Shabbat
SIX DAYS WORK, THEN REST
After six “good” days – “each day was good” – we reach the seventh day, the “holy” day, the Shabbat.
After six days God rested from His creative work. Therefore also man shall rest from all his every day work as well! - that is the basic thought of the Shabbat. “Six days you shall work and do all your works…”
We know very well the command: on the seventh day you shall rest, i.e. not work! But likewise what is with the first part, the six working days, where work is commanded? This is also a command, but sometimes overseen. In Europe there are already only four or five working days - and that is seen as a special achievement, which one has to question before the God given order of six working days. Only from the background of work in the first six gains the command for a Shabbat-Rest the real sense: “ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings”. (Lev 23:3 KJV)
(Deut 5:14 KJV) But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maid servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. (see Ex 31: 14-15)
Seven is the number of completeness and of fullness:
- Seven days has the week;
- Seven weeks, literally “seven Shabbat-days”, pass between Passah and Shawuoth, i.e. von Passah/Easter till Pentecost;
- The seventh year, shall be a sabbath year of rest, in which the land shall rest and not be tilled (Lev 25);
- In the seventh year the Hebrew slaves were to be released (Ex 21: 2);
- After 7 times 7 years follows in Jewish understanding the jubilee year. (After the 49th year follows the 50th, the jubilee year); (Lev 25: 8-12)
- And not last of all: with the seventh millennium, the „Shabbat-Millennium“, starts after 6.000 years since the creation of mankind, the messianic Thousand year lasting Kingdom.
THE SHABBAT
According to biblical and Jewish understanding one devotes Shabbat entirely to God. Everything shall rest. And we also shall totally rest in body, soul and spirit.
Keeping the Shabbat connects with three main commands:
- to hallow/sanctify the Shabbat (Deut 5:12)
- to rest (Exodus 31:17)
- and to delight in the Shabbat (Isaiah 58:13)
Thus the Shabbat a sign for eternal fellowship, in which we will live with God once, a foretaste of the World-to-Come.
As there were still masters and slaves in Israel, the Shabbat had two special functions: Firstly it was a rest day also for the slaves, for the command was: “your entire house shall rest”. Secondly, the Hebrew masters of the slaves had one day to do without the work of the slaves in the house, what lead to, that the master would appreciate and estimate the work of the slave during the week.
For me personally the Shabbat is a day, over which a veil of rest and peace lies, free from the hectic of the everyday life, the problems and worries and politics. In this atmosphere one must simply switch off. Even as journalist one takes distance from the media world on Shabbat, also from radio and TV! It is a time of inner reflection; one comes back to the way of God, from which one deviates often during the hectic of the week. This is what the Shabbat there for, so that we find a personal turning back to God. One turns again to God. One switches from the worldly to the GODLY! Seen this way the Shabbat is an enforced and healthy pause, not only physically, but also in mind and spirit. For me, on Sunday we are already looking forward to the next Shabbat. For the Shabbat breathes a soul in the material world.
