The Sabbath is such an important day to observe in Judaism. There is a submission there that I don’t see anywhere else that tells me we have a Creator that is a higher authority that is revered and respected. In Christianity, the beauty of a Sabbath seems to be misunderstood as it seems to be chalked up as just another regular day, and there for man (Mark 2:27), to do as he pleases, which in my opinion, gravely takes God for granted. In many ways the point seems missed just why God gave this day for man. It is sad to me that people generally don’t question or desire more meaning and understanding to our world and who we are, what are we doing here, and where do we go when we die. Isn’t it important to try to figure out who God is; and if we believe and actually acknowledge there is a God, isn’t it important to understand our relationship with him?
Trusting history and not religion, I wanted to understand the physical Jesus that walked the earth 2000 years ago. A light bulb finally went off when I realized that he would have been observing the Jewish holidays or holy days with the same message of the Jews today (the extremes in observing are another blog). Since Christianity isn’t Jewish and doesn’t know what is Jewish, it taught me a Jesus that certainly is far from being Jewish. So, Christianity didn’t teach me much about holy days, figuring they don’t hold much value since they are Jewish, but I just don’t understand why they feel this way when Jesus was Jewish. I decided to check them out for myself the only way that seemed reasonable; through what is Jewish.
A prayer remained there with God and me, pleading with him over and over to show me what the Sabbath is and means, and how do I keep it holy… I realized that God wanted this day to look different than all the other days. I knew that God desires for those who are his to somehow make it look different. As I actively sought, God took me to places that would provide answers, and at the time seemed the most unlikely places that I should be, like with the Jews. So as my world expanded, my simple prayer was starting to unravel some layers and then more layers of amazing, deep, rich understanding. I am driven by the awe of just how big my God is.
I don’t see this life as a long one, even if I do live till I am 90, I believe, that isn’t a life, but just a blink when it comes to the reality of what life really is to God. God talks about life and also death, so I believe death exists and I understand from his word that it is not just an escape from this realm, or lights out and then you don’t exist, but much more worse and darker than that. I don’t want to get to dreary, but we know, if we believe in the word of God, death is a place that doesn’t know God or goodness at all. It has to be completely opposite of God, a void, and the emptiness there has to be worse than the worse place here on earth, since here we still have, if we look hard enough, what is God. Imagine your worst place in life… I am sure we could still find something good in it. Yet, death, I believe, has no hope for anything good, it has no colour. It is nothing. It is emptiness to the 10th degree, and has to be the most horrible place to be. So, finding life is finding life with God, discovering who we are, in truth, and living with God for a purpose in this temporary realm, a blink of an eye, until we move forward to eternal, a Sabbath, eternal rest with God.
I knew the Sabbath had to be important since it is included in the 10 commandments, and on top of that it is littered constantly throughout the Hebrew bible texts that we are to keep this day, keep it holy, and not work on it, for all generations to come… seems mighty important, but why?
God is about example, as he takes his chosen Israelites, and makes them an example of him to show the rest of the world what is good, just, and right. God uses who we truly are by God’s standard, to reveal who he is. If we keep the Sabbath, we remember it, and learn who God is, by worshipping him on it, with our family, our brethren and like-minded. I realized more, and more the detail of what this day represents, as I realized we stop from our busy work week to experience what it is like to experience, love in our relationship with God, within our individuality, and all together with each other. When we desire relationship, and to experience relationship, we seek God, to connect on a higher level, to actually experience God here on earth. We learn him in how we honour him. We keep ourselves holy by observing what is God, that we can realize who is God. Then we know. Over and over, we keep repeating, so we are learning, and evolving into a closer relationship with God. As we look back our history reveals mistakes that we learn from to be restored into a holier people.
The Sabbath reveals reflection; creation, that last day, God’s very own resting day, after all was done, our Creator, he rested. The reflection is important to God since he desires to be revealed. We, who are his, are suppose to reveal and be that reflection or example.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12
Seven days it takes to create world, God’s perfect world, but in man’s world the world is corrupt. In corruption our world is not so well defined. Humanity has fallen away from God, and in its demise, humanity stretches over a time, an existence that has a beginning and an end that could it be compared to a seven-day week. There is a first day, and there is a last. The last day being our Sabbath, our very own day of rest, or at least to them who make their place with God. They are being assured they will have rest that will look like the rest they have repeated from generation to generation. This is the importance of Sabbath; to recognize and indulge in the place of milk and honey since after your long work week of learning and growing, this is reward and where family, love, spiritual revival, worship, and God is embellished just as it will be on that final forever day.
If you restrain your foot because of the Sabbath, from pursuing your business on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honourable; and shall honour it, not doing your own ways, nor pursuing your own business, nor speaking of vain matters;
Then shall you delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Isaiah 58: 13,14
There is a time of One, the Shabbat, to experience who is God and his love, that has been unforgotten over time, kept, and teaches lessons over generations to rejuvenate to holiness, and when we question “why God” we seek and find we can look on the Sabbath day, have faith, know hope for our life, and realize what is love complete.
.
Shannie Alvarez 