The Importance of Rest
Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the day of rest. (Deuteronomy 5:15)
As Moses reminded the people of Israel of all the things that God had told to them, he recounted the Ten Commandments. As he reminded them of the third commandment, Moses used a different rationale for giving the third commandment. God appealed to creation, citing the seventh day on which he rested as the reason for his people to have a day of rest. In Deuteronomy, Moses told the Israelites that it was to be a reminder to them that God had rescued them from their slavery in Egypt. Either way, the sabbath day was to be a day of rest from work. It was to be a day that all of Israel was to rest from their work, except for the priests, who were to do their work on that day.
When Jesus came to the earth, he fulfilled the law and gave us the freedom to choose what day we publicly worship God. Since Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, the Christian Church has traditionally worshipped on Sunday. But the day doesn’t matter. What matters is that we take time to rest from our work and to praise our God for his love. God wants us to hear his Word and to gladly learn it. And so we take time out of our busy schedules to come together to worship and praise our God.
While we may not observe the third commandment in the same way that the Israelites did, we still obey the third commandment by being in God’s Word and resting from our work to do so. And we gather together in church to encourage one another and build each other up in the Lord. This is what makes coming to church so important. It’s that mutual encouragement that we give and receive. Amen.
The song for today is “O Day of Rest and Gladness” by The Draget Family