Monday: The Command to Rest
Creation may be “very good,” but it is not yet complete. Creation ends with God’s rest and a special blessing of the seventh day, the Sabbath. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:3).
The Sabbath is part and parcel of God’s creation. In fact, it is the culmination of Creation. God makes rest and creates a space for community where humanity (in those days the core family of Adam and Eve) could stop their day-to-day activities and rest side by side with their Creator.
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Unfortunately, sin entered this world and changed everything. No more direct communion with God. Instead, painful births, hard work, fragile and dysfunctional relationships, and on and on — the litany of woe that we all know so well as life on this fallen world. And still, even amid all this, God’s Sabbath remains, an enduring symbol of our creation and also the hope and promise of our re-creation. If they needed the Sabbath rest before sin, how much more so after?
Many years later, when God frees His children from slavery in Egypt, He reminds them again of this special day.
Read Exodus 20:8-11. What does this teach us about the importance of the Sabbath as it relates to Creation?
With this command, God calls us to remember our origins. Contrary to what so many believe, we are not the chance products of cold, uncaring, and blind forces. On the contrary, we are beings who are created in the image of God. We were created to share fellowship with God. No matter that the Israelites had been treated like slaves with little worth. With each Sabbath, in a special way they were called to remember who they really were, beings made in the image of God Himself.
“And since the Sabbath is a memorial of the work of creation, it is a token of the love and power of Christ.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 281.
| Think about how important the doctrine of a six-day creation is. After all, what other teaching is so important that God commands that we devote one-seventh of our lives, every week, and without exception, to remembering it? What should this fact alone teach us about how crucial it is that we remember our true origins, as depicted in the book of Genesis? |
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I don't know how many of you folk are creative. Do you paint or draw? Are you a fine dressmaker? Are any of you architects designing buildings or bridges? In spite of being essentially a scientist, I have a creative side and enjoy making fine photographs. I don't just photograph birds because I want a record or an identification tick. I want to take photographs that capture a moment in a creative way. I am not that good at it. I take lots of photos and select only a few that I think really captures something special about the bird.
And when I do that I sit back and enjoy the moment. Its not selfish pride, but rather a sense of achievement for creating something I can share.
Do you think that God has a sense of achievement. He had created a work of art in creation and he wanted to share it. Sometimes we paint a very unemotional picture of God, or if we allow him to have emotion we equate that with grief for the results of sin. We are sometimes guilty of thinking of God as the unmoved mover.
This is how I read the Genesis story:
I have deliberately omitted the chapter division because it covers an important link. I think that God paused to enjoy what he had made. He did not need to rest, but he did need to enjoy the results of his creativity.
Remember, the Bible says that we are made in God's image. God enjoyed his creativity and as part of that creative image thing, he has passed on that enjoyment to us.
I remember in my student days we science students at College had an interesting discussion about the vastness of space, its beauty and its emptiness. We discussed why God had created all this and left it with so little evidence of life in it. One of the students postulated that God must enjoy fireworks because the universe is the grandest fireworks display ever. I'm not putting that idea up as doctrinal certainty, but the thought does portray a creative God who enjoys his creation and pauses to reflect on his own handiwork.
And perhaps that thought may just give us a bit of an insight in to what Sabbath rest really is, and how we can honour God,not just by keeping it, but by enjoying it.
"Remember, the Bible says that we are made in God's image. God enjoyed his creativity and as part of that creative image thing, he has passed on that enjoyment to us."
That is so true, indeed and that feeling was passed to us. For after the creativity, there is always an enjoyable moment.
It’s interesting, the story of creation and the end of the 6th day. I have always pictured that Adam & Eve just automatically knew everything about God upon taking their first breath. Lately, the last year or so, the thought came to me that they had no idea who God was. They knew He created them, but that’s all they knew. That very first Sabbath, in reality, was their first real introduction to Him. It must have been wonderful for them and God, to finally get to get to know one another. That is what Sabbath should be now, the purpose has never changed. By “keeping” the Sabbath, we are declaring, I want to know who you are God! I want to learn about who You are and worship You!
I like that Brother Maurice. Everytime I watch fireworks, it stirs a feeling of awe . Those colorful lights against the dark night gives happiness and sense of celebration. There are many kind of celebrations in the world, Christmas, Thanksgiving,Birthdays and many more , but there is one celebration that God wants us to honor and enjoy, the SABBATH! May we see this one day every week a day of happiness and thanksgiving for all the blessings we received.
Some modern day thinkers, have the opinion that the command to rest is not a command but rather a recommendation. The truth is the command to hallow the Seventh-day-Sabbath is a command. Now you are free to obey the command, out of love for God, but there are consequences for disobedience without repentance and asking for forgiveness. Deuteronomy 30:19,20 puts it plain and simple.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
Deuteronomy 30:19,20.
The Greek word for command is entole, meaning, injunction(a court order of the court in Heaven), order, or command.
