Sabbath in our home
What is a Sabbath?
and why keep it?
Before I start, I just want to say that my family and I do not live under a Sabbath law, neither Friday, Saturday, nor Sunday.
Even though we call it Sabbath, it is not a revocation of the 4 commandment in the Law of Moses.
We believe Sabbath is the person Jesus! to know and live with Jesus is getting to know what Sabbath is truly about.
The Sabbath is more than just an outdated law. It is about a biblical design made from God and the human search for rest. Sabbath and the cycle of 7 has a beautiful theme and weaves beautifully throughout the Bible from the beginning until the end with a lot of sevens. It is all a shadow and picture of what we are and have in Jesus! I am not writing to much about that in this article, but you can read more about it here: The Sabbath and the number 7
If you want to know more about the Jewish Sabbath observance? click here: Jewish Sabbath .
Here I would like to talk about how we as a Christian family have the habit of setting aside one day a week to direct our time and focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is of course also wisdom in resting once a week.
I want to share a little of our journey about the decision to keep a Sabbath night once a week, and what a blessing it is to us as a family, couple and person, and what a Sabbath night looks like in our home.
Jesus also celebrated the Sabbath! You can read why He is Lord of it in the Sabbath and the number 7 . His followers keept the Sabbath according to the commandment of the law. Jesus did not do away with the Sabbath as such, but He definitely did away with the many rules the Sabbath was entangled in, which He called human commandments. He reminds us that the Sabbath was made for the sake of man and not man for the sake of the Sabbath.
Why we keep a Sabbath night
Can christians keep the Sabbath?
After all, we as Christians have inherited the Sunday tradition, when in a way it became the new Sabbath day, because it was the day Jesus rose from the dead and we now live in the time of the new covenant.
Shabbat in our home, is the way we do House church, but you can easily combine it with having a night of shabbat and also going to your local church on Sundays.
The 7th day ( Sabbath ) in the Bible is the very first thing God calls holy, before anything else in the Bible, God blessed the 7th day and made it holy, because on it he rested.
Hebrews 4:10 or anyone who enters Gods rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Hebrews 4:1-11
The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word shabot, which simply means; to stop or cease from. To cease from our work to remember Gods work, He makes all things new. He restores and changes things that are dead into life, that which is darkness into light.
Sabbath is ceasing and resting. The 7th day is a picture of Eden, Gods paradise, new creation, where God reigns as King and the kingdom we long and are created for.
We can be busy with many things during the week, because we want to be lord of everything and time ourselves. But let’s stop once in a while and reflect on what we spend our energy and time on and what impact it has on our lives.
Lets repent = change our minds and see that Gods kingdom is at hand.
It also became clear to us that it was important what habits we as parents gave our children.
In 2019 I started studying about the Sabbath and the biblical feasts / holidays , it was so hard to contain all the info around it, as it was so new and not something we had grown up with, just like the Jews have, with weekly Sabbath rhythms and holidays.
We decided that if we were to have a deeper understanding of these subjects and keep it in mind, we would try to keep the Sabbath and holidays together as a family.
This journey with God was so much more educational than we had thought. Who Jesus is, only became even more vivid and clear.
I found out how little we really knew about the Bible as a whole, our interest was that our children should be taught that all 66 books in the Bible are one unified story that leads to Jesus, as well as understanding the context and wholeness of each book in the Bible.
We bought lots of books and DVDs we could read and listen to together, in order to grow in the understanding of the context of the books and stories of the Bible.
We started little by little to turn Friday, which is the famous Friday candy night, into a Sabbath night.
On Friday night we break, in a way, the normal flow of time and abstain from our own pursuits of need, to devote time to God. In this way, we proclaim that the break is made for the sake of the Lord. We are normally masters of our own time, but on this day, we recognize that time is God’s and it is Him we trust as our provider and not our own striving. It is He who gives us rest, life and blessings. All glory to Him and we enjoy the blessings of His fruits.
NEW HABITS
AND A BIT OF CHAOS AT THE START.
It was so incorporated in us and the children’s system, what Friday normally had included and there was also a bit of chaos at the start, because the expectations and habits were there already, and now they were changed. But actually it turned out really well, even if some things were sacrificed. Our children were not that old when it was changed and the Sabbath only made it more pleasant for us to be together. It was more the patience and what we had to go through, like communion, prayer, stories, singing, etc., which they were not used to, on Fridays.
Every Friday we greet each other by saying Shabbat Shalom!
It is now such a big part of our weekly routine that it can be felt, when we have to change it. Normally, we then move it so that there is only a day’s difference – either to Thursday or Saturday instead.
How we do Sabbath
WHAT DOES A SABBATH consist of?
The mood is set from the morning. Father goes to work, I and the children have home school. Then it’s time to clean the house and everyone has their own responsibilities and rooms to clean, so it’s easy to go to.
