A couple of days ago was St. Patrick's day, the day that people around the world celebrate, in theory at least, St. Patrick, the Irish missionary. In reality, it is basically an excuse for a lot of people to get royally drunk. But that is besides the point. The point is that it is a holiday that we celebrate by wearing green and carrying around clovers and such in honor of St. Patrick.
We love holidays. According to the US Office of Personal Management, there are ten official paid holidays, which comes to almost one per month. These are the major holidays, however not including Valentine's day, Presidents' day, Halloween, and the best of the bunch, the Super Bowl. Holidayinsights.com lists some more obscure holidays, of which there is at least one per day, often more. January 25 is Opposite day, the official one. My birthday is National Weatherman day. One for my mother is January 21st, Squirrel Appreciation day. For those who are so inclined, yesterday was the Goddess of Fertility's day and today is National Quilting day or Poultry day, depending on how you are inclined.
The point is that we absolutely love holidays. And we celebrate them with a passion. On New Year's and Independence day, we set off fireworks. Thanksgiving we gorge ourselves. We do the same at Christmas with the added bonus of presents. And we celebrate the Super Bowl with just plain awesomeness (too cool to put into words). Other holidays we celebrate by taking time off of work or school to remember. On other less recognized holidays, we do something unique or special to celebrate, like not intentionally running over squirrels on January 21st.
Here is a question to ponder: what exactly is a holiday? Holidays are, basically, days of celebration. Just look at the examples of holidays in the preceding paragraph. We celebrate holidays. The question then is, what are we celebrating? That answer varies, but in the case of the major holidays, especially the ones that the government gives time off for, we are usually celebrating what people have done. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. day or Independence day are such holidays. We take time off to celebrate the accomplishments of the Civil Rights leader of the '60s and the Founding Fathers and the birth of our nation. Another example would be Veteran's day and Memorial day. Both are days that we take to celebrate and honor those who have sacrificed themselves in service of our country. St. Patrick's day is another example.
What about the Sabbath? So often we treat the Sabbath as a headache, as a burden. For many of us, Sabbath is a day of do's and don'ts. Or for others, it is a day that we go to church and that is really all it means. What we certainly do not do is treat the Sabbath like a holiday and celebrate it. Could it be that we are ignoring Yahveh's holiday?
Back at the very beginning of the Bible, we have the first Sabbath. It is found in Genesis 2:1-3 and it says, "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done."
Let me give a little background to this passage, though there is not much, only about six days worth. This is the last day of the Creation week. For the previous six days, Yahveh had been systematically creating the world. First light, then air, then land and vegetation, then sun, moon, and stars, then fish and birds, then animals, and then finally people. After Yahveh had created people on the sixth day, he had finished creation. It was done and he sat back and said, "It is very good" (1:31). Then comes day seven and it is like "now what?"
On the seventh day, Yahveh does something very different. He does not create. Instead, he makes the day holy. Now what does it mean "he made it holy"? In ancient Hebrew, the original language of Genesis, the writer Moses used the word qadash. Literally speaking, qadash means "set apart" or "special". So in other words, Yahveh set the Sabbath day apart and he made it special. This is exactly what we do with holidays now. We set certain days apart as special.
So why did Yahveh set this day apart as special? Verse three tells us that he made it holy "because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." That is odd. What does it mean "he rested"? Surely it does not mean that Yahveh got tired and just took the day off to recharge. Isaiah 40:28 tells us that Yahveh does not "grow tired or weary." So what could possibly be meant by "he rested"?
In Hebrew the word for "rested" here is the word shabbath from where we get the word Sabbath. Literally this word means "cease" or "desist", which makes sense because on the seventh day, Yahveh ceased from creating. However, there is more to this word than just stopping. Shabbath can also mean "take a holiday" or, as Strong's Concordance says, "celebrate." Another way of looking at this verse is to say that Yahveh celebrated on the seventh day or that he took a holiday on the seventh day. The noun Sabbath came to mean a festival or holiday. The Day of Atonement was a "Sabbath" and weekly Sabbaths were grouped in with the feast days (Leviticus 23).
