Ceasing

  This week we'll be looking at the fourth commandment, "Remember the Sabbath..."(Exodus 20:8-11).  At it's heart, the Sabbath is about resting, ceasing, and about worshipping.  On the surface, it seems that a command to rest would be one that we would welcome with fireworks and a full marching band.  But we don't.  Why?  What's driving us and distracting us to the degree that we can't even rest in the way God has designed us to and commanded us to?  Imagine yourself talking to your spouse, your child, your friend, telling that person he needed to stop, take a break, rest.  And imagine that person, with a frenzied look in his eye, saying that he just can't stop.  Wouldn't you be worried?  Wouldn't you think that there was something terribly wrong with this picture?  And yet when it comes to a day of rest, for many of us our lives look like this wild-eyed friend who can't slow down.

  The fundamental picture of the Sabbath in Scripture, though, is that it is a day for our good and flourishing.  God tells us to call the Sabbath a delight (Isaiah 58:13).  We have a lot to learn about letting God lead us into rest.

  A couple resource I'd like to recommend on this topic if you'd like to do some reading and listening on this.  One is Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva J. Dawn.  I've also benefitted from the Fourth Commandment chapters in John Frame's The Doctrine of the Christian Life.  You can also listen to his classroom versions of these chapters on the RTS podcast of his seminary class on ethics.  Click here to go to the RTS itunes U link.  That should direct you to the RTS classes on itunes and from there you can see Frame's ethics classes.