The Ahhh of Shabbat

While living in Israel with my daughter and her family for a few months I experienced what God means by Shabbat being given to us as a gift. As it always begins on Friday at sundown.  Shops and businesses begin to close around 3:00 p.m. to be home and ready for Shabbat at sundown.  At least in the little town in which she lived flowers were sold on street corners for hubbies to take home to their wives, and even the smell of chicken soup can be detected wafting through the air as wives prepare the Shabbat dinner.  Any tasks that had to be taken care of were completed before sundown. The floors were mopped and the house was clean. There was nothing left that had to be done and all were present at sundown for the beginning of the Day of Rest. Whether you watched the sunset like in the photo or in your home, the Sabbath was always welcomed at sundown with a sense of quiet joy and ....well, relief, of having come to the Shabbat. 

I recall feeling a sense of peace in the day that I almost never experienced otherwise. The only thing I can compare it to is when as a kid when school gets out for the summer and you have nothing - not one thing that is required of you. No homework, no papers to write, not tests to take, no pressures of  competition or achievement. Nothing is demanded of you. As my father would say, you are free from the 'have-to's and the 'musts'. Nothing nags at you waiting to be done. It can all wait.  Ahhhh.

Imagine - I mean really imagine - that you live where the whole city around you gets quiet. No one is driving. The cars aren't honking or whoshing past one another. (Can you feel the release of just that sentence? I did.)  It's a day set apart by God and for God, which also means for those you love to share it with. Often on Saturday, the day of Shabbat, friends or family would walk over to share lunch or we would go there. Living in proximity to one another means you could amble over, no hurry, and don't have to drive. Nor would you. You might even notice things of beauty as you take a walk that you miss in the rush of other days.  Over a lunch of left over chicken sandwiches or such, you would talk about whatever was pleasant, perhaps discuss what the Torah passage for the week meant for our lives. You might even play a game of Scrabble together. Its a day to enjoy!

Here in America it is much harder to maintain that kind of arriving at a 'Shabbat Ahhh,' with nothing nagging at you that should be done when Saturday is so busy all around us.  Even if Saturday is a "day off" it's still packed full of what-to-do. Shabbat is meant to be the one day of the week set apart by God for rest - truly a day off from all the demanding 'have-to's' and the 'must's. It's meant to be a day to meet with the Lord and loved ones in an atmosphere of peace, serenity, rest and delight. I still attempt to keep the day set apart unto the Lord. No rushing through my 'devotions' in the morning, giving Him the allotted half hour or hour in the morning as I might do in a work day. But often spending time reading my Bible to enjoy my relationship with Him, to learn more about Him (selah!).

Or taking time to talk with God about the things in my life, in my mind or heart, to explore or resolve with Him some deep issues in my life which I never get to in the busyness of other days. And then there's the enjoyment of being with folks you love and who love you. This is also restorative. It's affirming. And enlightening as we share our thoughts with one another. Talking with friends about our extraordinary, amazing and wonderful God is one of the greatest joys of my life. I want to know what others know about God, what their lives in God are like.  But there are so many other ways to just enjoy being together. One Shabbat a while ago our whole family, three generations, went to the zoo. It wasn't exactly physical rest, but it was a joy just to see my 3 year old grandson Hudson's wonder as he fed a leaf to a giraffe who leaned toward him for it. It still makes me smile as I remember it, one of Shabbat's lingering joys.

We observe Shabbat, not out of any sense of compulsion, but because we love God. Shabbat is 'of' Him. It is significant enough that He made it one of only two signs of our covenant with Him (1). A day of rest is given to us by God because we are created with a need for it. It's a day when a nice long nap is legal. But also, the Lord wants to be with us. People who spend significant time with God generally carry the peace of Shabbat - His peace - with them throughout the week. I recall Larry King on his TV show interviewing Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister. Larry asked him how it was that he who probably had more stress on his shoulders than any other leader in the world, seemed so peaceful. Netanyahu replied, "I take a day off every week," meaning, of course, Shabbat, which, it is known, is partially spent with his teenage son in the Bible.

Friends of mine, believers in Yeshua though not necessarily Jewish, tell me that keeping Shabbat in some ways influences their lives for good; they can feel the difference in their peace level generally and look forward to the next Shabbat which enables us to put all the demands of the world on hold, and lets our minds and bodies recoup. Often the 'have-to's' and 'musts' take on a different sense of importance or priority when we suspend even thinking about them for a day.

Today being Shabbat, I woke up at a sleepy 9:30 a.m. with a yawning sense of wanting to share Shabbat with you, my dear readers.  - you being whosoever would read this as an invitation from God to you. This invitation is for a day off, for Shabbat, starting Friday evening to Saturday evening, by the way.  If you recall, God created days to begin with rest at sundown. And may I add, being with friends on this day is not a day for discussions of political or other controversial issues that carry negative emotion-stirring unrest. No arguments! I suggest you allow all such issues to be put in God's hands for Him to work out, a least for the day.

In the name of Yeshua, who is Lord over all, I give you permission in the Lord, to take the day off, to put aside all cares and worries, turning them over to God asking for His help and solution. Perhaps you might share a meal with folks you love, or even someone you've wanted to get together with but somehow never do. Wouldn't that be a treat?  

Oh, and one more thing. Shabbat means Saturday (though if your life makes it impossible, then make another day your Shabbat unto God). The Hebrew days of the week are known by numbers: Day 1, Day 2, etc.  Only the 7th day has a name - Shabbat.

I now wish you Shabbat Shalom, a peaceful Sabbath.  I'm going to go make pancakes, one of my Shabbat delights.

(1)  The other 'sign' of the Covenant is circumcision. It is still done in the flesh on every Hebrew/Jewish boy at 8 days old, just as God instructed Abraham.  According to the New Testament, it is now a circumcision of the heart that is required in our relationship with God. That is that we have committed ourselves to a covenant with God that we are His, even as He is our God and we will live accordingly.  As circumcision was a permanent 'sign' of covenant with God, even so Shabbat is meant to be a permanent resting in God as our way of life.