Resting to remember

I talked last week about the danger of taking God for granted.

It is a danger that the Israelites definitely fell into time and again. It was for that reason that God instituted the Sabbath.

In recounting the Ten Commandments, Moses told the Israelites this.

Be careful to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you…

Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.

That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:12, 15)

Why did God command the Sabbath?

So that the Israelites would remember God’s goodness to them. To remember how he had freed them from slavery in Egypt. To remember all the great miracles he performed to deliver them.

But I think you can say that God didn’t want them to just remember.

He wanted them to rejoice.

As Christians, the Sabbath itself is no longer binding on us. (Colossians 2:16)

That said, it is good to set aside one day a week to go to church, not out of mere habit or duty, but to remember and rejoice.

To remember what Jesus did on a cross two thousand years ago.

To think about all God did to call us to himself.

And to rejoice that God has rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, redeeming us, and forgiving all our sins. (Colossians 1:11-14)

What is Sunday to you?

Just a day to relax? A day to serve God?

Those are good things.

But let us also be sure to make it a day to remember and rejoice.