Every year the public and most private schools take a week in March to give a break to students, faculty, and staff. It is a time to rest, vacation, and recuperate. I'm married to a teacher and this break is greatly welcomed. She welcomes it with delight, not because she doesn't like her job, but because everyone needs a break. Everyone needs a rest. This week is our spring break. We are taking a break from the normal life. We aren't thinking about school or our jobs. Just taking time to enjoy our time together as a family.
We should all take time to take a break from the normal life and enjoy one another. Enjoy our families. We should re-focus our lives back to what really matters. This gives us strength to do the things that must be done and to look out for the things in life we let slip by at times.
In the Ten commandments, God instructs Israel to take a day each week as a time of Sabbath. We have lost this idea along the way. Honestly, they did also, oftentimes. God gave Isaiah a new thought about fasting for the people. That it should change their focus to others and not so much on themselves. Listen to God's words in Isaiah.
Isaiah 58 (take special note of verses 6-10)
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the Lord,
and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
I know saying that we shouldn't take vacations, rest, recuperation, or time to ourselves and just our family. However, when we rest, when we fast, may we be recharged to live for the sake of others. I would hate if we waste those moments simply to recharge for the sole purpose to return to the very thing that is zapping our energy in the first place.
Let your light rise in the darkness, and let your night become like the noonday.
We should all take time to take a break from the normal life and enjoy one another. Enjoy our families. We should re-focus our lives back to what really matters. This gives us strength to do the things that must be done and to look out for the things in life we let slip by at times.
In the Ten commandments, God instructs Israel to take a day each week as a time of Sabbath. We have lost this idea along the way. Honestly, they did also, oftentimes. God gave Isaiah a new thought about fasting for the people. That it should change their focus to others and not so much on themselves. Listen to God's words in Isaiah.
Isaiah 58 (take special note of verses 6-10)
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the Lord,
and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
I know saying that we shouldn't take vacations, rest, recuperation, or time to ourselves and just our family. However, when we rest, when we fast, may we be recharged to live for the sake of others. I would hate if we waste those moments simply to recharge for the sole purpose to return to the very thing that is zapping our energy in the first place.
Let your light rise in the darkness, and let your night become like the noonday.
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