Back to Bible Basics: The 10 Commandment #4

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:
¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.


We are at the last of the commandments that are God-relational.  The last six are people-relational.

Do you remember the days when Sunday was sacred.  No gas stations were open, no grocery stores were open.  You went to church and the family dinner that Mamaw cooked and that was it, or maybe to the park to play on the teeter totter.  If you forgot to get gas or needed something for the fried chicken dinner, you had to deal.  I think we also had closer relationships with neighbors and family that could help us out with some shortcomings and we them.   Then suddenly gas stations were open.  Then the grocery stores.  And now even the liquor stores can sell libations.  Boy oh boy do we need to take a step back. 

Of note, I do believe that the first Sabbath was Friday sunset to Saturday sunset and that changed with Constantine in the Roman empire days a few hundred years after Christ.   And we can get all bent out of shape in "man's tradition" and the paganism behind the change to Sunday, etc.  At this point in my own spiritual growth, I am not ready for all that.  As you can tell, I am still working on the first 10 Mosaic commandments!  And in the KJV that I read, sabbath is not capitalized, so I am taking great liberty and saying it will be Sunday...for now.  But I am trying to keep one day holy; the rest will come, God willing.

Nonetheless, I got hubby to go along with me this week to do a true sabbath. The kids were gone and did not participate.  Although we did not go to church, we did not do extra work and I did listen to a sermon online and read my Bible with more awareness.  I made a crockpot meal the night before so that no cooking was done.  The only thing that we had to do was to make sure the animals were fed and watered (and that the ducks were run back into the fenced area that they escaped from, twice!). 

I am not going to lie! This was hard. It was very hard to relax and just keep God in the forefront of my mind.  I would slip into what I need to do and what I should do and, yes, even once, Hubby had to ask where I was going when I wanted to do a little work.  I was checking the clock more and more as sunset approached.   At 8:17pm, I was washing dishes and starting the laundry. 

Hmmm, I think this is going to take more prayer, as well as preparation.  Paper plates, Saturday chores doubled or at least thoroughly done.  I do feel that God will bless the works of the six remaining days, but I need a little bit more practice and heart in it.  Not to just do the law/commandment, but to do it with the right heart.  I have some work to do on this (ha-ironic).

Do you keep the Sabbath?  How strict-do you use electricity?  Do you do leisure activities?  Do you remain in your PJs?  What is it for you to keep God's day of rest sacred and set apart?