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LONNIE: How easy do you find it to relax? To just slow down, catch your breath, and let the world go by for a few hours? Would you believe God designed us for rest, and not only that, He told us when to do it?

Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 75 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko.
Connie, today as we continue our series on the Ten Commandments we’ve come to one of the commands that’s quite controversial.

CONNIE: Well, it is. I can remember my father, who was a pastor and evangelist, saying that it’s one of the more difficult biblical messages to get people to accept when you’re preaching in an evangelistic series.

It is indeed. Which has always kind of mystified me, because it seems like one of the most positive, beneficial commandments. One that everyone should want to keep. And we’re talking of course about the Fourth Commandment, “ ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to Keep it Holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall do no work’ ” (Exodus 20:8-10, NKJV). It seems odd that people object to the idea of taking a day off every week.

CONNIE: Well, I suppose the controversy has sometimes centered more around which day to take off, and whether it’s really necessary to obey the commandment, than over whether to take some time off.

LONNIE: That’s true, and you and I belong to a church that emphasizes the importance of Sabbath observance. Unfortunately sometimes I think we’ve allowed this wonderful, positive gift of the Lord to become something to argue about rather than something to enjoy.

CONNIE: That probably has happened. But these days I think we’ve learned to focus more on the positive aspects of observing Sabbath, and one person who’s helped me to do that is my sister-in-law Judy Vandeman. Recently she shared her personal testimony of how important the Sabbath has become to her in her spiritual journey.

LONNIE: And of course we recorded that conversation. Let’s listen in.

CONNIE: Judy Vandeman, my sister-in-law and my very best friend! Welcome to the Voice of Prophecy!

JUDY: I’m so happy to be here! Thank you Connie!

CONNIE: Well, Judy today we are talking about the fourth commandment and what a blessing it is. One of the most special commandments that I can think about! Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Part of your journey, Judy…I have known you my whole entire life, at three I was in your wedding to my brother, and I have watched your journey over the years and I have always looked up to you. Both of us grew up in a religious community that kept the Seventh-Day Sabbath, didn’t we?

JUDY: Yes we did.

CONNIE: And what a blessing that’s been! There was a time in your life when you got away from that community and worshiped in different communities. Can you tell us what that was like for you?

JUDY: Well the one thing that I really missed was the Sabbath. It seemed like the way we keep the Sabbath is set apart. We go to church, we spend the day reading our Bibles and listening to religious music and having meals with our church family…that’s the way I was raised! When I went away from that church and was not keeping the Sabbath, I noticed that I didn’t have that total break, that total rest in Christ that I had when I kept the Sabbath.

CONNIE: You tried a number of different churches and I know that at many of them you met wonderful people and you felt close to God. But you said that some of those communities didn’t keep the Sabbath the way the church that we belong to does, and you missed that!

JUDY: I missed that terribly!

CONNIE: And how did you find your way drawn back? What is it that really helped you to come back? And I know that you had a lot of people praying for you too.

JUDY: Well, I had many people praying for me, your parents and my parents and my sister, just a lot of people. Also, however, I began to miss the Sabbath, the Sabbath being a total day of rest, where you don’t think about business and you don’t think about anything else. It’s a wonderful excuse …I mean in your own head you don’t feel guilty about it. Somehow when I kept Sunday, by two in the afternoon I was going to my office, I was going to a ball game or…

CONNIE: …Cleaning the house or doing something like that.

JUDY: But for some reason when I keep the Sabbath…The only thing I could think of was Geneses 2:3, where it says to remember the seventh day to keep it holy. God rested from all of his work on the seventh day as an example of what we should do as well. That’s the only thing that I can think of that makes the Sabbath day so very special.

CONNIE: And He gave it to us as a gift, didn’t He? It’s a blessing to be able to spend that day in reflection and worship. Can you describe your typical Sabbath? I know that for us it starts Friday night, and just describe what you do to get ready for the Sabbath.

JUDY: Well, I subscribe to several ministries where I get their tapes from the week before church. So usually Friday night after sundown I listen to a church service somewhere else. Then Sabbath I get up and I listen to Jennifer LaMountain or someone like that, and then we go to Sabbath school and church and then we usually have people over to my daughter’s house. I do have the cooking and she does that other half. We have a wonderful fellowship! It’s a wonderful, refreshing breath of life.

