Part 1
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.”
Exodus 31:12-13
According to polling data gleaned from several sources approximately 20% of Americans attend some form of religious service each week. Couple that with the fact that 70% of Americans identify themselves as Christians and you get the following raw data to work with: the population of the United States is approximately 314 million; using the data above, 220 million of them identify themselves as Christian; yet only 44 million attend church each week. 176 million people, who confess to be Christians, do not attend any form of weekly worship service.
The question is why? One reason for this huge discrepancy is that the principal of keeping Sabbath has been lost. Moses commanded the Israelites to observe Sabbath and that it would be a sign for the generations to come of God’s lasting covenant.
He instructed the Israelites in Exodus 20:8 to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. What does the word “holy” mean? Holy means that something is set apart unto God for His purposes. The Sabbath day was a day set apart unto God for His purposes. It was a day holy unto the Lord, but it was also intended to be a day that we honored as holy.
“Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people.”
Exodus 31:14
Our failure to honor the Sabbath, to keep it as holy, is leading the next generation to forsake it. They do not see the value or validity in it, because we have desecrated it with our own selfish pursuits. We have in essence stripped the Sabbath of its holiness and subjugated it to being a simple weekend day; having no more significance than any other day of the week.
However, the keeping of Sabbath is more than just a good idea or another item on our to-do list; it is a spiritual principle that when honored will infuse us with physical rest and spiritual renewal. A principle whose origins stem from creation itself:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
After God created all things, He rested on the 7th day, blessed it, and made it holy!
Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/
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