THE DAY OF REST - Prologue

The Day of Rest
Biblical Teaching About Time
—How It All Began—
By Dr. Al Franzmeier

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This is a manuscript I am publishing for the first time and, as promised earlier, I'm doing it online. Little by little, I'll be adding another chapter. At the end, I'll provide study guides for those who want to use the material for group study. Eventually I hope to develop a separate website tracking life before the multitudinous changes of the last half of century 20 and now century 21.

This current work is from a project I started when a pastor who was about to take a sabbatical—a term derived from the Biblical Sabbath, the seventh day, the day of rest—asked me to help his congregation explore the concept of rest and its meaning for modern life.


The Third Commandment in the numbering by Roman Catholics and Lutherans reads: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy (Exodus 20:8). Few among us have grasped the full implications of that commandment for our lives. Many remember from their religious instruction that Christians no longer observe Saturday, the seventh day, as their day of worship and rest. Followers of Jesus Christ long ago chose to celebrate his resurrection on Sunday, the first day of the week, in place of the ancient Sabbath, the seventh day.

The Lutheran Small Catechism says precious little about this commandment other than to instruct believers to hold the preaching of God’s Word sacred and hear it gladly. That’s it. Having correctly honored the Christ by replacing the seventh day with the first as the primary day of worship, we have long neglected the Bible’s other teachings about the Sabbath. This is regrettable since the Bible has much to teach us twenty-first century Christians about rest, how to use our time, how to relax, how to spend time with our families, set priorities in our lives and scores of other related topics.

 Managing time is one of the biggest problems we face today. Despite all our telephones, computers, fast cars, jets and other timesaving devices, things are speeding up. Everything is going faster and everyone is in a hurry to get more done. We are sorely pressed for time. We’re like Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit that jumped down a hole in front of her.  He was constantly checking his watch and saying, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!”

Both Alice and the rabbit ended up in Wonderland. In a sense, so have we. Our world is certainly filled with wonder, but we do not have time to stop long enough to really look in awe and wonder at what is before us. Caught up in some big race, often running in circles, we seldom know where we’re going or what the hurrying is about.

When my children were younger and living at home, my wife constantly reminded me that I too was so wrapped up in the busy-ness of the church that I had little time for my own family. She can provide you with twenty or thirty examples of when I was not there for important family events. As a devoted pastor, everyone else’s needs took priority. I was too busy taking care of the families of our congregations—and neglecting my own.

My pastor-friend knew what I was talking about, as did his church’s leaders. So when I presented my proposal they accepted it and asked me to provide a course of study  that would help them reflect upon twenty-first century life in light of Biblical teaching about the Sabbath. The chapters to follow are the product of those lectures.

I pray my work will help us all find new and creative ways to use the precious gift of time granted to us, based upon the teachings of Holy Scripture. Under the blessing of the Holy Spirit we will grow in our faith and in our sanctified lives. Watch for the first chapter to be posted soon.