Give It a Rest

Day three hundred sixteen

My prayer was given in gratitude for the Sabbath and all the blessings that come with it.  May I have a good attitude about this day and bring the Spirit with me where ever I go.  May others know my love for the Lord by my words and actions on this day.  And may I be a blessing to those around me.

2 Chronicles 36:21

"To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years."

It was the word sabbath that caught my attention. Since today is the Sabbath day it seemed an appropriate topic to dig into. 

At this point in the Old Testament the people have become so wicked that there was 'no remedy' (v 16).  It’s a pretty sad time when you cross that line where you can’t come back from.  So the people are conquered a third time, Jerusalem is destroyed (including the temple), and the people are carried off to Babylon. 

This was not something that should have surprised them, Jeremiah had been trying to warn them:

"And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." (Jer 25:11)

 In Exodus 20:9-10 the Lord gave the commandment to obey the Sabbath:

^"Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:"

Now God had warned all the way back through Moses that if captivity would come, it would come because they had not kept the Sabbath:

"Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.  As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it." (Lev 26:34-35)

This really brought home the importance of the Sabbath to me.  God wanted His people to take a day off, rest from their daily work, and seek to be closer to Him.  He even wanted them to give their land a rest every seven years. This was so important to Him that the consequences for not keeping the Sabbath meant that the enemies of the people would conquer them.  It meant captivity for 70 years in this case.  The Lord was going to give them 70 years to learn to give it a rest.  If they got it right He promised:

"For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." (Jer 29:10-11)

As Christians we are asked to dedicate one day a week, Sunday, as our Sabbath.  The Lord asks us to make it a day of rest.  Not a day of laying around doing nothing, but a day to give those daily chores and work a rest and instead fill the day with worship, learning, and service.

Elder Ezra Taft Benson, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve stated, "Men from time immemorial have recognized the need for blessed rest—time for physical and spiritual refreshment. The human body and the spirit of man require it for happy, purposeful living." (Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, Ensign May 1971) 

I would like to add my Amen to that!  I have not always kept the Sabbath as I should and I pay for it with burn out, exhaustion, grumpiness, and a less than great start to my week.  And when mom isn't having a great start to the week, then nobody is happy!  With a house full of grumpy people, it is easy to see that the Lord's warning that the enemy will conquer is true.  Without the rest and spiritual refreshment we get on the Sabbath we are an easy target for Satan. 

Hopefully, it doesn't take us 70 years to learn the benefits and consequences of the Sabbath, like Judah did.  We are fortunate to have their history to learn from and to see the wisdom in the Lord's day of rest.  We have to tell ourselves it's okay to take a day off.  Give it a rest and use the day to seek the Lord.  The blessings are so much better than the consequences!