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đź“– That one time God took a break
Exploring our first spiritual practice of the year.
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That one time God took a break
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
So goes the famous opening of the Bible.
The ensuing story walks us through God’s creative process, stretched over seven days.
Day 1 - He makes light and dark.
Day 2 - He separates the waters from the sky.
Day 3 - He makes produce.
Day 4 - He makes the seasons and stars.
Day 5 - He makes fish and birds.
Day 6 - He makes animals on the land and, of course, you and I- humanity!
But Day 7 is different.
The Seventh Day
So God has created the world, the cosmos, and existence itself. This grand masterpiece that He looked on and called good is complete. And what does He do next?
He takes a break.
And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
Well, that raises a few questions, doesn’t it?
Why does God rest? Did He get tired? How did He rest?
God is perfect, He’s complete, He lacks nothing, so, no, He didn’t rest because He needed to. He had another reason.
God rested for our souls.
Sabbath
And what better way to start than with some rest?
This rest God took on the 7th Day became the foundation for an ancient Jewish practice called “Sabbath.” Sabbath or, in the Hebrew, shabbat, means to stop and cease working; doing what God Himself did in Genesis 2v2-3.
For those outside Christian and Jewish traditions, Sabbath might be a foreign concept. Those of us in the Church are likely familiar with it but either see it as the day we go to church or an Old Testament phenomenon.
But the Sabbath is so much more than that.
Sabbath is a bold proclamation and engagement with the goodness God spoke over creation.
Sabbath is a practice that gets under the hood, putting us in touch with why we were created and where we’re going.
Much more than a simple “day off,” the Sabbath is an experience that fine-tunes our souls back to their Creator.
Sabbath is spiritual abundance.
We’ll start looking at that tomorrow by exploring the Sabbath’s presence in Scripture.
For now, be blessed.
Jon,
Theophilus Newsletter
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