Sabbath Thought – Sabbath Time

Before there was time, nothing was ever late.

It is paradoxical that we live in this world of unparalleled convenience, and yet we seem to have less time than ever for our personal lives. Time has become a precious commodity in the world around us – especially as the pace of business and life speeds up around us.

What is time? It isn’t something we can touch. It isn’t something we can feel, or taste, or see or even hear. We can’t stop time – although we might capture a brief period with photographs or video. Time marches on in spite of our best effort to fight its effect. Eyesight will dim no matter how much we refuse to believe it does. Hair continues to grey no matter how much hair coloring is used. Hearing fades no matter how much we insist our mind was somewhere else.

We are constantly reminded of time passing since so many of us live by the clock. We must be at work by a certain time, work a certain number of hours, so we can earn money to provide for our needs and all of those wonderful conveniences. We wear clocks on our wrists. Our cars and even our phones have clocks in them. Signs along the streets flash the current time at us. We have appointment books and calendars to schedule our time. 

All too often, however, time becomes something cheap to us and wasted away. As much as we try, we never seem to become the master of time. God is the Master of time however – not only living in eternity (Isaiah 57:15) but is also the creator of time. This means that God views time differently than we do – time is different for Him. Since God is spirit, He is not limited by the physical aspects of time as we are and doesn’t measure the passage of time as we do (2 Peter 3:8). And yet time is important to God. Do a word search sometime on the word “holy” and see how it connects with aspects of time to God, His Holy Days, His laws, statutes and judgments. That time becomes sacred.

God sanctified the Sabbath day – that period of time is holy, or sacred, to Him (Genesis 2:1-3). But just because God set that time apart, why is that time holy? The simple answer is that something becomes holy if God lives in it (Exodus 3:1-6 for example). As Creator, He also has the “right” to determine what things are holy. In setting aside the Sabbath day He became the master (the owner or determiner) of it (Mark 2:23-28).

God expects us to be holy (Leviticus 11:44-45), to be sacred, especially on days He has marked as sacred. Out of all of the billions of people who live on the face of this planet, He has chosen us (John 15:19) to be the example that it can be done. God has given us the Sabbath to help teach us how to be holy as He is holy.

View this Sabbath day as the holy time that it is. Engage in activities that reflect that holy nature. Take extra time to learn from His Word what that holy nature looks like in practice. Don’t view the Sabbath day as a limited period of 24 hours, instead view it as God does – a reflection of His holiness.

Let’s remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Dan Dowd

16 August, 2025