Tonight the Sabbath begins. I am tired and my back hurts as I write this one week ago. All I wanted to accomplish this week has not been done, and I have only one hour remaining to sweep the floors and tidy up a few places. We are human, and cannot seem to keep ahead of dirt, fatigue, broken cars, weeds, dirty clothes, lawns needing mowing, dirty cat box, dirty children, and dirty dishes. You no doubt have similar items on your unfinished list.
But, tonight the Sabbath begins. I want our home to be attractive to my wife when she gets home from her job in the wee hours of the morning. And, I also want our home to be attractive to our God, so He will be inclined to spend some time here. I am one of the fortunate in that I am normally not obligated to work on His day. However, there are a multitude of ways to “work” and to not treat the day as He did, as a Holy day. We deal with the same temptations as all of you do, to fudge a little here and there, for our own pleasure. My commitment today is to treat this day as God treats it – as Holy. Our home and your home can be places God desires to visit. Nothing on earth is likely to compare with such a visit.
Genesis 2:2-3 – By the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day he stopped working on everything that he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it Holy, because on it God stopped working on everything that he had been creating.
Isaiah 58:13-14 – If you keep your feet from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my Holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s Holy day honorable; and if you honor it by not going your own ways and seeking your own pleasure or speaking merely idle words, then you will take delight in the LORD, and he will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; and he will make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob, your father. “Yes! The mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
The Sabbath has begun. Shabbat Shalom!
(all references are from the International Standard Version)
