Chapter 5
“Neither You”
As we discussed in previous chapters, the Sabbath is largely about freedom and setting a context in which all of creation can flourish. This freedom is, as we will see, for human beings and all of creation. Once again, hear the fourth commandment:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exod. 20:8–11)
A year ago, I was preaching at a nationally known church. The pastor was taking a sabbatical to rest and care for his soul. A number of families in the church had been taking public pot shots at him for being lazy and unfit for ministry. I preached on Sabbath–keeping and its importance for spiritual formation. Unbeknown to me, the wife and children of the pastor had decided to come to church that Sunday. After the service, they approached me in the pastor’s office. With tears in their eyes, the children hugged me and thanked me for granting their dad permission to come home and be with them.
See, as well, that the Sabbath is for our “male or female servants.” This would be tantamount to our employees. Behind this very principle is something very important. Namely, that when God gives us a Sabbath, he longs for those under our authority to be given the same rest. Usually, it is only when people in power are willing to rest that they will be able to extend rest to people who serve under their care.
A number of years ago, a youth pastor by the name of Tim reached out to me after reading my work on the Sabbath. Tim was dying in his ministry—working 80–hour weeks, morbidly obese, and joyless. He reached out to ask how he might be able to tell his pastor he needed a day of rest each week. After coaching him on how to have that conversation, he went off to speak to his pastor. A week later, he called back, crying. The conversation had not gone as planned. After expressing his need for rest, his boss said:
If I don’t need a day of rest, then neither do you.
There is an intimate connection between power and rest in the Sabbath commandment. When those in power don’t rest, those under their care usually don’t either. Put another way, if my rest is someone else’s slavery, then I am not doing the Sabbath properly.
The Sabbath, we see, is also about the “foreigner” in your midst. This is a profound mystery and speaks to the wide–ranging scope of the Sabbath. For the Sabbath was not just for Israel. The Sabbath was for the world. So much so, that anyone in the midst of Israel (even if they weren’t an Israelite) were to be given a day of rest each week. Consider that. Name any other religion that has a command with the express intent of blessing the whole wide world.
Imagine what it would be like if your religious tradition brought freedom and rest to those around you, even your enemies. Imagine that the convictions of your religion not merely blessed those observing the religious practices but had far–reaching implications for even those outside your faith system. For followers of Jesus, it turns out that it does. Every aspect of creation, not just the religious people themselves who keep it, should benefit from the keeping of the Sabbath.
Ancient Jewish philosopher Philo, in his On the Sabbath, writes about the richness of the Sabbath for everyone in society: “On the seventh day there were spread before the people in every city innumerable lessons in prudence, justice and all other virtues … and so the lives of all are improved.”This way of blessing the nations around Israel was entirely contrary to the economic patterns of the other nations around them—most particularly Egypt.
Then, finally, on the Sabbath, the animals are to get a day of rest as well. In context, “animals” refers to all domestic livestock. The animals on the Sabbath, writes Norman Wirzba, “must have freedom to come out from under our unremitting demands, as when animals are left to rest and refresh themselves or fields are left to lie fallow. As we cease from our steady toil, we learn the valuable lesson that the whole of creation does not exist exclusively for us and to meet our desires.”
Animals in Israel were to be treated fairly. In the same way that a human worker was worthy of wages, one could not muzzle an ox while it was working in the field (Deut. 25:4). And animals were allowed to eat the fruit and vegetables from the fields lying fallow during a sabbatical year (Exod. 23:11). In line with this high view of animals comes the Sabbath command. Animals were required to rest one day a week unto God. God’s command for animals to have rest reveals to us that the Jewish tradition is extremely committed to the care of animals, perhaps more than any other ancient religion. Jesus even taught about putting aside a perfect Sabbath to care for the needs of an ox who had fallen into a hole in the ground (Luke 14:5).
The big idea here is simple but profound. Rest is for you! But, when you rest, its effects resound to all those around you. It does not affect you only. It impacts everyone and everything around you!
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