To understand what it means to keep a day holy, one must understand what holy is. Dictionary.com defines holy as spiritually whole or sound; of unimpaired innocence and virtue; free from sinful affections; pure in heart; godly; pious; irreproachable; guiltless; acceptable to God. According to this definition to keep a day holy would be to make the day acceptable to God.
Making a day acceptable to God will unquestionably vary with religious beliefs.
For the Christian, Sunday is above all an Easter celebration, illumined by the glory of the Risen Christ. It is the festival of the "new creation". Yet, when understood in depth, this aspect is inseparable from what the first pages of Scripture tell us of God’s plan in the creation of the world. If the first page of the Book of Genesis presents God's "work" as an example for man, which it does, then the same must be true of God's "rest." “On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done" (Genesis 2:2)
It would be clichéd to interpret God's "rest" as a kind of "inactivity". By its nature, the creative act, which founds the world, is unending and God is always at work, as Jesus himself declares in speaking of the Sabbath principle: "My Father is working still, and I am working" (John 5:17). The divine rest of the seventh day does not allude to an inactive God, but emphasizes the fullness of what has been accomplished. It speaks, as it were, of God's lingering before the "very good" work.
The book of Exodus tells us that we need not cease all work to keep the lords day holy but only remember: "Remember the Sabbath day in order to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). Before commanding that something be done, the passage urges that something be remembered. It is a call to awaken remembrance of the grand and fundamental work of God, which is creation, a remembrance that must inspire the entire religious life of man and then fill the day on which man is called to rest. Rest therefore gains a sacred value: the faithful are called to rest not only as God rested, but to rest in the Lord, bringing the entire creation to him.
Berry also states how “Work connects us both to Creation and to eternity” (Berry 305). He finds that a Christian’s work not only reflects their feelings of the Creator, but also brings them closer to the creation.
...ic and private worship of God (the Sabbath), but that we are also supposed to work hard and complete all our work the other six days of the week. Though maybe not realized at first glance this command clearly prohibits not working and slothfulness for it says "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work". This is a very overlooked aspect of this commandment. The TV and entertainment can distract me from my work (school, chores) and thus I do not complete my work as this commandment commands. The TV and other entertainment also tempt me to not want to work but to be entertained all day. TV and entertainment tempt me to lay idle and enjoy leisure when work is to be done during the week. So the TV entices me to break this commandment by distracting me and my mind during the Sabbath day when my thoughts should be directed toward God, and by promoting slothfulness.
works should be done. It was a day of rest; from sunset to sunset. The
The creation of the orderly world reveals God is present in a loving, loyal, all-knowingly, and powerful way. He provided a world for mankind to reign on, as they worship and praise the Lord. Although Christians are required to embrace the natural world we live in, they must not misconstrue that everything around us is Godly. God is distinct and Christians must submit to only him.
... Sunday often come across people that request Sundays off or a certain day of the week off in order to participate in a religious activity. They are required to work with the employee’s schedule to allow them to go to church or attend whatever ceremony they believe in. (Cross & Miller, 2012, p. 510)
“Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8).” One way to follow this command is to rest from secular work. Ministers and missionaries still need to take a day off as well6. We need this day for our health.7 This “does not me...