The Hebrew word for command is: mitsvah. Meaning direction.
Now for the illustration:
The pathfinder leader told his pathfinders the importance of obedience. Boys and girls there was a father and son were running down the slope of a mountain not on loose shale mind you, but turf. The father yelled lay down, they both fell to the turf. Ten feet more and they would have gone over the cliff to their death. Now whether you believe the father gave a direction or a command, they both followed the direction and both followed the command.
I too was reflecting upon the notion of command in today's lesson.
One of the underpinning issues with respect to a person's reaction to the notion of command/commandment is their experience with - and associated perception of - those notions. And there are cultural dynamics at work too shaping such experience and therefore associated perceptions.
Ultimately, commands/commandments can essentially be either authoritarian or authoritative. An authoritarian command/commandment requires unquestioning compliance and is backed up by coercive measures to gain such compliance one way or another.
An authoritative 'command/commandment' is an outlining of what will inherently happen if you take a certain course of action - or what you will need to do if you want a certain process and/or outcome.
I note that while Strongs defines entole as "injunction", Strongs then goes on to sub-define injunction as "an authoritative prescription". Pre-scription means a direction (outlining what will need to be done in order to achieve a certain outcome) given in advance. Authoritative is how Jesus was perceived (Matthew 7:29) - someone who absolutely knew what He was talking about and outlining.
If I also consider human development in conjunction with the above, I note that younger children necessarily need a more directive approach when/because they do not yet have the moral reasoning capacity needed to truely make an 'informed consent' choice. However, hopefully, as they grow and develop, they also develop (with practice) the capacity to make wise 'informed consent' choices - no longer needing things to be presented as a directive because they now understand and appreciate how reality operates. Thus, the aim of applied discipline is eventual self-discipline (where applied discipline is no longer relevant).
When I consider Deuteronomy 30:19,20, I see authoritative prescription - just as I do with respect to the 'command' to remember/honour the Sabbath (Exodus 20;8) and to love God and others (Matthew 22:37-40). That is, I am being informed by an authoritative God regarding what the options are and what outcomes will result from each option. I am then given the freedom to make an informed choice - though I do not have the freedom to avoid the inherent consequences/outcomes of my choice.
At the same time I do acknowledge there were directives given within scripture due to the 'immaturity' of the moral decision making capacity people involved at the time. Such instances represent situational accommodation and adaptation measures rather than reflecting the wider reality in operation.
In my mind, I see today's lesson as an authoritative invitation to rest: if I enter Sabbath 'rest', it will be to my advantage. And if exercise my God-respected freedom to not enter that rest, it will be to my detriment because that is how the reality of life operates.
Whether a prelude or a hymn much can be said about music. In music, we have symbols whose job it is to provide an opportunity to rest. During a specified length of time the musician does not sing or play. They are called, of course, Rests. They are expressed in symbols, with which the musician is familiar. It tells the musician that they must rest, but perhaps more importantly, it tells them how long they should rest. Often these rests come in a predictable, regular way, as in every measure, or in every two measures. It is the musicians' "Command to rest".
When it was time for the rhythm band to play there would be joy among the children. Together and separately , as directed, the children would play their small rhythm sticks, triangles, and other rhythm instruments. So it is that we believers keep a regular rhythm in that we worship , if not together physically, then on the same sheet of music. We are on the same page… obeying the Sabbath rhythm and enjoying the orchestral music.
I love your analogy. ...so it stands to reason that when we ignore the God-ordained rest in the life score and we insert our own rests at different points in the music sheet, we alter the song, and instead of a beautiful symphony which different parts/instruments coming in and fading out at different purposed times, we have a cacophony and an incoherent song.
The last act of creation on earth took place when God made the Sabbath. It did not exist on earth before it was made(Mk 2:27). This was a deliberate and intentional act on God's part, and was established by Him as a statute forever. With the entrance of sin, the Sabbath becomes more important and its blessings more evident. When the commandments of God for man were written, the Sabbath was central, with the command to “Remember”.
It is within this 4th commandment from God that He establishes WHO He is, what He has done, and reveals that the law is the foundation of His government which all subjects are accountable to, and according to Solomon, must be judged by. One cannot over-emphasize the absolute importance and sacredness of God's law. This is vital for sinners to understand if they would avoid the wages of sin. For faithful subjects of God's kingdom, the Sabbath is a gift and blessing from our Creator, which was “made FOR man”, as was the whole earth, including the river of Life and tree of Life.
God is the true Sovereign over all creation, which we are a part of, and He has commanded our observance of the Sabbath. He has also decreed that “the soul that sins shall die”(Eze 18:4). Sabbath observance seems rather important. However, without a knowledge of God, Sabbath "observance" will only be some legal exercise that does not come close to faithful observance. It is this knowledge of God that makes all the difference, and makes the Sabbath a "delight"(Isa 58:13,14). The Sabbath command cannot be observed by mere sullen submission.