SHABBAT SHALOM by Bobbie Ann Cole

“Shabbat shalom,” is how we greet one another in Israel on Friday and Saturday. The sabbath runs from nightfall Friday until nightfall Saturday, (when, incongruously, the shops all open up again!) ‘Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy,’ is God’s fourth commandment to us. Christians do this on yom rishon, the ‘first day’ or ‘head of the week day’, when our Lord Jesus rose—Sunday. This Hebrew greeting means, “Have a peaceful sabbath,” the shalom part meaning ‘peace’, but with deeper connotations of ‘completion’, and also ‘paid’. Shabbat is connected to sheva, meaning, ‘seven’. On the seventh day, God rested from all His work of creation because it was complete. Seven is considered the number of completion. So the expression ‘Shabbat shalom’ is like a double dose of completion. If we can find this completion, perhaps our sabbath really could be restful. However, I, for one, cannot just switch a restful spirit on and off on one day a week. If I’m gurgling and bubbling inside all the other days, how can I hope to find shalom? This challenge has led me to consider what Biblical rest looks like. It’s nothing like rest where you lie on the sofa. Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matt 11:28-30 His rest looks more like contentment, even though He gives you a yoke (work to do). The work may be heavy. The yoke oxen wear is heavy. It is being yoked to Jesus that makes it light. Joyful, even. Rest for our souls.

Noah (Noach) is Hebrew for ‘rest’ – and yet, biblical Noah, of all people, was called upon by God to strive, first with building the ark and then with boarding and caring for all God’s creatures. It had to be his state of mind that was rested, confident in the Lord. He had inner peace. Jesus said that He had completed the work God had sent him to do. We may never feel that way. But we can still have that inner peace that constitutes rest. The tribes of Israel, after the Promised Land was divided up between them in the Book of Joshua, received God’s rest, though the Canaanites had not been completely vanquished, and there was still much to do. Many of us are juggling a lot of balls in the air. This does not mean that we cannot have the rest Jesus promised. A rest that lasts beyond the seventh day and all through the week.

Bobbie Ann Cole is a Christian writer, speaker and book coach, who is currently managing a group of Christian writers undertaking the challenge of achieving self-set targets at Nanowrimo Summer Camp this July. It’s not too late to join them: https://www.facebook.com/groups/christiannanowrimo2021. What is Camp Nanowrimo?. Contact Bobbie.