SABBATH IS BETTER 

Jenna Worsham 

Today's Scripture: “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.” Ecclesiastes 4:6, ESV 

Theme: God commanded the Sabbath so that we would not turn hard work from a virtue to a vice. Moderation and letting go of obsessive control are necessary. 

QUIETNESS OR TOIL 

Would you rather have quiet rest or toil? For some of us, that might be a difficult question! Nothing wrong with some good, old-fashioned elbow grease, right? I absolutely prefer toil when the kitchen is a mess. No matter if everyone wants to sit in the next room, a messy kitchen doesn’t keep well and I’d rather toil now than wait to toil later. Yet sometimes responsibility can turn into obsessive control, and I know I tend to walk that line into trying to control outcomes, not just take care of my responsibilities. 

 Maybe it’s not the kitchen for you: it’s the emails or text messages that don’t keep. “An unanswered message might be taken the wrong way,” you worry. “What if my boss sees I left her message unread overnight and didn’t answer until 8am?” “What if the customer’s email languishes until Monday?”  

Sometimes these types of questions eat at me while I’m trying to have a quiet dinner with my family, or sit in church without looking at work stuff while I’m supposed to be looking at the Bible app. Oh, you thought you were the only one? No; we all know that if you don’t have a paper Bible, there is a chance you’re getting distracted. Quietness – a quiet mind, a quiet soul, a quiet time, a chance to turn off the noise – is worth the cost. Toil – grinding, never stopping, workaholism, lack of sleep, lack of peace, lost joy in my occupation – when it becomes toil you know it’s too high of a price to pay. 

DOING GOOD WORK 

Good work is different from toil. Good work is doing what you were created to do. Naming and caring for creation was the original work assigned to people in the garden. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15, ESV). Work was assigned to Adam before the first sin ever happened! It was good work. In what ways do your daily tasks line up with that original assignment to work the land and keep it? Creating new things, caring for land, growing food, transporting people, taking care of bodies, ministering to souls, organizing, raising kids, teaching – when I think of all of the work we do, I can see how it can be good work. Your work is not bad unless you make it your god. God says to keep a Sabbath and to trust Him to hold everything together while we rest from our work for one day. There is a temptation to let the “goodness” of our work and our belief in our own capability lure us into working every day. If we do that, which is our priority? Which is our God?  

HONORING SABBATH  

While the concept is simple (six days on, one day off), I still struggle to observe a Sabbath every week. I KNOW that God says six days is enough and yet I don’t always trust Him to provide. I know I want to rest in theory, but sometimes it’s easier to work through the day so that I don’t feel so “behind.” Preparing for a day of rest can be hard, also. I clean floors, wash the laundry, shop, meal prep, and do work on my computer to prepare. However, no matter how much laundry I do in advance, as the Sabbath approaches, someone will put more into the basket.  

That’s true for my email inbox, the assigned work tasks, and the yard chores. It never fails; work is available. I must choose. I need a command. I’m glad God included it in the Ten. If He hadn’t, I would make an excuse and I am afraid it would be a compelling one. In fact, sometimes I still do. Even though I long for the gift the Sabbath is, I avoid practicing. I complain. I try to wriggle out of it. I look for a way to work and rest at the same time.  

We must choose to honor the Sabbath because we trust God. Because we actually believe He has us. Because He asked us to do this, it is possible, and it is a gift for our good. 

Make It Personal: Do you observe a Sabbath day weekly? If not, evaluate what’s holding you back and whether it is worth the cost – disobeying God and rejecting what is surely a gift in addition to also being a command. 

Pray: Lord, help me to honor You intentionally this week by observing a Sabbath and keeping it holy. I ask You to make a way, even when I don’t know where to start. I acknowledge my shortcomings in this area. Please show me the way. In Jesus’ Name, amen.  

Read: Exodus 16:23; Exodus 20:10; Exodus 31:13; Luke 4:16-21 

Weekly Memory Verse: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8, ESV