This week I am away for several days of retreat in one of my favorite places on earth. Meanwhile people continue to read the book and share their thoughts and reactions, which is so gratifying. Thank you!
Here’s a photo of my friend Aaron engaged in one of his favorite Sabbath activities. (Send me yours! Win stuff! Details here.)
Tennis? Yes indeed. One of my happy discoveries over our year of Sabbath-keeping was the book of Isaiah, which encourages us to keep the Sabbath as a “delight.” Our Sabbaths included a wide range of delightful things: hiking, reading, picnics, baking, beer brewing… and a lot more.
How wonderful to have a day on which our heart’s delights are ‘mandated’!
What are those activities that delight you? Share your favorites in the comments.
And yes, this is another scheduled post. I am still away on retreat… and if you catch me around here, please chase me off! 🙂
Sabbath in the Suburbs... and Beyond 
and the rest? Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Then finished. – To finish a work, in Hebrew conception, is to cease from it, to have done with it. “On the seventh day.” The seventh day is distinguished from all the preceding days by being itself the subject of the narrative. In the absence of any work on this day, the Eternal is occupied with the day itself, and does four things in reference to it. First, God ceased from God’s work which God had made. Secondly, God rested. By this was indicated that God’s undertaking was accomplished. When nothing more remains to be done, the purposing agent rests contented. The resting of God arises not from weariness, but from the completion of his task. God is refreshed, not by the recruiting of God’s strength, but by the satisfaction of having before Godself a finished good Exodus 31:17.