#4 Commandment or Suggestion?

Today we are on the fourth commandment, it is the one which the majority of the world really does look at as just a suggestion! Do you remember what it is?

Again from the Message translation, “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don’t do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.”

The fact that the Chick FIl A corporation decided to honor their policy of keeping their restaurant closed on the Sabbath instead of opening it on Super Bowl Sunday made the news! Why was that so shocking? Are we really so greedy?

OK that’s obvious. A lot of people might to go to work on a Sunday but is that all there is to it?

One day I was feeling a little “holier than thou” about the Sabbath and said something to my dad about how people missed church because they were out doing things and not honoring the Sabbath by being in church. He looked at me with a smile that I can only, as I look back, call a smirk and said, “Dear, do you realize that you never take a Sabbath for yourself? You get up early and start cooking for Sunday lunch!  You cook, serve and then clean the kitchen besides all that you do for your mother and me. When do you take a rest as God commanded you to do? When you get sick are you going to blame God when it is because you have worn yourself down not taking time for yourself?”  Busted! I realized that although I was sitting in the service for a set amount of time, I was worried about the oven not coming on or something burning and if we had a visiting pastor or singers and they had to be served I worked overtime to make sure it was all done correctly. So who is most guilty of not honoring the Sabbath?

I repeat, For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.”

What do you think???