Where can I find tranquillity?

God said ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’ Exodus 20:8-11. This is where tranquillity is found.  God knew we would forget!  The Sabbath of God from sunset Friday to Sunset Saturday is the Sabbath as it was in Eden. It is a time for remembering our Creator and worshipping Him. And the result is a deep refreshing, and tranquillity of heart and mind.

In days gone by every seventh day of the week was the Sabbath day.  The rest day. Then as Christianity joined with paganism this day almost disappeared and Sunday, the pagan day to honour the sun, took its place.

Sunday was presented to Christians as a good idea as it coincided with the Sunday first day of the week resurrection of Jesus Christ.   Previously Christians had remembered the resurrection of Jesus when they were baptised in water.  As they came up out of the water to start a new life with God, it was like being raised from the dead as Jesus was.  See Romans 6.  But now this concept was lost, and Sunday worship was accepted.

At this time many faithful Christians fled to the Alps or other remote places and kept the seventh-day Sabbath as God had given at Creation and then later placed in the Ten Commandments as the fourth of God’s requirements.  Those who fled were viewed as dissidents in the Holy Roman Empire, bringing division and damaging trade and being an unsettling influence when everyone else was working for unity and harmony.  Hundreds were hunted to their deaths, over cliffs, or by other barbaric means.

Today our society is essentially secular with little emphasis on religious beliefs and teachings at all, and children would not even know the word ‘Sabbath’.  But the Sabbath was given by God for our benefit.  It was to be a curb on our frantic activities, a stopping place in the week. 24 hours of tranquillity as a gift of joy.

But surely today we cannot actually tell when the original seventh day of the commandment was?.  It may have been Saturday once, but how can we be sure?  People have no problem knowing which day is Easter Sunday! Then ask yourself – Which day do the Jews still keep after thousands of years – Saturday! The seventh day.  

But we are not Jewish!  Surely just stopping work for one day, any day, would bring us the same experience? Would not one day in seven serve the same purpose – and save energy resources too?  Answer: If you were invited to a birthday party, how would it be if you turned up the day after? Can you change your birthday.? You could celebrate it at a different time, but your actual birthday would never change.  

Just so with the Sabbath of the Lord our God. The blessing of God was placed on the seventh day and on no other. No human being can change the blessing that God gives. No-one can reach up into heaven to change God’s purposes.  If a person tried to bless a Monday?  Would it make Monday a blessed day?

The seventh-day Sabbath was a day, which from the Creation of the world was blessed by heaven, for us, on our earth.  It was dedicated as a day to remember God and enrich our inner being. It was designated as sacred time. God’s time. No wonder God began the Commandment with the word ‘Remember’.

Do You remember the Sabbath? Does it figure at all in your weekly planning?  The blessing is still there.  It is still God’s gift day to humanity.  No-one from heaven changed it to Sunday!  It is just that human planning has tried to move the Sabbath to Sunday as an aid towards a unified world to bring peace – and now a slow Sunday is being advocated to preserve the planet from climate change.  Sounds good?  But it is not God’s plan. And it will not bring you the promised refreshment and tranquillity.

Why not think about this further?  Go to www.rememberthesabbathday.org.uk