, Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2, Revelation 1:10) How to Keep the Fourth Commandment As with so much else in life, we can twist even "Sabbath celebration" into something other than what God intends. (Isaiah 1:13) It can become rote rather than passionate. It can become about ceremony instead of about deep relationship with God. The key to Sabbath-keeping is letting go of everything but God. It is about letting go of evil and holding on to good. (Isaiah 56:2) The hardest things to let go of in life are our time, our sense of control, and those "grudges" we hold against others. The "ultimate Sabbath" is a happy surrender of ourselves to God's time, God's will, and God's provision--and a willing sharing of God with others. The "ultimate Sabbath" is a party of forgiveness. To reach the "ultimate Sabbath," we must cling ever more to God. When our days are full of the presence of God, we will not cling to our own resources or protect our own interests. Faith and trust in God will trump the need to do for ourselves, and to grab for things that are not eternal. Discussion Questions Read Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15, and Mark 2:23-3:6 1) Notice the different basis given for the establishment of the Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20:11 (God's own Sabbath keeping) and Deuteronomy 5:15 (God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt). Which reason for keeping the Sabbath would include more people than just the people of Israel? We once had "blue laws" in the U.S.A. to encourage Sabbath keeping even by atheists. Was this a good thing? Should such laws be restored? Why or why not? 2) Christians seem to have taken Jesus' statements about the Sabbath to mean that any work we (=I?) define as necessary is permissible on the Sabbath. (See Isaiah 58:13) Do you think Jesus meant we could do whatever we want on the Sabbath? Does the fact that the Sabbath was made for us (not us for the Sabbath) mean that we can ignore all of the Old Testament directions about keeping the Sabbath holy? 3) Most of the time when Jesus talked about the requirements of the Torah, he increased the challenge of keeping them for his followers (for example, anger is murder for followers of Jesus). How does loving and following Jesus increase the challenge for us of keeping the Sabbath holy? How is Jesus' requirement for Sabbath keeping harder than that of Moses? 4) How did your family keep the Sabbath when you were growing up? How does your family keep the Sabbath now? 5) Is our Sabbath-keeping a kind of "practice" for heaven? (Joshua 5:12) Why or why not? 6) Can preachers, Sunday School teachers, and musicians and choirs keep the Sabbath? If so, how? 7) Jesus references the Jubilee in his famous inaugural "Sabbath sermon" at his hometown of Nazareth in Luke 4:18-19. Today, people on both the right and the left want to claim Jesus' Sabbath message for their own. (See Glenn Beck http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/38320/, ABCNews http://abcnews.go.com/WN/glenn-beck-social-justice-christians-rage-back-nazism/story?id=10085008, and Jim Wallis http://blog.sojo.net/2010/09/02/an-open-letter-to-glenn-beck/). The Jubilee required the mandatory erasing of all debt. Does Sabbath-keeping require a commitment to "Social Justice"? Why or why not? 8) God told Israel that if they failed to rest on the Sabbath, God would enforce a Sabbath rest in which they could not work the land, cities would lie desolated, and work places be deserted. Do you think that the Creator has written into the "law of nature" this need for rest? Is rest unavoidable? Recent studies have suggested that our brains are not getting their required rest because of cell phones and other electronic devices and that the brain actually enforces a rest, sometimes with disastrous results. Some people have suggested that global warming is a result of a human drive to work 24X7X365, and that nature's God will soon enforce a "time out," a required rest. What do you think? 9) Is faith in God perishing in our day from disuse more than misuse? (Davidman, p.51) What would it mean to misuse or abuse the Sabbath? What are appropriate "uses" of the Sabbath? Are we really "using" the Sabbath any longer--or has it fallen completely into disuse? 10) Make (and keep!) a date this week with God. If you are new to this sort of intimate relationship with the LORD, spending a full 24 hours together may seem a bit scary. You may want to start with just an hour or two to test the waters, especially if this is your first date. Remember, a good date requires planning, especially at the start. Is there a place that is special to you, one that you want to share, where you might meet God? Is there a place where the two of you can be alone, or would you rather be where other people are around? Do you want to bring God a gift to show your admiration? It does not need to be anything big, especially at first. It is the thought that counts. What do you need to clear from your calendar? Do you want to leave your cell phone at home (or silenced?) to show how important God is to you? What will the two of you do? Talk? (That can also be scary at first.) Is there a book you could read together? A special song the two of you can listen to together on your Ipod (tm)? Do you know any of God's interests and preferences? Can you anticipate where God might like to go, who God might like to include, what God might like to do? NOTE: To comment, log in to your Google account or e-mail the pastor at glovergl@gmail.com. Copyright © 2010 by Gregory L. Glover |
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The Fourth Word: Hallow the Day! |