By Betsy Mayer
The modern world is finally admitting what the ancients have known for millennia: we weren’t designed for nonstop lifestyles! Voices from widely different sectors are advocating for a weekly “time out” to recalibrate and rejuvenate us—a Sabbath.
Some seek a weekly device-free Sabbath where digital technology is paused for 24 hours.1 Others seek a weekly “Green Sabbath” to protect the environment and our sanity by “doing nothing.” “Take a weekly day of rest. Make it a real sabbath. For you. For earth. Don’t drive. Don’t shop. Don’t build. Take a walk. Eat with friends. Play or read with your kids. Sing. Meditate. Celebrate contentment.”2
In his book, Stop, in the Name of God, the late Charlie Kirk shared his practice of keeping Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday by shutting down his phone, and spending time with his family and with God. Charlie wrote that whether you observe Saturday or Sunday as your Sabbath, it’s an “act of resistance” against the demands of a 24/7 world.3
Did you catch the irony in these “designer Sabbaths”? “Your Sabbath” and “my Sabbath” might differ, but they’re equally important as a pushback against the modern age.
While there are worthy elements in all these calls to observe a Sabbath, we should not confuse them with God’s command to “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Exod. 20:8. God refers to the seventh day as “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and “My holy day.” Exod. 20:10; Isa. 58:13. No other day enjoys this favor. The Bible Sabbath is “God’s Sabbath,” not “my Sabbath” or “your Sabbath”; nor is it the “Jewish Sabbath,” or the “Christian Sabbath.”
The seventh-day Sabbath is enshrined in God’s moral law and reminds us who the moral authority of the universe is. “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.“ Exod. 20:11. While Jesus stated plainly that the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27), created beings are not free to set their own rules and ideas of Sabbath observance.
The lesson of Cain and Abel helps us understand this clearly. God specified that only animal sacrifices were acceptable for worship. By faith, Abel complied with God’s command and his sacrifice was accepted. But Cain was a gardener and he chose to bring a sacrifice that matched his preferences. No doubt, he offered his best produce in gorgeous display. But the measure of true devotion is obedience; God could not accept Cain’s sacrifice.
Similarly, while only faith saves us, we will reveal genuine faith by following God’s commands explicitly, one of which is worshiping Him on His seventh-day Sabbath. See Exod. 20:8-11; Rev. 14:6-12. To choose our own Sabbath, whether it be Sunday or any other day, and to celebrate it any other way than what God specifies in His Word, is to follow Cain’s presumption.
Sadly, Cain’s disobedience spilled over into actual hatred towards Abel, and he murdered his brother for his faithful worship. Gen. 4:1-16. At the end of time, God’s people will experience this same hatred. See Rev. 13:11-17. May you and I choose faithful obedience, even to the death.
Betsy Mayer is the managing editor of Last
Generation magazine.