Genesis 2:2-3
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
In biblical times (and in observing traditional Jewish laws today) the day before the sabbath was "Preparation Day." They prepared their food for the next day because the sabbath was a day of rest.
Did I just say was? It still is, or at least, it should be.
So guess what we did this Saturday? We took the time in the evening to prepare. We doubled up on food yesterday so that we would have all we needed for today.
Breakfast? Check.
Lunch? Check.
Dinner. Check.
Great! We were ready for church and had our meals all taken care of according to the Exodus passage.
Exodus 16:22- 26
On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. He said to them,
"This is what the LORD commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’” So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
We left for church earlier so that we would have time for our personal time with God in the morning. Instead of the park we decided to park along a dirt road about five minutes away from our house and have our personal time with God in the car overlooking a large tomato field.
So why did we do this when we were going to church anyway? Well, our time in the mornings is our one-on-one time with God. Its when we bring our day before Him and take time to "Be still and know that He is God."
We're often so busy, that we go and go to the point where we forget to take the time to slow down, be still and remain in His rest.
REST... something I don't get enough of and I'm sure you don't either. Thankfully God knew that and he made it a command:) He knew us enough to know that even when we're tired we keep going.
Being still has taught me to value what God values. It has helped prepare me for church because I'm less rushed and have received from the Lord himself what no one can give me...peace, comfort, joy...and rest.
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
Are you entering your Sabbath-rest??
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