The point is that Yahveh celebrated on the Sabbath. Dan Allender in his book Sabbath makes this point, "God didn't rest in the sense of taking a nap or chilling out; instead, God celebrated and delighted in his creation. God entered the joy of his creation and set it free to be connected but separate from the artist." Yahveh took the seventh day of creation to celebrate with his creations. It was a holiday. What were they celebrating? They were celebrating the work of creation that Yahveh had done. In other words, they were celebrating what Yahveh had done. The focus was on him. It was his holiday. This is what Yahveh intended the Sabbath to be: his holiday, celebrating him.
At the heart of the 10 Commandments, the moral code by which Christians, Jews, and even Muslims live, is the Sabbath commandment. In Exodus 20:8-11, the Bible says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
The key word in this commandment is "remember." Remembering is how we celebrate holidays. Think of, for example, Veteran's day. That is a day when we stop what we are doing and remember what those in military service have done for us. It is a day of remembering. In fact, in Canada it is called Remembrance day.
For the ancient Israelites, they were to remember Yahveh as their Creator. That was the focus of this holiday. Again, it was remembering what Yahveh had done. They were celebrating Yahveh, making it his holiday.
Over a couple of books, there is a second version of the 10 Commandments in Deuteronomy 5. They are largely identical, except for the Sabbath commandment. In verses 12-15 we read, "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all you work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor you manservant or maidservant, nor you ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within you gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day."
In this commandment, the key word is "observe." Observing simply means keeping or following. This is another way we celebrate holidays. Think of how we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day. We observe it by taking a day off of school or work. Here at Southern, we take that day off of regular school work and do community service. We observe Martin Luther King Jr. day.
Why were the ancient Israelites to observe the Sabbath day? Because they were to remember that Yahveh had liberated them from Egypt. In addition to remembering Yahveh as the Creator, they were to remember him as the Liberator. Once again, the focus was on what Yahveh had done and celebrating him.
This was the point of the Sabbath for the ancient Israelites: a special day to celebrate Yahveh as Creator and Liberator. These are certainly things worth celebrating and so they took a day each week to celebrate. The Sabbath was a holiday.
But what about us Christians today? The world Yahveh made is an absolute mess (see Japan). And I do not know about you, but I have never been a slave in Egypt. So does the Sabbath have any significance or meaning to us today?
In John 19, there is a striking parallel to the Creation story. Oddly, this parallel happens at the moment of Jesus death. The disciple records, "Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
Do you see the parallel to Genesis 2:1-3? "Knowing that all was now completed." "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed." "It is finished." "By the seventh day God had finished the work of creating he had been doing." Completed. Finished. Both words are you used in both accounts. In fact, comparing the Greek version of the Old Testament with the Greek of John, they use the same root word for "completed" and "finished."
It gets more interesting. Verse 31 of John 19 tells us that the day Jesus died was Friday, the same day that Yahveh finished creating the world. Both came to this world with a task: Yahveh to create the human race and Jesus to save it. Both had spent time carefully, methodically building up to that point. Both completed their task as the sixth day closed.
What does this have to do with the Sabbath? The first two verses of chapter 20 inform us that Jesus was raised to life on the first day of the week or Sunday. So what did he do on Sabbath, the day between when he died and was raised? He rested in the garden tomb. He took a break from his labors, just like Yahveh took a break from his labors on the seventh day. In resting in the garden on the seventh day, the Sabbath day, Jesus commemorated it again, like Yahveh did in the first Garden.
This is why we celebrate the Sabbath today as Christians. It is the day that we celebrate what Jesus has done for us. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that in Christ we are new creations, the old has gone the new has come. In Exodus, the ancient Israelites were told to celebrate the Sabbath because Yahveh was their Creator. Today, we celebrate the Sabbath because Jesus is our Recreator.
Another of Paul's letters, this one to the Romans, tells us that because of Jesus we are no longer slaves to sin. Instead we are slaves to righteousness. In Deuteronomy, the ancient Israelites were told to celebrate the Sabbath because Yahveh was their Liberator. Today we celebrate the Sabbath because Jesus is our Savior.
Jesus is truly amazing. He is our Creator and Recreator. He is our Liberator and Savior. These are things worth celebration, more than any other holiday. The awesome thing is that this is exactly what the Sabbath is all about. It is about celebrating Jesus for who he is. So as you go from Sabbath to Sabbath, do not forget to celebrate!
