The Sabbath is a celestial bomb and schedule disrupter that proclaims time is on our side! That’s a pretty audacious thought, given the fact that everything we do is measured by the clocks. Their analog and digital faces fastidiously prescribe every minute of our day!
When we are young it's temping to think we are the masters of our destinies and that we can manage it all. But then life happens! Time moves forward like an avalanche and eventually we are forced to acknowledge that instead of us managing it, time controls everything we do!
Instead of having enough time, we run out of it and are dragged kicking and screaming from one hour to the next—overworked and behind. In our worst moments it feels like the clocks have taken over the world and enlisted us to do their bidding, like slaves without choice or freedom, we go through each day watching their faces and bowing to their constraints.
It's Time to Stop
In the midst of it all, God boldly declares a pause and says, “I am the time keeper and I”m telling you to stop!” It seems like an act of anarchy! Who does he think he is? Every seven days, how can he simply say that we’re free to stop the madness? Doesn’t he know that if we stop we’ll get run over; that we’ll lose our momentum and fall behind?
How can we afford to take a 24-hour vacation from work each week to celebrate our origins? What about the clocks? Aren’t they going to get angry? What about capi-talism? Won’t the merchants and tycoons crack their whips and demand that we work even harder?
Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28, NLT).
"Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don’t do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day" (Exodus 20:8, The Message).
Sabbath is radical because it pulls us away from our obsessions; from our routine chores and necessary compulsions. It is unbridled rebellion against the Protestant work ethic that says we must continually produce something of value to have worth. It is heaven's bunker bomb that blows to smithereens human dominance. No wonder so many oppose it! If everyone embraced Sabbath, Wall Street would no longer set our agendas. American rugged individualism would take on a softer, gentler spirit—with people getting to know their neighbors and caring for each other.
People talk about the economy and money as if it were their most valuable resource. But those with money will tell you that money is nothing without time. If you don't have money but still have time, you are rich!
Celebrate Your Origins
The Sabbath gives us time and space to celebrate our origins, evaluate our priorities, and remember our family ties. It provides us with freedom to choose our destinies and explore personal and divine revelations. The Sabbath provides us with salvation from self-domination, and creates space for the Psalmist's prayer to be answered in our lives: "Teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12, AMP).
Rich DuBose writes from Northern California. Photo by Pascale AEN, with Pexels.
On the web at: richdubose.com. All Rights Reserved © 2025. Join me on Blue Sky @spiritrenew.bsky.social.
Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. lockman.org
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.