“Restoring a Sabbath Heart” (Neh 10:31) - Revive Us Again VI -

“Restoring a Sabbath Heart” (Neh 10:31)

- Revive Us Again VI -

Stop!

When you think of the word “sabbath,” what comes to your mind? Many people think that sabbath is “a day off.” Yes, we need days off. They are beneficial. They help us to restore our strength and increase motivation. But the truth is, sabbath is not a day off. It is much more than a day off. We need to understand the accurate meaning of sabbath biblically, not culturally. That way we can keep the Sabbath wholly. Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word, tb;v' (shabath). It means quit. Rest. Stop. Stop for what? Why did God command Israel to stop? There is a Chinese saying, “走馬看山,” (chu-mah-gan-san), which means giving a hurried glance at a mountain on a horse at full pelt. We use this expression, when we are too busy to care about the things we care about. Busyness kills the heart. It makes us stop caring about the things we must care about. Above all else, busyness makes us stop caring about God. In Psalm 46:10, the Lord says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Only when we stop to be still, then we are able to pay attention to God and come to know who He is. In the age of Nehemiah there was a great revival after rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. When revival came, the first thing the people did was to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. They literally stopped everything for more than a week in order to listen to God. And then, they came to know God’s will for their lives. They promised to restore their marriage relationships, covenant relationships with God and with their brothers and sisters. They also promised to restore sabbath. Then, what does it mean to restore sabbath? How can we restore sabbath?

Sabbath as Praying

There are two biblical versions of the sabbath commandment – one in Exodus 20, and the other in Deuteronomy 5. The two renderings are basically identical, but the supporting reasons are different. Eugene Peterson gives a good insight in this regard. He says, “The two biblical reasons for sabbath-keeping develop into parallel sabbath activities of praying and playing. The Exodus reason directs us to the contemplation of God, which becomes prayer. The Deuteronomy reason directs us to social leisure, which becomes play.” First of all, sabbath is for praying. It is to stop from our routines to pay attention to God. In Exodus 20:11 God says, “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.” Here we keep the sabbath to imitate God’s rest after the creation. Does God really need to rest? Of course not! Then, why did He choose to rest? Because God wanted to reveal a rhythm of rest and work to his creation by observing the rhythm Himself. As we keep this “Exodus Sabbath,” we return to Eden. And there, we discover that God is Creator and we are His creation. We discover that we are not God, and that we need Him.

In his book Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald tells us the story of William Wilberforce as an example. William Wilberforce was a Christian and English politician in the 19^th century. It took him almost twenty years to pass the anti-slavery measure. There was a time when Wilberforce almost broke down because of his ambition to gain the appointment as a cabinet post. In his journal he admitted that he had risings of ambition, and it was crippling his soul. But Sunday brought the cure. Wilberforce wrote in this way: “Blessed be to God for the day of rest and religious occupation wherein earthly things assume their true size. Ambition is stunted.” Because he rested on sabbath day, he was able to keep all of life in proper perspective and to remain free of burnout and breakdown. Jewish people love to say that more than Israel ever kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath kept Israel. They kept it in the midst of life crisis and terror. They kept it in Warsaw’s ghettos and Hitler’s death camps and Stalin’s gulags. To the extent that we keep sabbath, sabbath keeps us. Unfortunately, Pharisees made sabbath rigid, legalistic, gloomy, and lifeless. They made all kinds of rules and regulations to force people to worship and do nothing else. But that is the wrong approach. The truth is, when we stop to rest in God, we discover that He is Creator and we are His creation. And we will thank Him and worship Him. For this reason, in Psalm 100, the psalmist says, “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Sabbath is for worship. It is a day for praying.

Sabbath as Playing

Secondly, sabbath is a day for playing. In Deuteronomy 5:15 the Lord says, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” The motivation for the sabbath rest here is Israel’s liberation from slavery. God commands us to remember who we were and how He saved us, not just once but on a regular basis. We were slaves, slaves of sin (Rom 6:17). But in his great compassion and with his mighty power God delivered us from the enemy’s bondage once for all. So now we live in the freedom! But unfortunately, so many people still live as slaves. They still live in Egypt. They still live under taskmasters. The taskmasters say that you cannot rest until your work’s all done. And they say that sabbath is a reward for your labors. But the truth is, the work’s never done. Sabbath is not a reward for finishing, but it is sheer gift. It is grace. We rest by faith in the midst of work because God said so. When we rest, when we keep “Deuteronomy sabbath,” we experience freedom. When we have this freedom, we can liberate others and give life to others.

Sabbath can be any day of the week. It is a day set apart not to get anything done, but to pay attention to God and reflect what God has done. It is a day set apart for being, not doing. For me personally, Sunday is a workday for me. Monday is my sabbath. Nothing is scheduled for Mondays. Since nowadays Lydia and Abe go to school all day, Joyce and I (and Baby Grace) keep our sabbath together. Monday morning usually we go to library and spend time in silence and solitude. We read books, or keep a journal, or read a psalm and pray, or just take a rest. Sometimes we get out to enjoy nature walk. We sing. We praise. We talk. And in the afternoon we return home and have quality family time with the children. After supper Joyce and I usually make phone calls to our parents and make a plan for the week. This is my sabbath and my favorite time of the week.

Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There

For some reason, when I think about sabbath-keeping, the story of Mary and Martha comes to my mind. One day Martha invited Jesus and his disciples to her house. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing, while Mary was sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to what he taught. Finally, Martha got upset and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” But the Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better.” Sabbath-keeping is not a matter of outward action – “do or don’t do” things. It is a matter of priority. It is a mater of attention. Martha thought, “I am doing something for the Lord.” Yes, it is true, but she was missing one thing, the most essential thing, sitting there and listening to the Lord.

When I was in seminary, Professor Haddon Robinson preached on the story of Mary and Martha. During his sermon, he told us the story of a mother and her son. The father died when the boy was young. This was back before television, when folks spent evenings listening to the radio or reading to one another. They both enjoyed listening to good music. In his early twenties, he met a young woman at the church, fell in love with her, and they decided to be married. Since housing was difficult to find, the mother said, "We have a two-story house. I can make an apartment for myself in the second story. You and your bride can live in the first story. The only thing I ask is that we get a chance to spend some time together because I'm going to miss the reading and the music." Her son said, "Mother, you can be sure of that. It's important to me, too." The couple married. For a while, the son stopped by a couple of times a week to spend some time with his mom. He was busy, and eventually days and weeks went by between visits. The relationship was not what it had been. On the mother's birthday, the young man bought a lovely dress, brought it to her, and said, "Happy birthday, Mother." She opened the package and looked at the dress. "Oh, Son, thank you. I appreciate so much what you've done." He said, "Mother, you don't like it." She said, "Oh, yes, I do. It's my color. Thank you." He said, "Mother, I have the sales slip. They tell me I can take it back." She said, "No, it is a lovely dress." He said, "Mother, you don't fool me. We've been together too long. What's wrong?" The woman turned and opened her closet. She said, "Son, I have enough dresses there to last me for the rest of my life. I guess all I want to say is that I don't want your dress. I want you." Where are you now? Are you listening to God? Let us stop. Let us not just do something, but sit at the feet of Jesus, because He doesn't want your life as much as he wants you. Amen.