There are several reasons the Jewish Sabbath is no longer a requirement for God’s covenant people. (For more, see this article.) I take up the theme again to share some further (more recent) thoughts. In addition, I have now read Dan B. Allender’s Sabbath (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2009), and have selected a number of passages for your thoughtful consideration—and inspiration.

(My) further thoughts on Sabbath:

  • It was logistically simple for the Sabbath to be observed by all the Israelites, a specific day of the week for all Jews. It was, in effect, (a) mandated by the government (per Torah) and (b) applied to the entire nation—freemen, slaves, even animals.
  • Yet with expansion into the Gentile world—where there was no weekend as such, no Saturday Sabbath, and probably no time off for slaves (who constituted perhaps 1/3 of the empire), it was no longer possible for all to (a) take a day off, let alone (b) take the same day off. In fact, Sunday was a workday in the first century. (This explains why Christians met before dawn and after dusk—at times when the common man, and slaves too, could be present. The evidence comes from the second century, but it’s unlikely economic conditions were more favorable in the first century.) A “Sunday Sabbath” was not a thing until the fourth century.
  • In our own day, every country is in a different economic situation. In many, people work 6 or 7 days. In the wealthy west, the 2-day weekend is common. Yet the feeling I get from Allender is that he is writing for middle class (or higher) Americans and other fortunate persons in the West. His assumptions do not work so well for the needy, or for those in the developing world. To be clear, Allender allows that any day of the week may be observed as a “Sabbath,” not just the 24 hours from Friday evening to Saturday evening. Yet this is not the major difficulty in mapping the Fourth Commandment onto our modern schedules. For many getting even one day off is a challenge.
  • Of course this is not to deny that the benefits of Sabbath wisdom is relevant today—for it is. Let us all make time for God, and as much as possible strive for a day of delight in the Lord. With these thoughts in mind, please take a look at the following 40 stimulating and helpful thoughts from Dan Allender’s Sabbath.

