Rest in a Bottle-Bottled Shabbat!
Bottles from the Springs... Bottled Sabbath... So at the Springs we will be talking about the Shabbat, the full Completeness and therefore the Rest that God our creator planned for us and still exists for us. To help us understand what this is all about I like the presentation on You Tube-a part of the Bible Project and you can see it at: 7th Day Rest - Sabbath | The Bible Project https://thebibleproject.com › podcast › series › 7th-day-rest-sabbath
Shabbat, the Hebrew word we English call Sabbath, turns out to be a big part of what God had planned for us from the beginning and also a part of who He is and who Jesus is. God made Sabbath a part of the life of Israel and wove it into every part of their National life-Social, economic, agricultural, religious/spiritual, calendar, and even the animals, all were involved. God had these wonderful cycles of Time and Space just ready for his people. Did they think it was so great? No! They never really gave it a chance. Once every week, every 7 years, every 7 times 7 years-an even 50-a whole progressive cycle of celebrations and nobody got into the act! What did God ask? Every 50 years, once a generation, everybody closed down in the cities and towns and went home to the family farm-you see, Israel was tribal, there really was a family farm! Did you know that in Israel, if you wanted, you could work like a slave? God gave them permission, if you went into hopeless debt, wrecked your economy, God said you could sell yourself to someone to pay off that debt. But then every 50 years, all debts were cancelled. All credit cards torn up. All slaves freed to go back to their tribe, their family. And you lived off the fat of the land at the family farm for a year! Ever been to a family reunion? That's what Jubilee was! And it was a whole year long-but the next year the economy got recycled, and the land was recycled because you didn't cultivate the land during Jubilee, just ate left overs stored up all the year before, and your animals got a break-they got to do free range all year long! The whole nation went free range! It could have worked, you know, it was thought up by a pretty smart guy...the smartest! But as they say in the New Testament, all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God! So God sent in his Son-to demonstrate what a life of Shabbat could be like! And then, Jesus left us his Spirit, to live in us-to live out that life of Shabbat! God alive through a community! So the next time someone says, “Give me a break!” Recognize that for what it is-someone who needs a rest-a REAL rest...They need Shabbat! It's more than a commandment.