“Thank God it's Friday!” That's what the “T.G.I.F.!”
on bumper stickers, T-shirts, and posters in bar windows really
stands for. Obviously the sentiment was not inspired by thankful
religious devotion to the God of the Bible. “Thank God” has
become a convenient slang phrase to many people in our time that
doesn’t mean much more than “I’m really glad about something.”
But the TGIF sentiment is based on strong emotions: “I'm sick of
my job and thrilled that the week-end is here so I can ‘party’
instead of work.”
Except for a minority of workaholics, most of
mankind appreciates and longs for “time out” from the drudgery
of life. Even sincerely hard-working, religious folks who don't
want to “party” in a worldly way still need a change of pace.
They need regularly recurring “R & R”: REST and REFRESHMENT. But
there is a third “R” they need:
REMEMBERING
In a healthy family environment, family members
love, appreciate, and encourage one another daily. And yet most
families
also set aside special times every year to focus on individual
relationships. Mom and Dad have an anniversary on which they
remember and celebrate their life together. A birthday is set
aside to honor and express affection for each family member.
On Mother's Day and Father's Day, the children
remember all the special sacrifices Mom and Dad have made.
It's easy to take for granted all of these
relationships, so we instinctively realize we need to make these
special efforts to remember our loved ones year after
year. We feel guilty if we forget an important birthday or
anniversary, and we feel hurt and neglected if those close to us
forget days that are special to us.
What is the origin of this need for "The Three
R's"? Few individuals ask such basic questions. We were born
into a particular time and culture, and most just accept
unquestioningly “the way things are.” It doesn't occur to them
that needs and customs have an origin.
If you are a Christian, a disciple of Jesus
Christ, a worshipper of the Eternal Creator of the Bible, you
need to understand what the Bible says about the origin of the
need for Rest, Refreshment, and Remembering. And you need to
know what it says about the customs mankind has developed to
meet those needs.
“In the Beginning …”
Relationships with our loved ones are the source
of most of our “special times.” Yet the most important
relationship of all is neglected by most. It was not humans, but
God who established the concept of special times, and these
special times were to focus on the relationship between Him and
His people. Even before people were created, God planned special
times for them:
And God said,
Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the
day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for
seasons, and for days, and years. (Genesis 1:14 KJV)
The Hebrew word translated here by the word
season is moedim. In modern America, we commonly
think of the word season as referring to the four divisions of
the year related to changing weather—summer, fall, winter, and
spring. One seldom sees the more general use of the term season:
a time characterized by a particular circumstance or
feature <in a season of religious awakening -- F. A.
Christie>
The Hebrew word moedim does not
refer to the four divisions of the year. It means specifically
appointed times, special observances, special
celebrations. This passage in Genesis is referring to the fact
that the regular movement of the sun, moon, and stars establish
a calendar that can be observed by people from earth. In
other passages in the Old Testament, God explains to the ancient
Israelites just how to use this calendar to calculate when to
observe special times honoring their relationship to Him:
Speak to the
children of Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feasts
of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations,
even these are my feasts. (Leviticus 23:2)
The Hebrew word here translated feasts is the
same word that we saw in Genesis 1: moedim. The Lord
is saying essentially, “These are my appointments with
you.”
If you received a letter offering you an
appointment with some famous person you really
admire, you would likely do everything possible to clear your
schedule for that appointment! You would probably even take time
off work if necessary. And you'd check your calendar and
watch to make sure you were on time for the appointment.
Have you ever looked into what the Scriptures say
about the appointments of the Lord?
The very first
of those appointments listed in Leviticus is the weekly
Sabbath:
There are six days when
you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath
of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do
any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the
LORD. (Leviticus 23:3)
T.G.I.S.!
When Adam disobeyed God in the garden of Eden,
God told him:
... Cursed is the ground because of you; through
painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It
will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the
plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your
food until you return to the ground, since from it you were
taken ... (Genesis 3:17-19)
Most of mankind has forgotten the Lord’s Sabbath.
And with it they have lost the real rest and refreshment
they could have by remembering. Even though most people in the
Western World do not work at their jobs seven days a week, and
have a “week-end” of two days off, they do not use either of
those days to rest completely from their own works and remember
the Lord and His creation. Some may recognize either Saturday or
Sunday as a “church day.” But even then, that only affects a
couple of hours in the morning for most.
The Sabbath as it is defined in the Bible is a
whole 24-hour period. Unlike our calendars and clocks, Bible
days do not begin and end at 12:00 midnight. In the Bible, one
day ends and the next begins at sundown. And the Sabbath is that
day that begins at our Friday, sundown, and extends through the
daylight part of Saturday, until sundown. If you wish to observe
the Sabbath as the Lord intended, you will be able to
consciously note its beginning and end during your waking hours,
not in the middle of your sleep at night.
