Forced Rest

By Jon

“Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.” Deuteronomy 5:12

Like many parts of the world, Singapore is right now here in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to curb community spread, our government imposed a soft-quarantine known as the “Circuit Breaker” in order to stop the spread of the virus between individuals and local clusters. During this period, non-essential businesses, schools, and even offices were closed, with many working from home and encouraged not to venture out unnecessarily.During this work-from-home period, while some find that not travelling between home and office have allowed them more free time outside work, some have found the new arrangements even busier and more stressful.

Those who are experiencing more busy work schedules talk about how “days meld together” and that there is no longer any separation between work and off-work hours, with people expected to work and respond to requests nearly 24/7.

While this may be unique to busy and hectic Singapore, hearing this reminds me that of all times, that now is the time we have to guard our rest, our Sabbath, more than ever.

God speaks much about Sabbath in the Bible, and while believers understand Sabbath as a day of rest, many leading busy lives find it hard to obey God’s command to honour the Sabbath.

Thinking about the idea of Sabbath, it occurred to me that one of the reasons God gave to Moses the commandment for the people of Israel to honour the Sabbath was probably because there would be a temptation faced by the people to forget it. And sometimes it appears to me that honouring the Sabbath and obedience to the rest commanded by God can be an inconvenient thing.

I can imagine the Israelites having to put down projects uncompleted, work undone, worries that some may bear heavily in their minds, and for one day not do anything about it. Sometimes not doing anything can be more painful and difficult than doing something. And it is the same for us, by honouring our Sabbath, we are commanded to put aside the usual schedule we keep for 6 days a week, to put on hold work that constantly looms over our heads and our laundry list of tasks, in order to be still and be obedient to God.

Because our Sabbath is more than just spare time outside our work schedule. Even as we sometimes force ourselves to pray, to read the Bible, to gather and worship in church, Sabbath is a discipline in our spiritual lives.

Our Sabbath rest has to be forced rest.

I remember God leading the Israelites through the wilderness and providing them with manna from heaven for their sustenance. It is interesting that in the account, God commands the Israelites to collect a double portion on the day before Sabbath for each family to go through Sabbath without collecting. However, on any other day, if a family collects more than the day’s supply of manna, they would find that the manna had gone bad and been infested with worms the next morning.

This teaches me an important lesson for Sabbath. That Sabbath is a time not for us to keep still for its own sake or just in remembrance of God’s creative work and rest, but also an act of faith that while there are unfinished projects and uncompleted work outside, that God will take care of it during that day. That God is the one who sustains the work of our hands, with or without our participation.

Some of us find it hard to honour the Sabbath because of urgent requests at work, or a problem that plagues our mind in which we will find no rest unless we solve it because we are concerned that by sacrificing those 24 hours, we will fall behind from the rest.

During those times, my encouragement is for us to realize that God is God and we are not. To learn what it means to put all our work, worries and requests into God’s hands and trust that while we recognize His all-sufficiency, He is working even while we rest.

May we learn to truly honour the Sabbath, not just with words but with actions. Through our obedience we learn what it means to trust God even while we do not work, and from this trust may we find joy in our faithful God who sustains us day and night.

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honourable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord…” Isaiah 58:13-14