A Day to Rest
And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27
The Sabbath is not something you hear a lot of talk about these days, let alone people actually taking a day of rest. The Sabbath was the 6th day of the week that God had set aside for people to rest. At the beginning of time in this world, God gave the 6th day to people as a day to rest. He created our bodies to operate strong and healthy with the day of rest being part of a balanced diet. Even before sin entered into the world, people needed to rest, how much more after our fallen state do our bodies need rest now?
When Moses was given the ten commandments over a thousand years later, the fourth was to remember the Sabbath. This law was the difference between Israel and other nations. It was actually a witness to other nations when they saw that the Hebrew people did not conduct business on one day each week. The people were able to say it was a day set apart to their God to rest from all their work. It was one of their success principles. (see Ezekiel 20) When they were far from God, idolatry was put in the place of the Sabbath and they became like all the other nations and were taken into captivity, that is how important it was for them to keep the Sabbath.
Today, the body of believers widely do not recognize the importance of taking a day off. We as the body of Christ view this commandment as part of the law that we have been redeemed from. However, this opinion does not take into consideration that a day of rest was actually part of the human dna, rather than a rule to control the people.
In today’s reading, Jesus tells the religious leaders that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. He talks about provisions that were made in days of necessity. That exceptions can be made because the law of the Sabbath is a gift to the physical body, not about trying to control someone. Jesus also healed many people on the Sabbath, which was also viewed as work by the Pharisees, but He taught that it was right to do good things on the Sabbath, too.
Today I want to encourage you to take a Sabbath day once a week. It doesn’t have to be the 6th day and it doesn’t have to be the first day. It just needs to be a day that you set aside that is different from all other days. Allow yourself to receive one of the gifts God gave the body when He created it and rest from all your work. Take a day to turn your attention to the things of God and press into Him differently than you do the rest of the week. Plan for opportunities to do good to others and make a consecrated day set apart to God part of your healthy balance of life.
Today’s scripture reading: Mark 2:23-28
23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.
24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:
26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
The Daily Dose 