The Old Testament.

The Old Testament presents life as a rhythm of both work and leisure. That is, both work and leisure are natural, normal and desirable for the full development of human beings. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, says that there is time for everything: time for planting, time for dancing, time for building, time for Laughter and so on. This means that leisure was part and parcel of the Israelites society.

In Genesis 2:2, we learn that God rested after his grand work; of creating the world. Hence he gave a vivid example that resting after work is part of life. Leisure is therefore divine. 

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 informs us about the Sabbath day. This was the Seventh day of the week. According to Exodus 20: 8-12 and Deuteronomy 5: 12-15, God commanded the Israelites to do all their work and complete it in six days. Then on the seventh day, they had to rest. It was a resting day for the adults, children, servants and even farm animals.

On the Sabbath day the Israelite~ rested from work. This enabled them to become fresh and regain energy for another week's work.

More important, it was a day of remembering God's love and mercy for them a day of remembering how God had rescued them from the Egyptian slavery.

It was a day of thanking God for all his merciful and mighty acts for the Israelites.

It was a day of praising and worshiping Yahweh (their God) by singing the Psalms. It was a day of prayer.

It was a day of offering sacrifices to their God. (Numbers 28:9-11) It was a day of educating the young about their history and about God's activity in their lives.