Forced Season of the Sabbath

Two weeks ago, I introduced the biblical themes of exile and plague as a means of letting the Bible (rather than the news!) interpret the season of coronavirus.  Last week, I wrote that God uses both exile and plague to call his people to repentance, and mentioned the general sins that Americans have—an over-dependence upon money, idolizing personal freedom, and the failure to care for the vulnerable.  As we move forward, I encourage you to continue to pray that God will show us how to repent and follow him in these areas.
 
Today and next week, I want to turn specifically to two major components of exile that we are experiencing.  These are a forced fast from the worship God himself instituted and a forced season of Sabbath rest.  Next week will be devoted to the forced fast from worship, and this week to the forced season of Sabbath.
 
Although there are several periods of exile recorded in the Bible, the major, 70-year exile to Babylon was explicitly connected to the Sabbath.  The failure to keep the Sabbath year (no crops were to be planted 1 year out of 7) was one of the reasons for the exile, and its length corresponded to the number of Sabbath years the land had been denied (Lev. 25:2-4; Lev. 26:33-35; II Chron. 36:21).
 
Christians can legitimately disagree on how to keep the Sabbath.  Jesus showed that we are not bound by a strict Jewish interpretation.  He used the Sabbath to heal others and allowed his hungry disciples to pick and “snack on” grain as they walked by a field.  He declared that the Sabbath was for our benefit, and certain things were permissible that a legalistic observance prohibited.  But he did not abolish the day, nor excise it from the 10 commandments!  In Hebrews 4, we learn that the Sabbath was given as a foretaste of the rest that awaits us in heaven, and therefore it is more important than we tend to think.  Sabbath, or true rest in God, is our future in the new kingdom!  We need concrete practices in the present to prepare for what lies ahead.  (This principle applies in most areas—what we do in the present should reflect what will be true of us in heaven.  Pilgrims who are walking forward to their true home live according to this true home.)  Even if the way we honor the Sabbath is more fluid than the Jewish model, it should be no less important to us to develop Sabbath practices.
 
Honoring the Sabbath necessarily means resting from our work in the world’s economy.  Many of us are experiencing a form of this right now, and many are finding that it is hard and frustrating.  We long for rest, but when given too much of it, we get restless.  We define ourselves by our occupations; ceasing from work unmasks our misplaced identities.  Rest forces us to ask the question, “Who am I?”  It confronts us with the fact that our identities in Christ are fairly unformed, while our economic identities are well-established.  It is dislocating for our soul when we lose our purpose, and Sabbath reveals that our purpose is defined more readily by the world’s economy than by the kingdom of heaven. 
 
Honoring the Sabbath also confronts us with our lack of trust.  We work and save because we assume that it is only by our work that we will be secure.  Trusting that God will provide is difficult, and when we stop working, we are reminded of our dependence, our limitation, and our mortality.  We avoid these thoughts through work and amusement.  Actually ceasing from work and amusement is like fasting—our frailty and discontent come rushing to the surface.  What if my efforts aren’t enough?  What if it all comes crashing down?  What will happen to me?  Am I worth anything?  The questions come quickly when there is no work to justify our existence or amusement to distract the heart.
 
We are in a season of forced Sabbath.  Even if you are still working, you likely have more time on your hands than you want!  I encourage you to use this season to go deep into Jesus for your identity.  Let him define you.  Allow the questions of trust and identity and justification to come to the surface, and let Christ, not your work, answer them.  His answer, unlike our own, is gentle and kind.
 
In Christ,
Steven+

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