Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
10 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 your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.
11 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.
God designed his laws for us to work 6 days and rest on the 7th day. When companies, computers, and most of the world are going at break-neck speed to accomplish the latest project and meet the latest deadline, God’s law contradicts the 24/7 mentallity. When multi-tasking seems like a must-have virtue in today’s society, God commands His people to follow His pattern of work and rest. But most of the world blatantly disobey this law:
· I remember someone telling me that one time Japan was trying to implement a 10-day work-week in order to squeeze more productivity out of its workers. The result? People were even more stressed out, and productivity lowered drastically. Japan couldn’t tamper with God’s design for the human body and mind.
· When I had visited my relatives in Taiwan as a college student many years ago, I was shocked to find out my aunt was required to work every Saturday morning, in addition to the 9-to-5, Monday-to-Friday work-week. This was not overtime, by the way.
· During our short-term missions trip to Israel, our hostess told us most Israelis would drive to the beach on the Sabbath, but few actually went to the temple to worship God. (We witnessed this by the long line of cars heading to the coast in Tel Aviv). How sad. They kept the Sabbath technically, but they failed to keep it holy, as God had commanded.
· How many of us as parents strive to get our kids into every conceivable extracurricular activity on Saturday and Sunday? I had heard of a teenager who went to Chinese school on Sunday mornings due to the parents’ wishes, but she would like to go to church. This is only one out of many examples.
· How many working in shops, malls, movie theaters, restaurants, etc can enjoy either a Saturday or Sunday off? The managers dare not close their establishments on weekends, their busiest and most profitable days. One notable exception is Chick-Fil-a, which is closed on Sunday to allow employees to rest. The size of their company cannot be compared to McDonald’s, but God has kept them in business over all these years and has blessed them.
When we go against God’s Sabbath law in our lifestyle, our bodies would break down prematurely, tempers would flare up inside the home, among other terrible consequences. Do we trust God to help us do what we need to do without working extra hours? I know some of your bosses and professors don’t think so, so they schedule meetings and classes early in the morning, late at night, and weekends. Don’t you think the increase in cancer in industrialized societies recently is not just due to lack of organic food and clean water, but lack of rest? We may not get much ahead in this world, we may turn down certain jobs in detriment to our careers, our kids may not have a lot of activities listed in their “school resume,” but we can choose to honor God and His laws with our lifestyles and bear testimony to others who are observing us as Christians.
Lord, help us not to conform to the standards of this world but to live in respect to Your Sabbath laws. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
