Cancelling on the Guest of Honor
I cannot tell you how many times people have said to me, “You don’t have to keep the Sabbath.” References to the “Old Covenant” or being “under the law” are usually thrown around in the same breath. From the outside, it may seem like people are offering a wonderful solution to an annoying legalistic practice that brings nothing but headaches.
Birthday parties are often missed, outings with friends and families are declined, and many activities that most people would do on Saturday are never attended. Certainly, the person informing me that I don’t have to worry about the Sabbath is doing me a favor. Yet, my thought every time someone says such a thing is that this person has no clue what they are saying. The magnificence of the weekly Sabbath is not produced in my own mind or the minds of the theologically destitute, but rather comes from the very pages of Scripture.
The Sabbath is established in the creation narrative and is wrapped up in the fabric of the universe in the first seven days of our world’s existence. (Gen. 2:1-3)
The declaration that God makes the seventh day the Sabbath is placed between the seven-day creation narrative and the description of God dwelling in the garden with Adam and Eve. This day is established before the fall and while God and man dwell in harmony without sin separating them.
Ezekiel tells us that God gave Israel the Sabbath so they would know that God sanctifies them, (Ezek. 20:12) yet, Christ tells us that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27) This means that the day was not given to us as a thing to be a nuisance or to simply keep us under its thumb.
Judaism has taken a much different view of the Sabbath than the Christian Church. Instead of seeing this day of rest as a burden that needs to be shed as soon as possible, the rabbis attempted to frame this command in the same light that the Scripture places it, as a blessing and a gift from God. I have often described the Sabbath day as a dual gift. It is a gift of God to man of time, the one thing we cannot reproduce or make more of, and the thing that essentially all monetary transactions come down to. However, at the same time, the Sabbath is a gift from us to God.
When I was a kid, we would sing this song at Church called, “What Can I Give to the King?” Although, I couldn’t stand this song when we sang it, the lyrics bring up a good question, what can we give to God if God is the owner and creator of everything. Well, the Torah tells us to give God a portion of the things that make up our life. We give him a portion of our money, our produce, our livestock. We abstain from certain things like unclean food, from unholy sexual pleasures, and from drunkenness. The fact that God asks us for a piece of our time should seem only natural.
Abraham Heschel notes that the early rabbinical writings speak of the Sabbath as a queen. Such imagery gives the Jewish people a reverence and anticipation of something wonderful that is coming. Heschel notes:
The idea of the Sabbath as a queen or a bride is not a personification of the Sabbath but an exemplification of a divine attribute, an illustration of God’s need for human love; it does not represent a substance but the presence of God, His relationship to man. Such metaphorical exemplification does not state a fact; it expresses a value, putting into words the preciousness of the Sabbath as Sabbath. Observance of the seventh day is more than a technique of fulfilling a commandment. The Sabbath is the presence of God in the world, open to the soul of man. It is possible for the soul to respond in affection, to enter into fellowship with the consecrated day.1
When I read this I felt like Heschel and broader Judaism is missing a key point here. The Sabbath is not a queen, the Sabbath is calendar date. Its a very important calendar date, but the Sabbath itself is not the important part. Heschel gets so close with the imagery of the presence of God, but misses it because He does not know the Messiah.
The fact is that the Sabbath is a time for us to open our home to a very special guest. The Sabbath is a calendar date every week that tells us the King is coming to sit at our table, to rest in our home, to open His Word, the Word of God with us. The Sabbath is the date each week when we stop working because there is nothing more important than the guest that will enter our doors and be our guest for 24 hours.
Many Christians will think that such a thing is ridiculous because we are under the New Covenant and we are indwelled with the Spirit. If the Spirit is always with us then there is no need to have a day when God visits us! Yet, such a charge would not even align with modern Christian doctrine. Certainly, Abraham was indwelled with the Holy Spirit yet YHVH came with two angels to sit with Him. Was God with Abraham? Of course! Then why did He need to show up in a different way?
A long time ago I went to a charismatic Church. The pastor opened the service by asking the Holy Spirit to descend on the Church service, to fill the sanctuary, and to fill each person. But why? If we are part of the New Covenant and are filled with the Holy Spirit, what was the pastor asking for?
The answer is that God relates to people and space in different ways and at different times. God tells Moses to take off his shoes when he sees the burning bush because the ground is holy. The Temple is said to be the resting place of God’s eyes and ears. The point is simply this, God is with us always and indwells us as believers, but God relates to us in different ways at different times. The fact is, the Sabbath is a time when the King of kings comes into our home to dwell with us, to eat with us, to be worshiped by us. He is there as we open the Word and study and as we go through our day focusing on Him.
This puts a whole new perspective on the idea of the Sabbath. This is not to say that a person must sit around a table and study the Word for 24 hours straight. When we have guests stay at our home we enjoy games, chatting, reading, we may even watch a movie with them. The point is simply this, on the Sabbath we invite Yeshua to be with us and to be our guest. Here is the kicker, since He has commanded it and given us the gift of this time, He has already accepted the invitation and is already on the guest list.
When someone tells me I don’t have to keep the Sabbath, they are literally telling me I don’t have to entertain the King of kings, and that the appointment requested by My God should not be accepted by me. That I don’t have to invite the Messiah in for dinner and enjoy a day with my God. I understand that many Christians don’t understand how I see this day, but when I am told that I don’t have to keep the Sabbath, what I hear is that I can take the guest of honor off my guest list and that someone else will have the honor of hosting Him instead.
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