The Torah tells us to keep the Shabbat.
“You have six days to labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it, you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property. For in six days, Adonai made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. This is why Adonai blessed the day, Shabbat, and separated it for himself.” Exodus 20:9-11
God created us and restores us and on the Shabbat we should seek the restoration of others. The Shabbat isn’t just for you to relax; it is for everyone, even the animals. Most of us may not have servants in our homes but we can refrain from making people work on our behalf by avoiding restaurants and needless shopping during the Shabbat. We can avoid making life difficult for animals. For example, if we have a farm we can refrain from making animals carry needless burdens for us on that day.
The Shabbat shouldn’t be seen as merely something to do, or observe, as a duty, but as something beautiful to share. “Going on from that place, he[Yeshua] went into their synagogue. “A man there had a shriveled hand. Looking for a reason to accuse him of something, they asked him, ‘Is healing permitted on Shabbat?’ But he answered, ‘If you have a sheep that falls in a pit on Shabbat, which of you won’t take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore, what is permitted on Shabbat is to do good.’ Then to the man he said, ‘Hold out your hand.” As he held it out, it became restored, as sound as the other one.’” Matthew 12:9-13
God doesn’t need to rest in order to avoid catching an illness and dying. But even a prefect God knew it was good to take a break from even good things to spend extra time with others. The Shabbat is God’s gift to us and God wants us to rest from the temporal concerns that so often consume us and focus more on our relationship with the Lord. We should follow God’s desire for us to honor the Shabbat by honoring it the way God does by seeking to relieve others by meeting their needs instead of worrying about our own.
Picture originally found here
