Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Epilogue
[Bible references: Isaiah 58:13-14]
The Commandments in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 say that “the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yahweh.” The day belongs to him. All things and all time belong to Yahweh. The weekly celebration of the Sabbath is an opportunity for the Israelites to renounce their ownership of their possessions and their time, everything they have is a gift from Yahweh. It is in that spirit that the Israelites take the opportunity to refrain from their own pleasures.
The goal of Shabbat (to stop) is not just to stop but to Nuach (to dwell in the presence of Yahweh). The point of the cosmos is to have a place for Yahweh’s image-bearers to be with Him. The seventh day of creation was intended to be a prolonged period of experiencing God’s love by responding in love and obedience. When Yahweh saw his image-bearers rebel against him, he continued to show His love by implementing his plan to restore them to Himself.
To that end, Yahweh called Abraham through whom He would bless the world. From Abraham, Yahweh created a family which then became the nation, Israel, through which the Son of God would become born as the God-man, the Messiah. Israel therefore became the Covenant people who were given the Law and the Promises through which God would bless the entire world. After many years, when no one in the nation of Israel was able to fulfill the Law, the God-man, the Messiah came in order to fulfill the law, making it possible for not just Israel, but all of God’s image-bearers to be restored to Himself and to finally experience the opportunity to dwell at rest with Him.
The Sabbath was given to Israel as an opportunity to grow into the trust and obedience that are necessary for humans to experience nuach with God, and also to anticipate the ultimate Sabbath rest when God restores all of Creation to Himself. But until the time of final restoration, Sabbath practices are meant to be inconvenient. The Sabbath discipline of voluntary inconvenience helps to endure the inconveniences imposed by circumstances or by other people. The practice of voluntary inconvenience reminds us that we are not masters of our lives or time, that we need God’s provision, that our time” does not, in fact, belong to us, and that our labors are not what actually keeps us alive.
Dancing In The Kingdom 