Food is cooked. Challah bread is baked, if it has not been made the day before, and the table is nicely set in the living room, because this day we don’t eat in the kitchen, as we do all the other days of the week.
A different mood and expectation has already been set in advance for this day.
We start around 17.00 – or 18.00 on a well-prepared evening and with nice, cozy company.
Sabbath
How?
Gathering
• We some times start by lighting candles, remembering who our God is (The light in this world) and prayer, then we take communion and a short prayer time for us and the family around us, but sometimes we also wait with communion until after the evening sermon / devotion time.
Food
•We bless the food and enjoy a good meal
Cleaning and reclining
• Then we clear the table, which we all help with and us adults get ready to go down to the couches.
If we have quests we usually let the kids play, while we talk a bit and then gather.
But if we are alone as a family we start directly with the gathering, listening to Gods word and time spent in prayer and singing.
- What we love about this way, is that there is room for all generations to participate, the little ones also share from their picture bibles and prays out loud.
Devotion Time
• Then it is Devotion time, where one is sharing the word, read in the Bible, we then talk about what we have heard or read, ask questions or reflect on what has been shared.
Prayer
• We pray together or for each other. We all practice praying in one way or another, what we feel led to do.
Dessert
• When we have guests, which we usually do, time flies and desert is eaten late in the evening.
But when we are alone, we can either choose to watch a Christian film or play a game together.
THE FIRST CHRISTIANS AND SUNDAY
WE NO LONGER LIVE UNDER THE MOSAIC LAW ON THE SABBATH, EITHER IN THE FORM OF SATURDAY OR SUNDAY.
It is not in itself a sin to drive in the harvest on Sunday, to shop at the supermarket or to play football during church time. However, it would be a real shame for us if we made all days the same, there is a real blessing in having your attention and focus on God both together as a family, but also individual.
We have inherited Sunday as both a holiday and a day of rest. We need a day of rest from work, which has also been proven in so many ways. We need a day of renewal and restoration where God and family are at the center. A day that just comes to us by itself:)
The rhythm of keeping the Sabbath every 7th day is a way for humans to imitate God and act as if we are participating in the new creation. Another facet is that we are slaves to our work, but on the 7th day we celebrate our release from slavery and rest with God. The Sabbath belongs to God!
After all, the first Christians were both Gentiles and Jews. The Jews who were used to keeping the Jewish traditions just became Messianic Jews instead, but still Jews. There were, of course, disagreements about the Sabbath and other Jewish laws.
The Sabbath could easily be interpreted as an act of law, so it makes good sense to keep the Sabbath on a Sunday, as many of the first Christians did and as we Christians are used to today, because it was the day of resurrection, when Jesus won over death. Jesus taught his disciples to watch him break the bread and where he appeared among them and said peace be with you and equipped them for service.
What I find thought-provoking is that Jesus says; We must remember the communion as often as we can, as we humans can often get our focus elsewhere, therefore it is important to remember and have the right thing in mind. Communion is a part of our weekly Sabbath.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, gave thanks, broke it and said: “This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me!’
For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
So just as Israel celebrated the sacrifice of the Passover lamb when the angel of death passed by their home, so the believers in Jesus celebrate and remember the sacrifice for our sin when He died on the cross. The sacrament is a gift from God to us so that we can remember Jesus’ sacrifice. In seeing Jesus, we are transformed from glory to glory!
GOD'S WORD IN OUR HOME!
AN IMPORTANT TASK!
Our children are used to receiving God’s word both in the morning and in the evening, 5 working days a week. It is in the form of morning devotions and a Bible reading plan.
But there is something very special about coming together as a whole and growing together as a family and getting to know our Lord Jesus better. It is our little disciples that we have the opportunity to teach. The point of a Sabbath evening is that we focus and fix our eyes on God together. What we teach our children at home is what they will take with them on their journey, which can strengthen and bless their own lives and families for generations to come.
Biblical feasts and the biblical calendar year, is a gift that helps to make the gospel concrete and place us in the middle of God’s salvation history year after year.
Rituals and traditions help and remind us of things we could otherwise easily forget. The church year exists to remind us again and again who we are, who we belong to and who our God is.
I believe that if we want to change the world around us, we have to start with what we have in our own homes.
As Mother Teresa said:
If you want to change the world, go home and love your family!
When the strength in the Families is God, it strengthens God’s church!
God has instituted it in such a way that we ourselves as parents and grandparents were given the responsibility of passing on God’s word to the children and grandchildren in the home.
To our future generations, what we leave here on this earth, either “spiritual or carnal” children. Choose the ways of the Lord and become part of God’s great family!
It is our responsibility to educate our children in the faith. Deuteronomy 6:4-13