It should not be difficult to see the physical
and psychological benefits built into this system of special
time. When you finish your regular work on Friday, you can
appreciate the beginning of the Sabbath. As the sun sets, you
can consciously “let go” of all your worldly concerns—bills,
unfinished house work, office projects—and turn your mind toward
the Lord and His promise to provide for you. You can “rest” in
Him, both physically and mentally.
If you will truly take advantage of this command
to quit struggling with your own works for a 24-hour period,
putting all concerns “on hold,” you will find you sleep better
Friday night, and wake up refreshed. But in the morning it is
still the Sabbath! And if you will use the daylight portion as
it was intended, you will find that you then have time for the
Lord in a way you never had before. It is difficult to squeeze
in much prayer, Bible study, meditation, and Christian
fellowship during the week if you have a busy and tiring work
schedule. But if you take the Sabbath command to “remember”
seriously, you will have a whole refreshing day to come out of
the rat-race and come to intimacy with the Lord. Then you will
be able to say T.G.I.S.—Thank God It's
Sabbath!
“Pro-Choice” or Pro-Sabbath?
But does it really make any difference which
day out of seven you pick to rest on? Can't you just choose the
day that is convenient for you?
There are two problems with that approach:
1. The Bible states clearly that God Himself
sanctified the Sabbath—set it apart as holy. It does not say
He sanctified the idea of “one day out of seven.” At the
time of the Exodus, God even began a 40-year period of weekly
miracles to show exactly which day was His Sabbath. For
six days each week, manna came every morning for the Israelites
to gather. If they kept any overnight, it was wormy and inedible
by morning. But on Friday, they were ordered to gather twice as
much, and keep the excess overnight. Each Saturday morning, no
manna came, but that which was kept from Friday remained fresh.
What if one Israelite decided he wanted to schedule “his own”
Sabbath on Wednesday or Sunday? Could he gather extra manna the
day before so that he could rest on “his Sabbath”? No—it would
breed worms, and he would either have to work to gather more on
his rest day, or go hungry.
2. The Sabbath in the Bible is NOT just between
each man and God:
Speak to the
children of Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feasts of
the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even
these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the
seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye
shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all
your dwellings. (Leviticus 23:2-3)
A holy convocation means a time of
divinely-ordered assembly for God’s people. We are used to the
idea of an assembly from our school days. What if your school
principal scheduled an assembly for 10:00 AM Monday, to feature
an exciting presentation of a famous popular entertainer? The
principal would expect that each teacher would bring his/her
classroom full of students to the auditorium at 10:00. But what
if each teacher wasn't happy with the scheduled time, and
decided to declare his/her own assembly time? Only those
classes who came at 10:00 would get the planned benefit of the
assembly. All the rest would get an empty stage and a dark
auditorium.
Only if all God’s people understand and
obey His command to remember His Sabbath will they be
able to gather together in unity as He intended. That is one
reason we have the confused jumble of “denominations” we call
Christianity today. Some have tried to pick their own day as
Sabbath—usually Sunday. They try to super-impose the Sabbath
commands on a day different than the one set by God from
Creation. However, many Biblical scholars of such groups have
come to the logical conclusion that the Bible Sabbath is
Saturday. They can invent man-made honors for another day if
they want—calling Sunday the “Lord's Day,” for instance. However
this title has no foundation in scripture. In fact, although
there is no scripture that refers to the first day of the week
by that term, there is a “Lord's day” mentioned: In Mark 2,
right after Jesus explained that the Sabbath was made for Man,
he declared, “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the
Sabbath.”
They can try to honor another day, but they can't
turn it into the Sabbath. So they are left with the embarrassing
prospect of explaining to their members that the Fourth
Commandment can be ignored. If they do that, then they have
eliminated the wonderful blessings their members would reap from
becoming rested and refreshed from the Lord's Sabbath.
On the other hand, some Christians have
held on to the Biblical command for Sabbath observance. If they
truly understand the Sabbath, they will reap the rest and
refreshment, but are cut off from fellowship with those
Christians who have rejected Sabbath observance entirely, or who
have tried to change the Sabbath to another day than the
Biblical seventh day.
So when Man is convinced that he is left free to
choose which day he wants to make as Sabbath, he destroys
the concept of the unity of the Body of Christ.
Sabbath Observance: “Legalism”?
When someone brings up the notion that perhaps
God does intend for Christians to keep the same Sabbath as that
of the ancient Israelites—the same Sabbath mentioned in the
Fourth of the Ten Commandments, the same Sabbath observed by
Jesus and his Twelve Apostles and all His disciples—a term
frequently tossed around to describe this is “legalism.”
