That seventh day . . . ............. Parables 708

March 20, 2001

My grandfather said, “I’ve never harvested any crops that I planted on a Sunday.” He was not a religious man but Grandpa noticed the positive results of his commitment to take one rest day in his busy work week.

The original idea of taking one day a week as a day of rest comes from the Bible. It was called the Sabbath and was an important part of Jewish life. In the Old Testament, the people were commanded to keep holy the sevenths day of the week (holy = set aside for God) but their Sabbath activities often became ritual.

In the New Testament, the early Christians interpreted the Old Testament Sabbath as a ‘type’ or shadow of their relationship to Christ and their ‘rest’ in His finished work of salvation. They changed that special day to the first day of the week, the day that Jesus rose from the dead. Instead of ritual, it became a lively expression of corporate worship and celebration.

Today, the traditional ‘rest’ days are not what they used to be. For those doing shift work, weekend days are the same as any other days. Changed hours for businesses add to the difficulty of consistently making one day a special day.

Besides the above logistics, many people may take a day or two off work to rest; however, they often fill those days of rest with activities that are just as strenuous as work.

To add to the complication of a modern Sabbath, several traditions and beliefs stress which day it should be. Some religious groups argue the day must be Saturday; others insist that it must be Sunday.

In an effort to solve this, others feel that the day of the week is not as important as the principle behind the Sabbath: God worked six days when He formed the world and everything in it, then after declaring it “good,” He rested. (This is not to say God was tired but that He ceased from working for a day.) This principle of work and rest is included in the Ten Commandments and repeated throughout the Old Testament.

Since our calendar was not yet invented, it is folly to argue which day of the week compares exactly to that seventh day. Instead, we need to look at God’s example and activities and apply them to our Sabbath rest. God worked six days doing something significant; He created a world and established its operational principles. After He was finished, He looked at it and said it was good.

I don’t know about everyone, but for me, it is a wonderful (and rare) week when I can look back and say all that I did was significant and good, but when I can, it seems easier to take a day off and rest.

This makes me wonder if our human drive for significance gets carried away and pushes us into a sense that we must work harder and longer to accomplish something good? And from what do we get our sense of significance? Does that fit with God’s plan for our lives?

Another part of this issue is that God never stopped working after He rested. That is, He continues to be active in His world. Simply put, a rest at the end of our week of work is also prior to the beginning of another work week. The Sabbath rest is practical; we can go refreshed and rested into the next part of our work cycle. This points to the principle behind the Sabbath. While it was initiated as a day set aside for God, Jesus pointed out that “man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for man.”

This time of rest is also for our good. While we can spend it in many ways, some of it should include time to reflect on the good of the past week. We can rest in the significance we have as children of God, and as we rest our bodies, we prepare for the week ahead.

Most important of all, if we include time apart from the normal distractions of life to focus our attention on the glory and grace of our God, He will renew our spirit and give us peace.

The Greatest Gift .................. Parables 196

December 20, 1989

“What did you get for Christmas?”

I’m certain at least one person will ask me that question again this year, but I’m not sure how I’ll answer it, at least after hearing about a certain family tradition. It seems members of this one family each put the gifts they are giving into a separate box to place under the tree. When the day comes, they take turns taking the gifts from their box and personally giving them to the person whose name is on the tag. If the person is not present, the giver leaves the gift in the box, undelivered until it can be done personally. If the recipient is gathered around the tree with the others, the giver tells that person how much they mean to them and how happy they are to be able to give them this gift. The receiver responds by taking it, saying thank you, opening and showing it to everyone. After all enjoy that gift, they go on to give another person opportunity to give.

When all the gifts are opened, the family joins hands and prays, giving thanks to God that they are able to show their love for one another by both giving and receiving. And God is of course thanked for the wonderful gift of His Son, the One that Christmas is all about.

As I think about this tradition, my eyes fill with tears of joy at the beauty and simplicity that it represents. The pattern was set nearly 2000 years ago with God as the Giver. He too placed His gift in a unique location, not under a tree but in a person. That Gift was Himself, born in a manger, taking up residence in a human body. Wrapped in that parcel, He was one of us yet also God with us, Jesus Christ, perfect, without sin, all that man was intended to be, all that God is... gift-wrapped for a lost and needy world.

This Gift also has a name tag. On that tag is the name of every man, woman and child ever born; the gift is for all. But the Giver does not force it upon anyone. It is placed only in the hearts of those willing to receive it.

The Spirit of God makes the offer. To all of the people named on the tag, He individually whispers truth: truth about their sin and unbelief, truth about the righteousness of God and the judgment to come, truth about the cross and the resurrection. If that truth is believed, it puts the person in the place to receive, not physically gathered around a tree but spiritually around the focal point of history, the Cross. The Israelites of the Old Testament looked ahead to it; we look back, both seeing the one Gift God offered freely as atonement for our sin. When we open our hearts to Him, the Lord Jesus Christ is placed there... forever.

Of course with His Gift comes His Words of love. It’s His deepest pleasure to give: “For God so loved the world that He gave...” Imagine His joy when we receive! He says all the host of heaven shout and sing when one sinner repents.

All who already have the Gift rejoice with the new recipient, sharing the wonder of this precious treasure, joining together with praise and adoration for the Giver and for His Gift.

After thinking about this tradition and what it implies, I do know how to answer that question. What did I get for Christmas? Not this year, but nearly 20 years ago, God gave me His Son. The joy of that gift grows deeper each Christmas, making giving and receiving much richer -- because both are reflections of the Only Gift that matters.