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Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day (Deuteronomy 5:12-15).

Contemporary Testimony: Our World Belongs to God -- Rest and leisure are gifts from God that relax us and set us free to discover and to explore. But we confess that often our addiction to busyness allows our tools and toys to invade our rest and that an internet world with its temptations distorts our leisure (49).

The Christian church has a wide spectrum of interpretation on Sabbath keeping. We run the gamut from ignoring it totally all the way over to keeping it as literally as possible. For today, let\u2019s pay attention to the unique contribution Deuteronomy makes to this Biblical theme.

\u201cRemember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there\u2026\u201d Remembering is a key aspect of Sabbath in the Bible. Two things are mentioned here: \u201cYou were slaves\u201d and \u201cGod set you free\u201d.

The language of Exodus 1 suggests that Pharoah was working the Israelites to death, literally. God liberated them from certain death and told them not to be like the Egyptians or to go back there. They should not act like Egyptians, but like God. God set them free, they should set others free.

Jesus pursued this dimension of the Sabbath. He set people free. Have you noticed many of his miracles happened on the Sabbath? The man with an evil spirit (Mark 1:21), the man with the twisted hand (Matthew 12:10), the disabled woman (Luke 13:14), the man lame for 38 years (John 5:1-10) and the blind man (John 9:14). All healed on the Sabbath.

He was setting people free just as God set Israel free. These miracles were signs that the kingdom of God had arrived; the Shalom of God was being brought to the earth; the curse of sin was being undone. Jesus\u2019 resurrection, his victory over evil, took place on the first day of the week. A new Sabbath had arrived; soon Jesus\u2019 followers began to gather on the first day to remember that Jesus had set them free from the dominion of Satan.

Interestingly, as part of its reflection on the \u201cMission of God\u2019s People\u201d, the Contemporary Testimony reflects on Sabbath keeping with these words: Rest and leisure are gifts from God that relax us and set us free to discover and to explore. But we confess that often our addiction to busyness allows our tools and toys to invade our rest and that an internet world with its temptations distorts our leisure (49).

How true is that? The very things that should give us rest, enslave us, and rob us of the rest. Years ago, the Heidelberg Catechism was already onto this. We are given Sabbath, it says, so \u201cthat every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath\u201d (A 103).

This echoes Paul\u2019s words in Galatians 5, \u201cChrist has set us free to enjoy our freedom. So, remain strong in the faith. Don\u2019t let the chains of slavery hold you again\u201d (5:1).

Let us pray that we may all learn to enter God\u2019s rest (Hebrews 4:10-11).