CONNIE: That’s beautiful! Then at the end of the Sabbath, when it’s sundown, but you have had a day where you can just relax and reflect on all of the things that God has done for you in your life, and listening to music I think is a beautiful way to worship Him, from the mountains to the beaches. I love you dearly Judy and I am so glad that you have come back to the Sabbath.

JUDY: Thank you, Connie!

“In the Garden”, Cynthia Clawson, from Blessed Assurance CD.

LONNIE: That was Cynthia Clawson with one of the all-time favorites from the top 40 list of hymns. A song about taking the time to commune with God on a very personal level. And that’s actually what we’re talking about when we discuss the Fourth Commandment.

CONNIE: It really is, and I think that’s what came across so clearly to me as I talked with Judy. That even though, when we were younger, it might have been kind of a legalistic thing—keep the Sabbath or else! As you get better acquainted with God, it becomes a joy to have a whole day set aside for special communion with Him.

LONNIE: Time to pause from our hectic schedules and renew our connection with God. We sometimes call it a Pause for Peace, and that’s the title of a little book we highly recommend.

CONNIE: In fact we so highly recommend it that we’re willing to send you a free copy, just for the asking. We’ll have complete details in a few moments about how you can request a copy of Clifford Goldstein’s book A Pause for Peace. But right now, let’s pause and listen to Pastor Lonnie’s message for today, “Time for a Break!”

Time for a Break

Say, have you ever tried to picture in your mind’s eye what it must have been like for Adam and Eve—that first day of their lives—as they went on a tour of their garden home with their Creator?

Imagine the wide-eyed wonder that you’d have if, on the first day of your life, you were fully conscious, fully aware of your surroundings, and able to communicate directly with the One who had made you. It would be absolutely amazing, wouldn’t it?

If you’ve been there in the delivery room when a son or daughter was born, you know the look of human eyes when they first open to the bright world of lights. Some babies come into the world wide-eyed; gazing around at everything—you can see them trying to figure out what this sudden change of abode is all about. Others take one look around and shut their eyes tight, almost like they want to go back to where everything was dark and safe and warm!

But what must it have been like for Adam and Eve? Apparently they were created with their faculties fully intact as adults. We see Adam already able to speak, and to give names to the animals, fish, and birds that God parades before him. He also gives a name to his newly-created wife.

That first day for Adam and Eve must have been exciting . . . AND exhausting, don’t you think?

Imagine their sense of relief—and joy—then, when, as the sun sank in the western sky, and night’s shadows darkened the garden, God announced that now it was time to rest.

The thing they needed most after that exciting first day was a bit of R & R. Some time to recuperate, relax, and just drink in the wonder of the gift of life that God had given them.

And God understood that.

He understands our need for rest as well.

Notice with me what happened immediately after that sixth day of creation week. The story is found in the second chapter of Genesis, verses 1-3: “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (NKJV).

Not only did God rest on that seventh day, He set it aside as a day of rest for Adam and Eve—that’s what it means when it says He blessed and sanctified it. He set it aside for a holy purpose. When He sanctified it, He set it aside as a sanctuary in time. A time for Him to spend with His “kids.” Time for them to spend with Him, getting to know Him better. Being molded into His divine image.

Parents, what’s the most precious gift you can give to your children? A good education? A nice home to live in? A no-limit American Express card to take to Toys-R-Us?

I don’t think so. While education and a home, and even a wise selection of toys, are all valuable to children, the most important thing you can give to them is the gift of time. Your own precious moments, shared with them, to help them learn about life, to help them face their big and little challenges. To share with them the wisdom that life has brought. And just to let them know you care.

The gift of time. It’s precious, isn’t it?

And that’s what God gave to Adam and Eve. The very first full day of their existence was a day set aside by God as holy. Set aside for Him to spend with His “kids.”

Just how important that time together with His kids was to God became evident when He gathered the children of Israel together at the foot of Mt. Sinai, after liberating them from slavery.

There, on that day when He thundered His Ten Commandments from that stormy summit, He reminded them of His original intention for men and women—that they would worship Him; that they would have no other gods; that they wouldn’t use His name in vain (for their own selfish purposes, or for worthless things.) He wanted to have first place in their lives. He wanted them to know Him in all His power—not as something they could hold in their hands—but as their all-powerful Lord who held them in His hands.

And He wanted them to remember Him as their Creator, the One who gave them rest. Gave them the gift of time. And so, after introducing Himself to them, He asked them to take time to remember Him. And, better yet, He gave them the time to do just that. He gave them a “day off” every week, specifically for that purpose. It’s not just a suggestion. It’s a command, right in the middle of the Ten Commandments.

