Read this article in French here.
Spoiler alert !!!
The forgotten commandment is among the top 5 of the ten commandments of God given to Moses and the Israelites. It is number 4, to keep the sabbath.
Dear Heavenly Human,
Upon creating this blog, I gave myself a week to build it up from scratch. I had to acquire knowledge that was very far from my area of expertise. I am trained as a biochemist, but here I was learning about coding, plugins, SEO, web designing, you name it!
Stress and excitement kept me awake until 4 am most of the nights of that week. I had to deal with the technicalities of building a website, content creation, designing a clothing line, etc. I had to manage all these, as well as my daily routines, my job, TAG’s Instagram page, and my prayer life.
Needless to say, it was a hectic week. By day 5, Friday night, I looked more like a zombie than an actual human.
When I woke up on Saturday — day 6 — I was thrilled to finally have a full day to work on my blog and meet my goals. But then I was reminded by the Holy Spirit of the forgotten commandment…
It struck me hard.
What came to mind actually was a podcast I had listened to. Every single word from it resounded in my head like I was listening to it again. And on that faithful Saturday morning, I understood and became aware of that commandment — conscious of its implications and its vital importance.
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The forgotten commandment: to stop
It is that one commandment we hardly think about, or give less importance to compared to other commandments, even when we know it (personal experience talking here).
We are accustomed to the Thou Shall Nots in the Ten Commandments. Thou shall not steal, kill, covet… Sometimes they surprisingly seem obvious. What is much less obvious is to stop and cease activity.
Huh!?
…I know.
Bringing this blog to life was the first time I took the measure of what it means to observe the Sabbath.
“Remember to observe the sabbath”
The word Sabbath in Hebrew means to stop. Literally.
This was first seen with God who stopped from His labour on the seventh day and –this is important– rested (Genesis 2:2).
In Exodus 20:8-11, God then gave it as a command to the Israelites, His chosen people, inviting them to stop from their work, they and everything that belonged to them, just like He Himself had done.
The Israelites were to observe this on the seventh day of every week. If it was harvest season, they would harvest every day except on the seventh day. If they were slave workers every day of the week, on the seventh day they will stop and rest, and more importantly, they were at the same level with their masters. In fact, everything their life depended on, had to cease on the day of the Sabbath.
And like in Genesis 2:2 where God contemplated His creative work on the seventh day, the Israelites were called to worship God in their tents on the Sabbath, contemplating God’s work in their life, remembering His good deeds.
So the Sabbath turned out not to be just stopping but also meant resting and contemplation of God.
Like all of the laws God gave to the children of Israel, remembering and observing the Sabbath was something unique to that nation at that time. No other peoples did this.
Therefore, imagine a traveller passing through various cities in those days and noticing how busy they are, then on passing through an Israelite city meets with utter calmness and silence occasionally pierced through by hymns and songs from the inside of tents, sung to God. No farming, no merchants, no fetching of water, no random person nor cattle roaming about, nothing.
This was one of the rituals through which Israel was consecrated as a priestly nation to the rest of the world.
The implications of the sabbath:
To ancient Israel
Clearly, observing the Sabbath was a disruption in their projects. Whatever they had planned, they had to incorporate the Sabbath in their timetable. If it took them 7 days to build a house, they had to make it 8 days, because it was mandatory to do nothing on one day.
But the purpose of this disturbance was to echo their past and their future. It was an ordinance established to give them hope by reminding them of where they came, and where they are going.
From their past it reminded them of:
–who their God was. The Lord, creator of Heaven and Earth. The one who delivers them with an outstretched arm.
–who they were. Abraham’s descendants, God’s chosen people.
–what their purpose was. To be a nation of priests to all other nations of the earth.
–what the focus of their life was. The Lord, the sole provider of their every need.
Regarding their future, it reminded them that a greater Sabbath rest would eventually come. Greater than the Sabbath they observed: weekly, every 7 days; the Sabbath observed monthly, via the 7 feasts celebrated every year; yearly, the Year of Release, observed every 7 years and the one observed the year after every 7×7 years, the 50th year, the Year of Jubilee.
That makes a lot of planned fruitless days in one’s life-span. Isn’t it?
In fact, observing the Year of Release meant resting for the entire year. They did not have to plant, to prune, to harvest anything. Just like during the time of manna, they had to live at the discrepancy of the soil by eating what it gave them, a whole year long. Even those who did not own farms could pick up food from whichever land. Debts were forgiven during this year too and all credits brought back to zero. Even slaves were set free for good.