Legalism can mean many things in religious circles, most of them
very negative. The primary implication of the word as used by
many is often that obedience to any “law” that is mentioned in
the Old Testament is evidence that someone is trying to “earn
salvation” by that obedience. They are said to be “bound up in
legalism.” Christians are not “under the Law,” they will note,
and thus a Christian has no need for the Sabbath.
This is an odd approach. The same Ten
Commandments that include the admonition to “remember the
Sabbath Day to keep it holy” include the “law” that people must
not steal. Yet it is unheard of for someone to say that
obedience to that law against stealing is “legalism.” The same
Ten Commandments also include the admonition that people must
not worship idols. Yet it is unheard of for someone to say that
avoiding idol worship is “legalism.” It is puzzling that
honoring the Sabbath commandment alone is viewed as legalism.
The purpose of the Sabbath was never, in Old
Testament or New, to provide a means to earn salvation! Jesus
made it clear that the Sabbath was “made for man.” The same
Creator who made a mate for Adam, to bless him and complete him,
made the Sabbath for him also, for the same purposes.
The notion that
having a whole day every week in which we can put out of our
minds the cares of this world (and look forward to that time in
Eternity when we will no longer have to toil through this
physical life) somehow puts us in “bondage” is odd indeed. The
notion that having a whole day every week to devote to rest and
refreshment for self and family is some sort of “burden” is
likewise very odd indeed.
The observance of the Sabbath blesses a man in
the present, and allows him to look forward to the time when he
shall be complete and whole, at one with God as part of His
eternal Family.
Sabbath observance was never something imposed by
God as a legalistic curse for man, to force him to somehow try
to earn salvation by keeping it. It was a beautiful gift to man
to release him to rejoice in the Lord. The ancient Israelites
were taken out of bondage in Egypt, where they had served hard
taskmasters with no regular rest. God was unlike those
taskmasters … instead of “forcing” them to work for Him, He
insisted that they not even be harsh taskmasters for themselves!
So many today really are that kind of taskmaster to themselves
and their families. God never intended man to be a workaholic.
He intended for him to work diligently … but to regularly rest
and be refreshed just as diligently.
God offers that same ancient wisdom to Man today.
Christians who seek guidance from God through the scriptures on
how best to worship and serve Him will not try to earn salvation
through some sort of harsh, spiritless observance of the
Sabbath. They will find instead that it was intended as one of
God’s greatest physical gifts to believers … and if they receive
that gift gladly, they will be able to enthusiastically proclaim--"Thank God It’s Sabbath!"
Many people
who accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, whether they refer
to themselves as "Christian" or "Messianic," observe the
weekly seventh day Sabbath and the annual biblical Feasts and Holy Days
as times of rest, refreshment, remembering, worship, fellowship, and celebration. They believe
that these Feasts and Holy Days are shadows pointing to the
reality of Jesus. And they believe that there are valuable
spiritual lessons to be learned year by year through actually
physically setting aside these Times of Refreshing as "appointments with God."
For an
explanation of another "R" that is needed by people, and
should be built into Sabbath observance, see the
Introductory article to the series of
articles on The 3 Rs on this website. And for specific
details and suggestions for individual, family, and group
observance of the weekly Sabbath, see the article on
The 3 Rs: The Weekly Sabbath.
See the
Sabbath Scripture Collection for a concise set of the
primary passages from the Old and New Testament related to the
observance of the weekly Sabbath.
For an
explanation of the Biblical background and Christian
significance of each of the Holy Days and Feasts as
they come in their seasons, explore the links below:
Let My People Go!
The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread
On Fire!
The Feast of Pentecost
Reveille!
The Day of Trumpets
Together Again
The Day of Atonement
Roughing It
The Feast of Tabernacles
The Edge of Eternity
The Eighth Day Assembly
For
sources of the Hebrew, Greek, and English definitions in this
and other articles on this website, see the
Information page.
For sources
of the Biblical quotations in this and other articles on this
website, see the Information page.
Email the Times of
Refreshing WebAuthor
All of the articles on this Times
of Refreshing website were written by Pam Dewey, with
the support and sponsorship of Common Ground Christian
Ministries. For more of Pam's inspirational and educational
writings, visit The Oasis website at
www.youall.com/oasis
All website content
© 2006, Pam
Dewey and Common Ground Christian Ministries
All rights reserved. Material may
be copied for personal use of the site visitor. For permission
to copy for any other purposes, please contact the author at
oasis@chartermi.net
Was
God tired—did He need to be rested and refreshed? Of course not!
He is not limited by a deteriorating body like ours, that must
be “recharged” by food and rest and sleep, just like a battery.
He is the very source of all power and energy. 