Commandment number four reads like this:

“ ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it’ ” (Exodus 20:8-11, NKJV).

Believe me, this law was no burden to a people who had just been liberated from 7-day-a-week slavery! In fact, I think it probably was their favorite commandment out of the ten!

Not only did it set apart a day of rest for them, it set them apart from the world around them as a different, very special, and very beloved people.

The idea that God wanted them to rest! It was unheard of in the ancient world.

In fact, the most famous creation story in most of the civilized world at that time had a very different outlook on the relationship between heaven and earth—between the gods and the people they had created. This story, which is known to historians as the “Enuma elish” came originally from Mesopotamia, but spread throughout the ancient world. It told about warfare among the gods, and how Marduk, the chief god of the Babylonian pantheon, won the battle against Tiamat, goddess of the sea.

When, after the war was over, the gods all bowed to Marduk and proclaimed him king of the gods, Marduk decided to do them a favor in return.

Sitting on his throne with his newly-minted crown on his head, Marduk came up with a plan. Here’s how the ancient tale describes it, in poetic form:

I will create Lullu, “man” be his name,
I will form Lullu, man.
Let him be burdened with the toil of the gods, that they may freely breathe.

Putting his plan into action, the Babylonian god, according to this story, seized one of the gods who had fought against him, cut him in pieces, and then:

From his blood he formed mankind,

Imposed toil on man, set the gods free.
Wow! Do you see how stark the contrast is between this story and the story of Creation found in Genesis 1 and 2.

In the Babylonian story, human beings were created to work—to labor all their lives so the gods could rest. In the Genesis story, which is echoed in the Fourth Commandment, God created Adam and Eve, and immediately told them to take the next day off for rest!

When God rested, people rested! It was time for fellowship between Creator and created.

What a unique, wonderful, and new concept for these people who had been enslaved for hundreds of years to hear spoken from the Mount of the Lord. God doesn’t want me to work work work 24/7! He wants me to have a day off for rest once every week!

It’s a pity, isn’t it, that most of the world has lost sight of this wonderful privilege that God so freely gave to His children right at Creation.

Friend, have you found a way to take a day off every week and really rest and fellowship with your Creator?

It’s a wonderful privilege He’s given you. Have you learned to take advantage of it?

But you know what? It’s more than just a privilege. It’s the LAW!

And I know we’re saved by grace, not by obedience to the law. But that doesn’t abrogate the law in any sense. It simply means that even though we don’t always keep the law to perfection, we can still be saved by grace. But that doesn’t mean I should go out and start bowing down to idols, or that I should start killing or stealing, just to prove that I don’t have to keep the law, does it?

So, why would I want to ignore the one commandment that’s given more as a gift than as a demand? Why would I argue against taking a day off to fellowship with my Creator every week?

I can’t think of a good reason, but I can think of some bad ones. Like, that I’m so self-centered that all I can think about is what I want to accomplish, with no regard for taking time out for worship. Or, another bad reason might be that I’m actually so works-centered in my life that I can’t stop working, even on the Sabbath day when God commands me to put aside my works and worship Him.

You know, friend, I’m part of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, one of the few Christian organizations that still proclaims the holiness of the day God set aside as holy. And I find it peculiar, almost amusing, when people tell me that I’m “works-centered,” or that I’m trying to be “saved by works” when I tell them God wants us to take the Sabbath day off from work every week.

Oh, yes, I must confess that there were times in my life when I considered the Sabbath day an onerous burden—taking me away from the things I really wanted to be doing. But that was mainly when I was a young child. Today I’ve learned to look on it as a tremendous privilege.

Of course as a minister of the gospel, I often find myself preaching, visiting, ministering, laboring for souls in the Lord’s vineyard on the Sabbath day. But I don’t mind that at all.

Still, when there comes a Sabbath when I don’t have any appointments, it’s great to use that day for rest, for relaxation, for fellowshipping with close friends, and especially for taking time to worship and draw closer to the Lord of the Sabbath.

Have you discovered the marvelous privilege that’s buried deep down in the middle of the Ten Commandments?
If not, you’re missing out on one of God’s greatest gifts to His children. And I urge you to reorganize your life, restudy your priorities, and bring them into line with God’s original plan—the one He put in place the very next day after He created our first parents! Join me. And join your Creator, in enjoying the privilege of rest. The privilege of the Sabbath, the seventh day of each week!

“A Quiet Place”, LaSierra Vocal Octet, from Witness CD.