Sabbath

God gave the 10 Commandments for this reason--they are to teach a bunch of slaves how to be human again. They are gifts; not heavy burdens.

The first 3 commands are directed to God:
1) No other gods before God.
2) No idols.
3) Don't misuse the name of the Lord your God.

The last 6 commands focus on human relationships.
5) Honor mom and dad.
6) Don't murder.
7) Don't commit adultery.
8) Don't steal.
9) Don't bear false witness against your neighbor.
10) Don't covet your neighbor's stuff.

Don't miss the significance of the 4th command, "Remember the Sabbath Day, and keep it holy."
The Sabbath Day is the gift from God that holds commands 1-3 and 5-10 together. Sabbath keeps us rooted in God and oriented in relationships. It becomes the bridge...the connection between God and people. It keeps us balanced.

In Ed Dobson's book The Year of Living Like Jesus, he wrote that before Americans lose sleep over having the 10 commandments in courtrooms, they need to take some time to consider how they are doing at keeping the commands. Most of us neglect at least one of the commands regularly, especially Sabbath-keeping.

God gives reminders throughout Exodus concerning Sabbath-keeping. As the people of Israel opened up the instructions for building the tabernacle, #1 was to keep the Sabbath. God knew that these slaves had lived in Egypt for hundreds of years where they spent every day building things with bricks. Even though they were oppressed, they had produced good stuff...buildings, palaces, statutes, etc. Slavery had made them into brick-builders, and they were good at it.
The reminders are found in: Exodus 23:12-13, 31:12-18, 34:21-24, & 35:2-3.
Why so many reminders?
Because God was fearful that His people would take their brick-building-practices to a new land, and if they weren't careful, they would consume themselves with building new stuff and forget where they came from.
And you know how the story goes...they forget!

Could it be that in Genesis 1, God isn't just showing himself as a creative artist, but that he is also teaching people how to live? Seriously, did God really need to rest after 6 days? He didn't even break a sweat. God spoke words and creation happened.

Here's the ultimate question for us, if we take time to rest, do we really trust that God will/can keep things going?

Sabbath is about trust, rhythm, and reminding ourselves of the story we live in.