Excerpts from Allender's Sabbath

  • "We tell others how much we work, how much we still have to get done, and how overwhelmed we are with the exhaustion of our labor. We admire busyness, speed, and productivity, yet we envy those whose leisure time is abundant. We are mad—crazy mad—and we know it" (6).
  • "For many Sabbath keepers, [the Sabbath] is a day of duty, diligence, and spiritual focus that eschews play and pleasure for Bible reading, prayer, naps, and tedious religious services that seem designed to suck the air out of the soul" (8).
  • "To vacate is to empty—that is, to get rid of something. When we… take a vacation, we are not merely taking time off from work; we are flushing away the cares of the world as we indulge in the diversions of our empty space… [But] this is not Sabbath; it is vacating our work in order to fill ourselves with passing pleasure" (11).
  • "[Sabbath is] not a day off, but a day of celebration and delight" (12).
  • "Sabbath is not about time off or a break in routine. It is not a minivacation to give us a respite so we are better prepared to go back to work. The Sabbath is far more than a diversion; it is meant to be an encounter with God’s delight" (12).
  • "If we need to get downtime or chill, then we should use another day and not the Sabbath" (12).
  • "Boasting about work is a national [American] pastime… Sabbath yanks us off our high horse, and for that reason alone few wish to dismount" (20).
  • "The proud, exhausted addict believes he can cheat the fate of Sisyphus" (20).
  • "The dark side of pride is that the work addict secretly believes he can out-master the fates and find a way to achieve what others have failed to do" (20).
  • "Like any addiction, pride spins us deeper into the bondage of slavery, requiring other diversions to keep us from facing out plight" (20).
  • "We are driven because our work brings us power and pride that dulls our deeper desire for delight" (26).
  • "…Sabbath is not merely the cessation of work; it is turning from work to something utterly different from what we normally call rest" (26).
  • "[In Gen 2:1-3] it should be obvious that God rests not because he was weary from his labor. In this sense, rest must have a meaning other than taking a well-deserved break to stoke the fires for the next creative output" (27).
  • "It is often too painful to receive and to celebrate. In part, the pain is because we know our momentary dance will not last. It is easier to hold on to sorrow than to let go of joy" (29).
  • "We are to bask in beauty, to surround our senses with color, texture, taste, fragrance, fire, sound, sweetness, and delight. And if we are to do so, each and every day, with joy, then how much more are we to do so on the Sabbath, when God stood back and marveled at his own creation?" (44).
  • "Early in the Industrial Revolution, the clock became the most transformative tool to turn humanity from the agrarian view of the rhythm of seasons and calendar to the power of precise, managed, and controlled time. 'The clock, not the steam-engine, is they key machine of the modern industrial age' [Lewis Mumford]" (52).
  • "We rush at great speed; and the faster we move, the less human we become" (54).
  • "Speed becomes a drug that helps us escape our empty, dull, time-addicted lives" (54).
  • "There is no notion more at odds with the Sabbath than a day of forced quiet, spiritual exercises, and religious devotion and attendance" (65).
  • "[Unfortunately] there seem to be many who long not only for a day off, but to be free from the entanglements of relationships" (65).
  • "Jürgen Moltmann writes, 'The true meaning of Sabbath is ecological. Related to it is also an esthetic aspect: Only someone who comes to rest and has nothing planned is able to perceive the beauty of things. He or she sees the flowers and the sunset, a painting or a vase or a beloved person with unintentional/unexpected pleasure'" (67).
  • "The agenda-ridden, task-driven focus that we use the other six days needs to be put to rest in order to receive the surprising bounty of the unexpected. We must plan to enter the realm where plans no longer hold sway" (67).
  • "The Sabbath is the weekly entry into a taste of lavish, sensuous delight" (79).
  • "[Rabbi] Abraham Heschel warns us that the Sabbath is 'not a day to shoot fireworks or to turn somersaults, but an opportunity to mend our tattered lives; to collect rather than to dissipate time'” (94).
  • "It is impossible to receive the day when one is exhausted with the debris of judging oneself and others. How can I celebrate a Sabbath… when my heart is riddled with the weariness of suspicion?" (112)
  • "Worry makes no attempt to move into the unknown with conviction and courage… For this reason, worry is anti-Sabbath. Sabbath requires the release of worry and invites us to trust" (136).
  • "Sabbath is not an escape from death. Instead, Sabbath is the promise that death doesn’t win" (142).
  • "… Sabbath is not a night to watch television or to descend into comfortable chairs and breeze away the evening in a tired stupor reading a magazine. Peace is not an absence of conflict or tension; it is the union of distinctly different things into a whole that is far, far greater than its parts" (158).
  • "If I am worrying, I am not full of wonder; if I am only working, I am far from worship. I will not see glory in the face of another if my heart is full of worry" (162).
  • "Sabbath silence opens the heart to meditation and prayer. These doors are openings to enter into the holy time to hear God" (171).
  • "Sabbath is a threshold we cross into eternity; therefore, prayer takes on a different tone than on the other six days" (174).
  • "The Sabbath and its 7x7 perfection, the Jubilee, is the most revolutionary event in the Scriptures. It resets our equilibrium in a world that is chronically imbalanced by the burden of the curse" (178).
  • "All who serve the powerful, including beasts and land, are set free for a day. It is not a break or a respite to regain strength to live under the yoke for another burdensome six days. Instead, it is a weekly reminder, to all, that injustice and inequality [are] to be overthrown by delight and joy" (179).
  • "The Sabbath is a time to celebrate repentance and to delight in its fruit—freedom" (179-180).
  • "The Sabbath is also the promise regarding our future glory in the new heavens and earth, a righteously just and compassionate society. Yet the future is trivialized if the Sabbath is just a day off. It is to be viewed as a day that offers a taste of the radical day of redemptive justice" (182-183).
  • "Sabbath celebrates the God who frees the heart from slavery. God has not only redeemed us from Egypt, but he has turned our hearts toward eternity" (184).
  • "The Sabbath turns us to God—it is a day of turning toward God which is the heartbeat of repentance. Further, the Sabbath is the celebration of freedom for ourselves—and if for us, then for all who reside under our roofs" (185).
  • "The Sabbath is the childlike play in the new garden because Jesus has humbly and courageously entered the garden of Gethsemane. A new garden party has begun in the Sabbath, and to not play and delight is rebellion against the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus" (189).
  • "Our war is not with flesh and blood; our reluctance to Sabbath is not a fight with busyness, drivenness, or time. We are caught in and fight battles against delight. Delight unnerves us; God’s call to delight terrifies us" (192).
  • "Do we really believe that Sabbath delight is God’s heart for us? Are we willing to silence the rabble of idols and foul spirits to hear the intoxicating joy of God? We will never know Sabbath delight unless God delivers us from drowning in the noise and grime of our soiled days" (193).
  • "The Sabbath is salt and light for the remainder of the week. We are invited to remember the Sabbath all week long and to anticipate its observance ahead" (194).