Exod 20:8-10

8          Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9          Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10        But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Gal 4:24

24        Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

Heb 4:9-11

9          There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

10        For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

11        Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

(KJV)

The Sabbath was emplaced within the Law to teach holiness to a fallen generation.  Six days the nation of Israel would work and then on the seventh they would rest.  When the worldly nations surrounding Israel would keep on working, the nation of Israel would trust God and rest as He did when He created the universe.

Galatians 4:24 says that these things from the Old Testament are allegories.  They are symbols or “teachable moments” thru time.  While Jesus freed us from the stiffness of regulatory and legalistic compliance of the law, the principle behind this Commandment is Eternal and Everlasting.

There is a spiritual lesson to learn from these verses and a pragmatic principle as well:

1.)                            Spiritually when we trust in Christ for our salvation, we rest in Him and we stop laboring in our vain attempt to get to Heaven on our own merits.  While on the cross Jesus said, “It is finished”.  Because of the cross, we can stop working.  Even when we work, it is truly HIS SPIRIT working from within us today.  In fact when it is not His Spirit working within us…that’s typically when we make a hot mess of things.  Jesus is our rest spiritually.  Jesus is OUR SABBATH.  When we rest and trust in Him…we are truly enjoying the Sabbath.

2.)                            Pragmatically, while Jesus is our Spiritual Sabbath, there is a lot to gain from taking a day off to rest physically and refocus spiritually.  This doesn’t mean that we religiously designate all our spiritual energy to one day.  We should walk with Jesus seven days a week.  While this is all true; your job, your family and your body would benefit with giving an entire day to God with no other distractions like work, movies or household chores.  Everything needs rest, rebooting and recharging.  So do you.

Let me close with a little story.  Two lumberjacks were the hardest workers in the forest.  They use to cut down more trees than any other lumberjacks.  They worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week.  Eventually though, despite all their hard work these two lumberjacks began to slow down and cut down trees slower than their competitors.  Both of their wives came out and suggested that the lumberjacks sharpen the saw that they were using.  The lumberjacks answered, “No time to sharpen the saw…we have work to do!!!”  The lumberjacks eventually died of exhaustion.

Moral of the Story:  Take time to relax and sharpen the saw or you will end up killing yourself.

Disclaimer:  Recognize that I never said anything about Saturday or Sonday.