This question, “What Will You Do On Sunday” will get you a million different responses. Some work, while others use it as a day of recreation. Some take the day to spend with extended family, while others sleep almost all day. Some sleep until time for their favorite game, and then the TV remote guides the rest of the day. These are answers to this question that we are accustomed to hearing. However, the response that we should be giving is to worship God.
God gave us a pattern for our lives when he created everything. Could God have done it sooner than six days? He could have thought it, and it would have happened. However, He is a very logical God, and He prepared the world and everything in it before He created Adam. He had everything needed to sustain man and keep him comfortable before He created him on the sixth day. Mankind was the final creation, the crowning glory of all creation. The only creation created in God’s image and the only one given life by God’s own breath. God took six days to create everything, and then he rested on the seventh.
Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
He was setting a pattern for us. Work six days and rest the seventh. In the beginning, the seventh day was set aside to worship God. It was a day to set aside the distractions of the world that keep us from focusing on God and His blessings. In the Old Testament, it was considered a sacred day. When the Israelites were journeying from Egypt to the promised land, God provided them with everything they needed. He fed them with bread and quail from Heaven. They were to collect the amount needed for the day every morning. Any leftovers at the end of the day rotted. The only time they could gather more than required for the day was on the sixth day. Then they gathered enough for the seventh also. God was allowing them this seventh day to rest.
Exodus 16:4-5 “Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”
Not only did he set the pattern for us at creation and reinforce it during the wilderness journey, but he also gave it to us in the Ten Commandments. I think he meant for us to get it!
Exodus 20:8-11 “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 manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
God did not institute the Sabbath so that you could play catchup at home. It is a day to set aside for rest and worship. A day to reflect on God and set aside all the distractions for one day. Too often, we go to church to worship, but we have not “unplugged” from the world. We carry our devices in hand, just in case something happens that we think we need to know about, while we worship. I know, I know, they have our Bibles on them. It’s convenient, but they are also a distraction. While you are supposed to be reading, your text messages pop up, emails, Facebook, Twitter, all the things that rob you of true, set aside worship. Deuteronomy 5:15 gives us our purpose for this day: to reflect on God. We are to remember what He has done for us, to honor and worship Him and Him alone.
Deuteronomy 5:1 “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.”
God knows us far better than we know ourselves. He knows our bodies and minds need to come apart from the world unto Him. We need to unplug and focus on Him. Satan also knows us. He doesn’t know what we are thinking but knows our habits. He watches and seeks to pull us away from God any way He can.
Today we take the first day of the week to lay aside the things of this world and worship. The New Testament church set aside this day after the resurrection of our Lord and Savior on the first day of the week.
Jesus knew the demands life would put on us. He knew our bodies were not designed to work seven days a week. He also knew we needed a day to set aside for corporate worship, reflection, and praise. It’s not a day to sleep or relax, but a day to come to Him! So, what will you do on Sunday?
Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