He says, “if we abide by the fourth commandment, our lives will forever be filled with contentment. If not, our lives will be filled with greed.” The tenth commandment specifically deals with jealousy. Brueggeman also says that, “Sabbath is a school for our desires, to expose and critique the false desires that focus on idolatry and greed that have immense power over us. When we do not pause for the Sabbath, these false desires take power over us.” Sabbath gives us the opportunity to really manifest our own lives and get to know more about ourselves. If we want something our neighbor has, we have coveted. If we are filled with jealously, we are telling Yahweh that the things He has provided us with are not good enough. With this attitude and behavior, we cannot observe the Sabbath, as He wants us too. I believe the Sabbath was made for mankind, for us to take a break from the chaos of the world and to simply remember who created us. I believe it is a day where we need to reconnect with Yahweh. In Mark 2:27-28 Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” This verse gives me a clear explanation to why I believe in the
Alain de Botton, in his TED talk “Atheism 2.0”, identified various attributes from religions that he thinks atheism, the non-religious community, would do well to emulate. Of these attributes, one that stood out was how all religions, almost as a universal rule, each have a calendar by which believers adhere to. These calendars typically mark days, or even weeks, that carry some importance and meaning to followers of a given religion, and serves as a reminder for the values of which these religions stand for. For instance, the Christian calendar has a season of Lent, whereby Christians all over the world choose to give up worldly comforts and fast for a period a little longer than a month, as a time for self-reflection and penance to prepare for Easter. Members of these religions all across the world would be able to stay synchronized regardless of any geographical limitations using a unified calendar. According to Botton, having a calendar that is observed by all followers of the religion enables the religion to be “multinational, branded, and possessing an identity so they don't get lost” (de Botton). Therefore, it is unsurprising how the secular world have adapted various religious holidays and integrated it into their own culture.
People in all parts of the world honor the day of the Sabbath. However, they accomplish this in a countless number of ways. Some choose to attend church every Sunday and focus that day completely to God. Others prefer to respect the Sabbath in a more untraditional way. Several groups believe that one should perform a very small amount of work or even none at all. Some suppose that the amount of work done on this day has no effect on their long term relationship with God. Emily Dickinson takes a different approach. Instead of attending a big church with a clergyman who preaches too long, she creates her own church involving only nature, God and herself. In “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church”, Emily Dickinson uses diction and metaphors
Some individuals take part in this holy day by visiting a synagogue where they listen to the Torah while it is read aloud. Others choose to abstain from all forms of labor. Some withdraw from not only physical activities but some also abstain from driving automobiles or even something as simple as carrying money. There are many ways that individuals choose to celebrate the Sabbath day but one thing that remains the same is the commonality among all those who celebrate it. The commonality that all Jewish individuals share is the Torah is “God’s gift to the Jewish
Zakhor, of the commandment ‘to remember’, means not only to remember the Sabbath, but also means to remember the significance of Sabbath. Sabbath is both a remembrance of creation, but also a commemoration to the Jew’s freedom from Egypt and slavery. It is in Exodus that the commandment ‘to remember the Sabbath’ is explained. In Exodus 20:11, God explains, "because for six days, the L-rd made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and on the seventh day, he rested; therefore, the L-rd blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it." (jewfaq.org), this excerpt from Exodus explains the reasoning for commemorating the Sabbath as a day of rest. By resting on the Sabbath, the Jews acknowledge God as their creator. Moreover, the Jews rest from work on the day of Sabbath recognizing that God allowed himself a day or rest as they too should do. The second part of Zakhor is the recognition of Jewish history and God’s participation in it. In Deuteronomy 5:15, the commandment is explained as to, "remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the L-rd, your G-d brought you forth from there with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore the L-rd your G-d com...
Jews keep Sabbath as a holy day set aside for god. It is celebrated at
And so, if we put our current time in a biblical perspective, days such as the seventh day, the day of the Lord, the day of Christ, that day, the day of Judgement, the Sabbath, the day of Atonement, the day of Jubilee, and the Feast of Tabernacles” are coming true in reality. Because they are the days appointed by God, the spirits of his chosen Christians are, at this time, able to become holy
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (Holy)." The word Sabbath is derived from the Hebrew word meaning to rest. On the first day, God created the heavens and the earth. Each day, something new was created which culminated with the sixth day when he created all creatures that live on dry land: this includes the creation of man. Afterwards, God declared his work to be good and decided to rest on the seventh day. This seventh day, known as the Sabbath Day, represents God's day of rest. The reason people celebrated this day was because it represented a covenant between God and his people. According to Jesus, the Sabbath Day was created for our own interest. On this day, we redirect our thoughts and actions towards God. A common misconception