PTL for the Sabbath

It sure has been a long times since I posted something... A lot has happened. Christmas has come and gone (in case you didn't catch it), I went to GYC (which was a huge blessing), and now I'm flat out in school again. But I will say, since I have been back at school, I have realized how much I am going to miss is when I graduate in a few months. So, I have decided to make the most of it :)

Another busy school week has past and in a couple hours it'll be Sabbath. What a blessing! In Bible class, we spent a little time looking at the Sabbath and I wrote a little paper on it. Here it is.

What is the purpose of the Sabbath? Over and over in the Bible the Sabbath is talked about and it is said to be “made for man.” (Mark 2:27) What does the Sabbath really mean for us?

At Mt. Sinai, when the ten commandments were given, the Sabbath commandment was written in stone. It said “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, thou shalt not do any work...” (Exodus 20:8-10)

When reading this, it seems as though the purpose of the Sabbath is to give us a weekly rest from the busyness of the week. Is this true? Yes, and No. The Sabbath was made as a day of rest, but that's not everything.

Though the Sabbath commandment was given at Mt. Sinai, the Sabbath was established at the beginning of the world. On the seventh day the world had been around, the Lord rested from His work, “blessed” the day, and spent it with his new creations, Adam and Eve. Now, follow me; the Sabbath was the first full day that humans were alive. It is irrational to say that the Sabbath was made just for rest because Adam and Even had just been created; they did not need the rest.

When I realized this, the true purpose of the Sabbath came into view. It is not a day for us to do whatever we want, it is the “Sabbath of the Lord your God.” If you read on in the fourth commandment, it is clear that the purpose of this day for the Israelites was to look back and see all that God had done for them and to spend time with their Savior and friend. It is the same for us today. God, at creation, knew that the most important thing for Adam and Eve was for them to have a strong relationship with Him. So the first day they were alive was set aside to establish this connection and every week they took a day to get to know Him better. There is nothing more important than our relationship with God. The Sabbath was set aside as a day for us to get to know God better as our Savior and our friend.