Key Thought

Did God need a day to be honored or did his human creations need a day to rest? Well, God doesn't "need" anything. It seems clear that the Sabbath was a day to remember and recognize the blessings and providence God has placed into the Israelites' lives. At the same time, we human creatures need to rest. Without rest, we make ourselves vulnerable to temptation due to fatigue and exhaustion. Without rest, we can cause damage to our own physical health. Most of all, without rest, we are tempted to forget the one from whom we've received all of our many blessings. Then we feel that everything depends upon just us and this feeling puts more pressure on us to perform. God gave the Sabbath as a gift to his human creations. So God didn't make the Sabbath for himself, but for people to have a day to rest from labor, to remember that God provides them every good and perfect gift, and to renew their bodies and their spirits. While many don't keep the literal Sabbath (the seventh day, or Saturday) as a religious observance, we would do well to remember this Sabbath principal as the rhythm of God's universe and take time to rest, remember, and refresh.

Today's Prayer

Today's Verses in Context

The followers of John and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came to Jesus and said, "John's followers fast, and the followers of the Pharisees fast. But your followers don't fast. Why?" Jesus answered, "{When there is a wedding,} the friends of the bridegroom are not sad while he is with them. They cannot fast (be sad) while the bridegroom is still there. But the time will come when the bridegroom will leave them. The friends are sad when the bridegroom leaves. Then they will fast. "When a person sews a patch over a hole on an old coat, that person never uses a piece of cloth that is not yet shrunk. If he does, the patch will {shrink and} pull away from the coat. Then the hole will be worse. Also, people never pour new wine into old wine bags. Why? Because the new wine will break the bags, and the wine will be ruined with the wine bags. People always put new wine into new wine bags." On the Sabbath day, Jesus was walking through some grain fields. Jesus' followers were walking with him. The followers picked some grain {to eat}. The Pharisees saw this and said to Jesus, "Why are your followers doing that? It is against the {Jewish} law to do that on the Sabbath day." Jesus answered, "You have read what David did when he and the people with him were hungry and needed food. It was during the time of Abiathar the high priest. David went into God's house and ate the bread that was offered to God. And the law {of Moses} says that only priests can eat that bread. David also gave some of the bread to those people with him." Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, "The Sabbath day was made to help people. People were not made to be ruled by the Sabbath day. So the Son of Man is Lord (master) of every day, even the Sabbath."

— Mark 2:18-28 (ERV)

Comments on "For the Benefit of People":

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