Our church community just finished a ten-part series on the ten commandments where we carefully looked at each commandment to get the meat and juice out of each one. It was a wonderful sermon series, and people have been blessed by it.
Looking back at the series, it's hard to notice how each and every single commandment was thought through by God. None of them are unimportant and none of them are non-essential. But we have to admit that, looking through the ten commandments, we treat some more lightly than others.
We are careful and aware of the temptations towards murder, idolatry and stealing, but we don't pay as much attention to the commandments on bearing false witness and covetousness. But, really, the command that many of us think of less is the commandment on the Sabbath.
Funny enough, amongst all the commandments, God actually spoke more about the one on the Sabbath. There were four verses on the commandment of the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8–11) while the others only had one or two. I have to admit that there are times when I forget that God commanded the Sabbath in the ten commandments. I'm not saying we should take the other commandments more lightly, but that we should take this one more seriously.
Fewer and fewer people are finding it necessary to enter into God's rest. I'm not just talking about sleeping in, staying at home or going on a vacation. Sabbath means more than just rest for the body. In Matthew 11:29, Jesus invites us to rest our souls in Him: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (ESV).
Resting the soul is more important than you think. Resting in God means more than just taking a break. It signifies our trust in Him that He will keep working on our affairs even if we don't. So many people choose not to rest because they would rather depend on their own strength than on God's.
We need the Sabbath more than we will ever know. It's in the Sabbath that God refuels and replenishes us with divine passion to do the things we are set out to do—work, family, ministry and every other activity we do. It's in the Sabbath that we reconnect with God's voice and His instructions so we can do things well and clearly. It's in the Sabbath that we allow God to work in the areas we cannot handle on our own.
Sabbath isn't really about the day and the pausing of physical ability. It's about the Person whom we spend Sabbath with. Do you respond to Jesus' invitation to rest in Him? If we don't, we could actually lose more than we think we will gain out of one extra day of work. We can lose more money, time, energy, resources and passion.
But when we take time to rest, we connect to the true source of all of these things. Matthew 6:33b reminds us to "...seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (ESV).