For the Year of Jubilee, it was the same as the Year of Release, but two years on a roll, since they had to observe the 7th Year of Release, plus the Year of Jubilee itself. To make matters more annoying — at least depending for who — on this 50th year, every family went back to whatever property their ancestors owned. If you lost everything and lived as an oppressed, this year was really one to look forward to. Because it gave you the opportunity to start afresh. If however, you planned to abound in riches throughout your life, that was really going to be difficult. Because the Year of Jubilee was a big reset button.
All these Sabbaths were a way to visualise how this greater rest will be like, the one we also have started waiting on, a taste of the everlasting Sabbath.
To us today
It is tempting to think that today we observe the Sabbath on Sunday because we have a break from our weekly activities and go to church as Christians. But observing the Sabbath is deeper than that. You might not be in the office working on a Sunday, but you may be working from home or thinking about work strategies while mopping the floor of your house. Hence, you are still working.
Of course, we are not ancient Israelites and so are not bound to observe the Sabbath with their level of strictness by counting the days, the months, the years. However, it is important to note that as their ultimate Sabbath was the Year of Jubilee, ours is the Sabbath we are looking forward to, Jesus’ return.
Observing the Sabbath to us now means letting go. And I do not mean to abandon or to give up, but giving away our struggles and worries to God, taking some time out to relax because we remember to whom we belong.
Practicing rest has become hard work. Especially in a society wherein everyone is busy with one pursuit or the other. However, in our timetables darkened with activities, we need not forget our Lord, the sole sustainer of our lives. We have to remember the forgotten commandment.
You have to rest
Fishing time out to rest and relax, to shut our eyes from our strife, and to focus on God is inconvenient. Occasionally, it is boring.
Nevertheless, this is part of our worship and a good way of offering ourselves as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1). More so, it is mandatory because acknowledging God’s sovereignty over our lives is among the top 5 of the ten commandments.
Psalms 127:1-2
Unless the Lord builds a house,
the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the Lord protects a city,
guarding it with sentries will do no good.
2 It is useless for you to work so hard
from early morning until late at night,
anxiously working for food to eat;
for God gives rest to his loved ones.
I made that Saturday, Day 6, my Sabbath rest with regards to establishing my blog. Will that action make this blog a prosperous one? I have no idea. Nonetheless, that took me one notch higher on my Trust-The-Lord ladder.
How about you? When did you consciously decide to take a break from something? What is your knowledge and experience when it comes to the forgotten commandment: to stop? You can comment down below.
Cheers !!
Hi there! 🙂
Another very good article, Gaëlle! I can’t help but draw a parallel between the Coronavirus crisis and this commandment to “rest in God”. Of course, some of us, myself included keep working and/or studying from home but when we take a closer look at the current situation, there is a reality we cannot ignore… This is a time of self-reflection! As people are forced to remain indoors, they are also confronted to themselves. Some experience boredom, some others discover things about themselves. This is a time of self-reflection as well as a time to have a deeper connection to and a stronger relationship with God. One may easily realise how they are not outside yet, the sun keeps rising, the seasons keep changing (we started the confinement in winter and now this is spring) and the list goes on… As far as I’m concerned, I usually decide to take a break from something when this thing has become an addiction or an idol and quarantine does reveal what’s in our hearts. When I was in high school, I was sooo into Facebook that it had become toxic. One day I just deleted it and only signed up again for practical reasons about 3 years later.
In conclusion, I would say that Sabbath helps people to reflect on the fact that:
1) God is in control whether you realise it or not in your daily life
2) You do need to rest as a human being
Peace,
Audrey S.
“The year of jubilee was a big reset button”
I’m sure this one will never escape my mind! Away from that, I must acknowledge that prior to now, I had always seen sabbath mostly from a contentious point of view! Growing up and discovering that Sunday is some kind of distorted sabbath became my entire concern about the word sabbath! I never ever gave myself to see how personal the sabbath could be – as in reflection time and contemplating on your creator. The imagery you used of a travelling passing through Israel is really profound. I could really picture it and equally notice how badly I need it too!
May God prosper you spiritual and give you more insight to reach out to your world.
Billy Manners.
Amen Billy!! Thank you so much, I appreciate.
And I am returning the blessings to you too.