#4th commandment

The Morning Devotional: WSC Q60 (Part One)

The Morning Devotional for August 25, 2021 The Westminster Shorter Catechism Q60 (Part One) How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, (Exod. 20:8,10, Exod. 16:25–28) even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; (Neh. 13:15–19) and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’ s…

The Morning Devotional: WSC Q58

The Morning Devotional for August 23, 2021 The Westminster Shorter Catechism Q58 What is required in the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his Word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself. (Deut. 5:12–14)

The Morning Devotional: WSC Q57

The Morning Devotional for August 19, 2021 The Westminster Shorter Catechism Q57 Which is the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant,…

Eccl 10:19: Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything.

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The benefit of having my own blog and creating my own theme for a sabbatical is that I also get to define things according to how I see fit. Part of the reason I chose to explore the spirituality of work, contemplation, and leisure is because I have conflicted relationships with all of them. Unfortunately, because I have conflicted relationships with each of them, I don’t have clear definitions of “leisure”. 

I know that leisure is tied to happiness, which is a topic that will be explored later on. And leisure is also intimately linked to work. Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations, and the ‘founder’ of classical capitalism, believed leisure was the only valid measure of the success of any economy. And by that measure, America is a miserable failure – America being the most vocally capitalist country in the world.

So leisure is linked to happiness, work, and personal and national economies. Which makes for an interesting academic exercise, and is not unrelated to this blog. Really, I am avoiding the primary issue, which is my conflicted relationship with leisure, with taking time off, with not working. Like the linked article in the last paragraph, I probably work more hours than the traditional 40. I am certain I have not taken my full vacation days from last year.

Happiness and personal economy are not my strong points. That may have something to do with my relationship with leisure. I need to work on that…

Leisure, it seems to me, is easily defined and taken over by the culture that surrounds us. We understand leisure in the context of consumption of things and experiences. And we work in order to afford our consumption of leisure. The drive to consumption breaks the relationship between our work and our leisure. Or perhaps I should say, I have broken the relationship between my work and my leisure.

Without having done any research on it yet, it appears that the Wisdom tradition of Scripture, which includes the above quoted verses from Ecclesiastes, perceives leisure as a God-given thing. It includes simple things – enjoying food and wine and one’s relationships. There is a deliberate-ness in the words of The Teacher, the author of Ecclesiastes, and there needs to be a deliberateness to our leisure as well. When I hear that statement about being deliberate, I think I need to plan it out, schedule it, prepare. But that is not what The Teacher means, I don’t think. I think The Teacher means we need to be deliberate in how we take enjoyment from the things God has given us.

The voracious need to consume we all live under in our culture does not lead to being deliberate about the enjoyment we are meant to experience. Scripture does have a way of dealing with this, and it is actually one of the 10 Commandments. Most of us don’t follow it anymore – or again, I don’t really follow it. It is the 4th one and it says, “You shall honor the Sabbath.”  

  So when I say I have a conflicted relationship with leisure, what I really mean is that I have a conflicted relationship with following the 4th Commandment, which means I have a conflicted relationship with God and with all of creation. Because the 4th Commandment is really just modelling the 7th day of creation, when even God rested, when God took some leisure time after creating the world.

Until the next time…

May the road rise to meet you and the wind always be at your back

May the sunlight of Christ touch your cheek and the rain fall gently on your fields

May the Lord hold you in the palm of the Lord’s hand and give you peace

The Sabbath, The Fourth Commandment - Jo Ann Davidson. I have always kept the Sabbath and welcomed it. Yet it was not until I lived in Israel that I discovered how festive the Sabbath can be or what an opportunity it provides for celebrating the love of family and friends. In fact, I did not want to go to Israel at all, so this story came close to never happening.

My husband, Dick, was just finishing his doctorate on the Old Testament when the opportunity came for him to study Hebrew in Israel before he began teaching. For him it was the dream of a lifetime. But not for me! Our daughter was a newborn and now that five years of Dick's concentrated doctoral studies were behind us, I was looking forward to some relief from the pressure we'd experienced on our time and finances. I encouraged Dick to go to Israel alone. I would stay home with our baby girl. Financially, it seemed foolish for all of us to go and as a new mother, I just didn't feel up to a major excursion. Dick listened carefully and responded gently. "Honey, I respect your counsel. And if you don't think it is wise for us to go now, we won't go. But I won't go without you." Well, that settled it. We wouldn't go. That night, however, the "still small voice" inside me swelled to a very uncomfortable thunder. I began to reconsider. Reluctantly I admitted to Dick that we could probably manage the trip. While I now believed we should go, I was still very unhappy. I didn't anticipate that God had opened much more than merely an opportunity for my husband to study Hebrew with Hebrews. However, God had a pivotal life experience waiting for me. I was about to discover new dimensions of Sabbath joy.

Stop “Observing” the Sabbath.

Ok I admit it…that is a clickbait title…Sorry. Allow me to explain. To be honest…I am tired of this “debate,” but since I get the questions more often than not, I will play along. Recently, I received the following from an anonymous person: “Sunday is a family time day and well as a church day. How do you spend that family time? If you had an opportunity some sort of sporting event like a hockey…