God's plan for human beings day by day was that we should have a sabbath of rest every week: "six days shall you work and do all that you have to do and the seventh day you are to rest."

Every week was to have a "sabbath of rest" at the end of the week: a day in which no work was done, "in all your dwellings". No servile work was to be done.

If we had a weekly schedule like this, wouldn't we be healthier, better rested, less tired, less stressed, more relaxed in mind and body? Our priorities, our lifestyle, our lifestyle choices would have to change. Time with family and neighbours and community might prevail instead. Food and conversation and recreation. Home centred lives shared with others?

We might not all have the same day as a Sabbath, as hospitals and carehomes and other places need to provide 7 days a week care, but there should always be one day of REST a week: the same day so that a rhythm of work and rest is set up, that can be relied on. We seem to be such a driven people, that a day of rest is anathema, a waste of time, or impossible for us as the pressure to get things done which we have added to our lives drives us on.

It is interesting that it is not 2 days. We have now had to introduce a weekend to give more time to people to do the things they need to or choose to which is not paid work and a three day week has been set up in the past to cope with particular employment difficulties BUT one day holiday, holy day, a set aside day, a separate and different day a week should be the norm for productive work and good health.

God declared that there would be festivals, holidays, every year - Young translates these as "appointed seasons": the Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. These set aside days were to celebrate God, together as a community, to remember Him and His goodness, to thank him, to give offerings to Him, to be with Him without distraction - quality time we would call this. "I will be your God and you will be My people".

How different our understanding of holidays is now.

Yet Jesus fulfilled all the festivals, his death as the Passover lamb, a day of Atonement for us, his resurrection as the First Fruits from the dead, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost which He gained the right for God to give to us by His life and death, and He came and dwelt, tabernacled, among us, announced by heaven's messengers, and will come again also, with the sound of the Trumpet (I Cor 15:52) . He worked tirelessly for us, obedient to the Father's will. He is our Sabbath.

The Sabbath was a day in which to do good, as is every day. Working for God is Sabbath rest every day. We enter into His rest. Peace with God is rest. Every day of our life we give to God. Work for God while it is still day. In all we do, remember God. Be with God, our Emmanuel God, who dwells with us and in us. Listen to God, speak to God, read His word, be filled with His Spirit, do His will. "I will be your God and you will be My people"