What does it mean to Remember and Keep the Sabbath?

Last week, a post on social media sparked a discussion and debate around whether or not Christians should keep the Sabbath, and I found it fitting that this week's Torah portion talks about the Sabbath.

Remember and Keep are two words used to instruct Israel about the Sabbath.

What is the difference?

Here's what I discovered.

The Sages highlight that the word "Remember" (זכר: Zakar) is used twice when inscribed on tablets of stone as a positive commandment, but in this week's Torah portion the word "Keep", or "Safeguard" (שׁמר: Shamar) appears as Moses describes a negative commandment.

Ramban explains that Moses understood "the awesome holiness of the Sabbath is such a totally positive phenomenon that one who understands its significance could not desecrate it."

Thus, the positive command to Remember the Sabbath contained within it the impossibility of violating it. The rabbi likens this to a man who is in love with a woman—he loves so much that he wouldn't even entertain a thought of harming the object of his affection.

The majority, however, upon hearing Moses relay the words of God, didn't grasp this understanding of the Sabbath. It's explained that they heard  the instruction to “Keep" in the negative sense.

Rather than understand the immense significance of the Sabbath day and the love with which it was given, they understood it as a negative commandment.

It struck me that this description of the positive vs negative understanding of the Sabbath is what many of us wrestle with today.

On one hand, you may read the command to remember the Sabbath and translate that as a restrictive burden. A legalistic instruction that weighs us down. You cast it off because you believe that "Jesus is my Sabbath," or that Jesus fulfilled the law so we no longer have to keep it.

Or perhaps you mentally create lists of all of the things you should not do so that you don't possibly desecrate the Sabbath—working with all your might to keep God's instructions. Out of zeal for God's Torah, you may debate others to bring them along to understand the impact of not resting. And you wouldn't be entirely off base.

On the other hand, you may have had an experience of the Sabbath as a life giving experience of true rest. A wonderful day that fills you up and restores your soul. This act of ceasing from work allowed you to see the beauty of life that you were too busy to notice during the other six days of the week.

This is what I hope to call your attention to.

To Remember the Sabbath as a day of delight as God initially intended.

My experience has shown that we too often focus on the negative aspect. We worry about not getting it quite right or we try so hard to do the right thing that we entirely miss that the point of Sabbath is for life and healing.

Or there are so many things to do—a house to clean, kids to take care of, a business to build—that we forget to remember that we're not slaves any more. We're not cogs in the machine of life. We're humans made in the very image of God. And like our Father, we need a day to remember and to truly rest.

Secure in our identity.

Confident that our needs are met.

Able to enjoy the goodness of the life gifted to us.

What would it look like for you set aside the arguments for a day, and to truly enter in to a Sabbath day of delight?

If the Sabbath as a practice is a foreign concept to you, what would need to change so that like the words of the prophet in Isaiah 58, you could call the Sabbath a delight and an honorable day of not doing your own thing? 

To delight in the one who sustains us. To love and provide for those around us. To enjoy the mutual fellowship of our neighbors. To relish the beauty of our Father’s creation. To be filled up so that we might overflow.

Remember and Keep are both instructions, but as you go through this next week:

May you remember that you are a beloved child of the King of the Universe.

May you rest in a day where our Father promised to meet all of our needs.

May you pause your labor and delight in the God who formed you.

May you learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

May you honor our Father and King.

May you call the Sabbath a delight.

And may you experience shalom.

🙏