Exodus 20:8-10 "Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy..."

“Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it” (Exodus 20:8-10).

Question:

My Seventh Day Adventist friend says I should do the right thing, i.e., Sabbath keeping.

Comment:

There has never been agreement on exactly which day of the week is meant by the Sabbath, which is probably because there is no “time” in Divine Mind. What’s important is the rhythm described. The creation of the world in seven days (one of two creation stories that open the Bible) is a metaphysical description of the creative process by which we bring ideas into expression as we express our creative Oneness with Spirit. An essential part (one-seventh) of that process requires that we cease our own efforts, relax, and allow God to work. When we ignore that rhythm, when we continue to work unabated, without allowing room for the grace of God to express, we wear ourselves down and block ourselves from fully experiencing the spiritual blessings available to us. So whether it’s Saturday or Sunday, or whether it’s from midnight to midnight or from sundown to sundown, is of no importance in the timeless eternity of Spirit. What’s important is that we recognize, and cooperate with, the divine rhythm that calls us to embrace a time of rest and surrender.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed