Why rest on the 7th day?

Hello everyone! Happy Weekend!

Speaking of weekend, today I wanted to share with you something that I learned from last night’s Bible Study.
Just to share, the Bible study is one of those blessings that came unexpectedly late last year. During that time I was thinking about how I could understand and go deeper into God’s Word because I have never read the Bible from cover to cover. I wanted to be closer to God, and that if I intended to write worship songs, I felt that I should have a better understanding of the Bible. Then surprisingly, I got an invitation to join this Bible Study group! An answered prayer indeed. God truly knows what you need and provides it at the perfect time. 🙂

Now back to the topic. There were a lot of amazing things that I learned about the events that took place in the book of Exodus, and those can be different blog posts altogether, but what I want to focus on, being the weekend and all, is what I learned about the Sabbath. So for me, I’ve always thought about it and remembered it from the story of Creation where God rested on the 7th day. Whether that took place on a Saturday or Sunday is debatable but basically, out of the 7 days in a week, one must rest on the last day, which is the Sabbath day. I know that it’s sacred, and with me being really busy and sometimes a workaholic, I love a good Sabbath reminder. But there is this part in Exodus about the Sabbath that really struck me.

So Exodus was all about God, through Moses, leading the people out of Egypt where they were slaves for hundreds of years. It started with a request to the pharaoh to allow the Israelites to go out and worship God in a 3-day journey into the wilderness, and he was too stubborn and proud so he did not allow them until God brings wrath over the Egyptian people and the pharaoh had no choice but to let them go.

The book gives all the details of the struggle and the significance of every miracle performed, which are important to understanding why leaving Egypt and being freed from slavery was a big historic moment for the Israelites. I mean, they were working almost non-stop and were not even allowed to rest and worship God. Once they were out of Egypt and on their way to the Promised Land, the people started complaining because they were tired and hungry, so God provided them with their daily food, but gave very specific instructions on how to gather them.

Take enough for the day, take twice as much on the day before Sabbath because the Sabbath day is a holy day of rest and worship, and nobody goes out to work and gather food.

For the most part, the Israelites followed the instructions, but there were still a few who didn’t do what they were told. Yes, the nature of human beings at work. But why the specific instructions?

So while I had my own thoughts on this, in the group discussion, some interesting and very critical points were brought up. God wanted to test the people for their obedience and trust. Perhaps He also wanted them to be disciplined and not be greedy (when He says just take enough for the day). But the reason why He instructed to take twice as much on the day before the Sabbath was because He really wanted to keep Sabbath day holy. He didn’t provide for any food to be collected on that day because no one should be working.

It’s God saying, “When you were in Egypt, you were working non-stop and was not even permitted to rest and worship your God. You are out of Egypt now, free from slavery, free to labor as you please and enjoy what your God has provided you with, and free to rest and worship on the Sabbath day. I want this to be the rule that will continue on for the generations to come so that it may always serve as a reminder of how you were freed by your God.”

Isn’t that powerful? As much as I wanted to keep it short, it just wouldn’t be complete without telling almost the whole story. And now it all made sense. It wasn’t as simple as taking a rest because God rested on the 7th day and logically speaking, when you’re tired, you rest. For Catholics, when we celebrate mass on Sunday, everything that happens in that celebration is to remind us how God freed his people from slavery and endless labor (both with reference to the Old Testament and New Testament). And because we are His children, there is nothing more we can do to gain more because He will always be there to provide what we need, as long as we work accordingly and trust in Him.

And on the Sabbath day, we rest and worship Him, remembering our freedom and being reassured that He will continue to be with us and provide for us in the coming days. After learning this, Sundays now have a whole new and deeper meaning to me.