A Priceless Gift
I recently celebrated a birthday that placed me into a special category - a category that allows me to order from the Seniors menu at a certain local restaurant; to park in the seniors' bay at the mall and to receive double points from a loyalty card at one of the local chemists. Oh yes, and if you live in certain cities, you can ride free on the busses and trains on a Tuesday!
With this special birthday came special surprises. My family arranged a party that caught me totally by surprise - something I said they would never be able to do: 60 family and friends for lunch at a golf estate near Stellenbosch.
In the words of the TV shopping channels - but that's not all! The family had clubbed together to contribute money towards a gift - an envelope stuffed with money! In two other envelopes were gift cards from some friends. The evening after the party I went through the different presents, enjoying the surprises; the cards; the kind words and delightful messages.
Now, suppose I had taken the envelope of money, or the gift vouchers, or the other presents and sent them back to those who had given them to me. Or maybe, tossed them into the trash can. Or perhaps put them in a draw and left it there until I had forgotten all about them.
Would those gifts have been of any value to me?
What would it have said about my appreciation to those who had given the gifts?
How would those who gave me the gifts have felt if they found out I had discarded the gifts?
I'm sure you will agree with me that the best way to show my appreciation and to honour the givers was to enjoy the gifts; to redeem the vouchers; to use what was given to me.
Today I want to share with you one such gift that has been given to all of us: A gift packaged in love; a gift intended to bring us joy; a gift planned for our delight.
And yet it is a gift that many of us have thrown into the trash can; many of us have put it into a forgotten draw; many of us have put it back into the envelope and returned it to the giver.
What is this gift? It is called The Sabbath.
As God came to the end of His great act of creation, He recognized that the crown of His creation - man and woman and the rest of the human race that was to follow - would need a day of rest; not only physically, but spiritually and emotionally.
The Bible records it in this way in Genesis 2:1-3:
"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 from all his work. 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."
This gift of the Sabbath - which followed an awesome week of creative activity by God; in which God had declared everything that He had made to be good - is made special because it is a gift from God. And a God of love - who clothes the lilies of the field; who sees when a sparrow falls to the ground; who, as a Father, knows how to give good gifts to His children - would only give us what is the best.
Right here in Genesis - the first book of the Bible - we learn three precious facts about this gift.
Let us go back to the passage we read earlier:
Genesis 2:1-3:
"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 from all his work. 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."
So what are the three facts we learn about this gift in the verses we have read?
Firstly, God blessed it.
Secondly, He made it holy.
Thirdly, He rested on this day.
Now, friends, I don't know about you. But if the God of heaven blesses something, then I cannot but call it blessed and seek to honour it; If God makes something holy, then I, as His creation, will surely want to observe it as being holy; If God set an example in doing something, then, as His creation, I am surely going to do my best to follow His example.
By the way, God did not need to rest after completing His creation, in the sense of Him being tired and needing to rest. One translation of the word gives the idea of God "ceasing" from His work.
But whether God rested or ceased from His work, what we do know is that God blessed the day and declared it holy. What we also know is that Jesus, while on this earth, rested on the Sabbath day.
Luke 4:16 says: "He went into Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath He went into the Synagogue, as was His custom. And He stood up to read."
Luke 6:5 tells us: "The Son of Man [Jesus] is Lord of the Sabbath."
So, my friends, if God the Creator in Genesis, blesses, makes it holy and rests on the seventh day; and Jesus, the Son of Man, The Lord of the Sabbath, had it as His custom to worship on the Sabbath, I, as His creation, am going to embrace this gift and rest on the day He blessed and declared holy.
And so we go back to scripture to discover more about this gift wrapped in love.
As we turn to the book of Exodus, we find, nestling in the heart of the Ten Commandments, which has been described as the transcription of God's character - the law of love - a reminder of this gift.
Let us turn to 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 manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. (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."
I want you to take special note of a few interesting details in this passage:
Firstly, God says "Remember" - this immediately gives us the clue that God is not coming up with something new; something that is being set up that did not exist before; something that is only for those who are now hearing these words from Mt Sinai. By using the words "Remember" He is asking the hearers to recall and put into practice something that had been in existence and had been forgotten or neglected. Thus He says: "Remember" the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And friends, what is He asking them to recall? He takes them right back to creation, to the Genesis account we read earlier.
Notice vs 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."
So when God says "remember" He is reminding them of the gift He had presented them right at the beginning as part of creation.
Secondly, God says "Remember the Sabbath day." Notice, God is not saying "Remember just any day." He takes us back to creation and reminds us that one of the seven days of creation has been set aside as a gift to the human race. In Genesis chapter 2 He identifies it as the "seventh day". In Exodus 20 the same God calls it "the Sabbath" and then again identifies it as the seventh day by stating "the Seventh day is the Sabbath".
Now God could have said the third day is the Sabbath; or He could have said the sixth day, or the first day, or the fourth day is the Sabbath. Why did God choose to call the seventh day the Sabbath? Why did He call this day blessed and holy? I don't know.
But what I do know is that the creator God, the One Who made heaven and earth; the One Who formed Adam out of the dust and breathed life into his nostrils; the One Who watched over the ark as it floated on the water-covered earth; the One Who was with David when he faced Goliath; the one Who was in the fire with Shadrach, Misach and Abednego; the One Who was born in a manger in Bethlehem, Who calmed the troubled sea, Who fed the five thousand and Who rose from the grave on the first day of the week. The One Who will return on the clouds of glory to reign forever as King of Kings and Lord of Lords - it is THIS God Who says: the seventh day, Saturday, is the Sabbath of The Lord thy God. I have blessed it; I have made it holy; I rested on it.
In the words of the songwriter: God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me.
Thirdly, God says: "remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy". Here we see again a reference to Genesis, where God says I have blessed the seventh day and made it Holy. Exodus 20 now reminds us to Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it Holy.
Was does it mean to keep it holy? In scripture "Holy" means setting something apart for holy or sacred purposes. For worship; for honoring God; resting from our regular work and activities; laying down our frenetic activity of the week; our anxieties; our worries and cares.
Isaiah 58:13 says God wants the Sabbath to be a delight; Jesus says in Matthew 12:12 that we should do good on the Sabbath.
So what do we do on the Sabbath to enjoy the gift God has given us?
Does resting on the Sabbath mean lying in bed and sleeping all day? As tempting as that might seem to some of us, God wants the Sabbath to be much more than that:
a time for worship;
a time to spend in nature, enjoying His creation;
a time in doing good to and for others;
a day to spend quality time with your family and friends;
a time to renew your energies so that you are able to enjoy life as God had intended.
And so we come back to the gift packaged in love.
What are you going to do with it? Discard it? Put it into some forgotten draw? Throw it back at the Giver?
Today I would like to challenge you to honour the Creator-God and accept the gift He has given you.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy.
