The rest
This week's study is on Isaiah 58:13-14:
The sharper among you may notice that these verses follow last week's. Where fasting is giving up self-indulgence, observing the Sabbath could be said to be giving up business as usual, or giving up a human-centered life. Observing the Sabbath breaks the fleshy routine of striving to build something for yourself, while also letting the clouds clear a bit and giving you a glimpse of God. You realise the world could go on very well without you messing with it.
Sabbath verses often get twisted in order to boost church attendance. The same churches that teach about tithing in a "God wants to bless you but he can't because you haven't put enough money into the building fund and Pastor's car is already three years old" sort of way also teach about Sabbath in a similarly self-serving fashion. The Sabbath to them is a way of guilt-herding the congregation into never daring to skip a church service, not even for charity.
Sabbath isn't about church, though. It's about rest, and about respecting God. That may very well mean going to church, or it may mean a walk through the countryside, or sitting in your most comfortable chair all afternoon doing nothing. The point is that it's not just another day of work. The irony of forcing people to go to church through a misapplication of these verses is that it accomplishes the very opposite of what God is asking. When you're forced to go to church, it becomes another job, one where you're paid in legalistic self-righteousness points rather than liquid currency.
God says you must look forward to the Sabbath. If you're not looking forward to it, you're doing it wrong! (Or you have another god that's upset at being put on hold for the weekend, but that's another sermon.) Rest is fantastic! And God is great! Who wouldn't look forward to both of those at the same time? But we don't think of Sabbath that way.
Instead we focus on the parts about having to observe it rather than doing whatever we please on God's holy day, and about treating it with respect. Our self-righteous nature is trying to impose it on us as a law, using the same sort of striving that we're supposed to set aside on the Sabbath! The Pharisees got wrapped up in it that way and used it as a day to work furiously to condemn anyone not making a religious spectacle of resting. Jesus had to scold them publicly to set the record straight!
When we get a day off from work, we're usually really happy about it. But when Saturday comes along, and we have a chance to celebrate a Sabbath, we don't get excited. We schedule social events, and plan home maintenance, and pack in errands, and drive the kids to this or that. The end of the day comes and we're just as tired as we are on a Thursday, and have not spoken to God any more than we would on a work day. Where is our modern Sabbath?
God tells us how to celebrate his Sabbath: "You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities, and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals." In other words, it's a day to not work on stuff, build stuff, worry about stuff, or be caught up in a routine. It's the same idea as his command to let your fields go fallow every seven years. He doesn't say to plant something different that year. He says to let it rest.
The promise God makes to the people in Isaiah's time is interesting. He promises them joy in their relationship with God, prosperity, and lots of crops. That's sort of the opposite you'd expect for someone who is giving up on using one day a week. You'd expect more crop problems, less prosperity, and maybe resentment against God for holding them back from reaching their full potential. But that's not what happens.
The commands God gave to Israel in the Old Testament don't necessarily translate into the New Testament as commands. Just as we're not bringing ten percent of our gross paycheck and garden produce into church every week to fund a theocratic government and social safety net, we're not religiously blocking out every Saturday to sit with the lights out and TV turned off, resting from all of the work we did the other six days. But the principles are still true to what God desires of us.
Just as tithing verses remind us how important it is to be generous with what we have, the Sabbath verses should remind us to stop once a week and take a break from things, to relax and reflect on how much God has blessed us.
You must observe the Sabbath
rather than doing anything you please on my holy day.
You must look forward to the Sabbath
and treat the Lord’s holy day with respect.
You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities,
and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals.
Then you will find joy in your relationship to the Lord,
and I will give you great prosperity,
and cause crops to grow on the land I gave to your ancestor Jacob.”
Know for certain that the Lord has spoken.
The sharper among you may notice that these verses follow last week's. Where fasting is giving up self-indulgence, observing the Sabbath could be said to be giving up business as usual, or giving up a human-centered life. Observing the Sabbath breaks the fleshy routine of striving to build something for yourself, while also letting the clouds clear a bit and giving you a glimpse of God. You realise the world could go on very well without you messing with it.
Sabbath verses often get twisted in order to boost church attendance. The same churches that teach about tithing in a "God wants to bless you but he can't because you haven't put enough money into the building fund and Pastor's car is already three years old" sort of way also teach about Sabbath in a similarly self-serving fashion. The Sabbath to them is a way of guilt-herding the congregation into never daring to skip a church service, not even for charity.
Sabbath isn't about church, though. It's about rest, and about respecting God. That may very well mean going to church, or it may mean a walk through the countryside, or sitting in your most comfortable chair all afternoon doing nothing. The point is that it's not just another day of work. The irony of forcing people to go to church through a misapplication of these verses is that it accomplishes the very opposite of what God is asking. When you're forced to go to church, it becomes another job, one where you're paid in legalistic self-righteousness points rather than liquid currency.
God says you must look forward to the Sabbath. If you're not looking forward to it, you're doing it wrong! (Or you have another god that's upset at being put on hold for the weekend, but that's another sermon.) Rest is fantastic! And God is great! Who wouldn't look forward to both of those at the same time? But we don't think of Sabbath that way.
Instead we focus on the parts about having to observe it rather than doing whatever we please on God's holy day, and about treating it with respect. Our self-righteous nature is trying to impose it on us as a law, using the same sort of striving that we're supposed to set aside on the Sabbath! The Pharisees got wrapped up in it that way and used it as a day to work furiously to condemn anyone not making a religious spectacle of resting. Jesus had to scold them publicly to set the record straight!
When we get a day off from work, we're usually really happy about it. But when Saturday comes along, and we have a chance to celebrate a Sabbath, we don't get excited. We schedule social events, and plan home maintenance, and pack in errands, and drive the kids to this or that. The end of the day comes and we're just as tired as we are on a Thursday, and have not spoken to God any more than we would on a work day. Where is our modern Sabbath?
God tells us how to celebrate his Sabbath: "You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities, and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals." In other words, it's a day to not work on stuff, build stuff, worry about stuff, or be caught up in a routine. It's the same idea as his command to let your fields go fallow every seven years. He doesn't say to plant something different that year. He says to let it rest.
The promise God makes to the people in Isaiah's time is interesting. He promises them joy in their relationship with God, prosperity, and lots of crops. That's sort of the opposite you'd expect for someone who is giving up on using one day a week. You'd expect more crop problems, less prosperity, and maybe resentment against God for holding them back from reaching their full potential. But that's not what happens.
The commands God gave to Israel in the Old Testament don't necessarily translate into the New Testament as commands. Just as we're not bringing ten percent of our gross paycheck and garden produce into church every week to fund a theocratic government and social safety net, we're not religiously blocking out every Saturday to sit with the lights out and TV turned off, resting from all of the work we did the other six days. But the principles are still true to what God desires of us.
Just as tithing verses remind us how important it is to be generous with what we have, the Sabbath verses should remind us to stop once a week and take a break from things, to relax and reflect on how much God has blessed us.
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