What does it mean
to KEEP the Sabbath?

How did I learn to appreciate REST?

When I was fresh out of high school and looking for work, I took a job working twelve hours a day, seven days a week. At $1.25 an hour, I was making pretty good money, or so I thought. The way I figured it, I could earn 455 dollars a month, live with my folks, and buy a new car.

And so I went to work. I started at six in the evening and worked until six in the morning. I had a ten minute break every two hours, and a short break for "lunch" at midnight. I was working on a drill press helping fulfil a military subcontract. The lathe operators would cut the cast iron stock to shape and then I would place the finished stock into a jig on my drill press and put a hole in the middle of it, shaping a flange at the same stroke. The job required absolutely no thought. There were three simple movements required on each piece on to the press, down with the tool, off to the stack of completed material. This went on for twelve hours.

When we got off at six in the morning, there was the bus ride home, a shower, a bite to eat, and a few minutes to unwind before getting to bed about eight o'clock to dream about drill presses. I got up about four in the afternoon, showered and shaved, had a bite to eat, puttered about for a short while, and then caught the bus back to work.

When I started on that job, I had no idea how depressing it would be. Remember, I was eighteen, single, and just out of high school. I didn't last long -- I quit. But I have often thought of the other men who were working that same job. They didn't have the same option I had. They had children to clothe, mouths to feed, and rent to pay. Jobs were not that easy to come by in those days. In truth, those men were not far removed from being slaves.

Which commandment are we to KEEP Holy?

If we are to understand Sabbath observance, the obvious place to start is with the commandment itself,

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. " (Exodus 20:8, NKJV throughout)

Most make a peculiar omission when they talk about "keeping the Sabbath." For merely saying we keep the Sabbath stops one word short. God said, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it HOLY." Simply put, that which is holy belongs to God. The temple and all its accoutrements, for example, were holy because they belonged to God.

In this case, the Sabbath is declared to be holy, and we are commanded to keep it that way. The law goes on to explain:

"Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. . ." (Exodus 20:9-10).

Six days of the week belong to us, but the seventh day belongs to God.

Not only are we to keep in mind that the Sabbath day does not belong to us, and to avoid any work on that day, we are not to require work of others as the rest of verse 10 states:

" . . . In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. " (Exodus 20:10).

Does this mean you stop the boy from delivering your paper on the Sabbath day? No, he doesn't work for you. In most cases he is self-employed and makes his own decisions about when to work and when to take off. The commandment forbids you to require work of anyone who is under your control. Notice the use of the possessive: thy servant, thy daughter, even thy stranger. The commandment is to you and has to do with what you do and what you require. It does not call on you to prevent work by others, nor does it prevent you from benefiting from the labors of those who decide to work. Otherwise, you would have to avoid even the use of electricity on the Sabbath.

Why are we to do this?

"For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:11).

Did keeping the Sabbath begin with MOSES?

Some funny arguments have grown up around the Sabbath. There are those, for example, who believe the Sabbath originated with Moses. And yet it is plain that in resting on the seventh day, God set it apart and hallowed it from creation. To hallow something is to make it holy. The Sabbath day was made holy right from the start.

As Jesus put it, the Sabbath was made for man. It was created when man was created. The fourth commandment itself points to creation as the origin of the Sabbath.

The account in Deuteronomy adds another element to the Sabbath:

"And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." (Deuteronomy 5:15).

To people born in slavery, the Sabbath was without a doubt the greatest expression of liberty these people had ever known. No longer did they have to work seven days out of seven. No longer were they left without time to think about God, to worship, to pray, to rest as God Himself rested.

Are JUDGMENTS required in how to keep the Sabbath?

The commandment was pretty simple. "Keep the seventh day apart as belonging to God. Do not work on that day. Rest on that day. Do not require work on that day. Remember that God your creator rested on the seventh day, and remember that He liberated you from slavery." That was all the fourth commandment had to say about the Sabbath.

Even though that is all there is to the commandment, it doesn't take a great theologian to realize that there are a lot of unanswered questions raised here. For example, does it really matter which day is the Sabbath, or can we keep any one day in seven? Just what constitutes work? What if my house catches fire - would it be work to remove some of my belongings?

These two versions of the ten commandments are not all the Bible tells us about Sabbath observance, but there is an important difference between this commandment and all the other scriptures about the Sabbath - all the other references are judgments What difference does that make? Judgments are administrative statements applying the law to specific situations. The principle remains in force, but it may not always have the same force when applied to different circumstances in different times.

There has never been a law given which does not require interpretation. And if there is to be official interpretation, then sort of official administration is called for.

Someone must have decision making powers in any governmental structure. Israel was no exception, and the procedure for handling questions and disputes was described in Deuteronomy 17:

"If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses.  And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.

"You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses.  And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you.  According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do;  you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you.

"Now the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall DIE.  So you shall put away the evil from Israel.  And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously." (Deuteronomy 17:8-13)

If there arose a matter too hard for them in judgment - especially a matter creating controversy-then they were to get up to the seat of government and inquire of the priests, Levites, and judges. These officials were charged with the responsibility of rendering judgments in doubtful matters. Their decisions took on all the force of law for those who had so inquired (verse 10), even to the extent of the death penalty (verse 12).

These judges could not decide arbitrarily. They were constrained to derive their decisions from the law and to support them by exposition of the law (verse 11). This was, in effect, the supreme court of the day. Like our supreme court, their decisions actually became a part of the body of law, and we find biblical writers referring to the law in terms of commandments, statutes, and judgments Like our supreme court, they made narrow decisions that applied only to the case in point or they made broad decisions that could find application in many similar cases.

Whatever the decision, it became the law of the land, and was just as binding on applicable cases as if it were written with the finger of God.

Sometimes the judgment came from God Himself. Take for example the young man who went out to gather sticks on the Sabbath day. Numbers 15 draws a distinction between sinning through ignorance, and sinning presumptuously:

"But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people. (Numbers 15:30).

In this context, a case study is included of a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36). He was arrested and held "because it had not been explained what should be done to him." (verse 34). In other words, the law did not specify this particular violation - after all, no law can cover every contingency.

God's "judgment" was that he should be put death, but in terms of the courts, this was a "narrow" decision. Not every man who ever gathered sticks on the Sabbath would be stoned. This man had not acted out of ignorance, weakness, necessity or even stupidity. He had acted defiantly - with what the Bible calls "a high hand." His attitude and intent had figured in the decision. Jesus would later make it clear that human and even animal necessity could create exceptions in the Sabbath law. This man had reproached God by sinning "with a high hand."

How do we PREPARE for the Sabbath?

We will not be called on to discipline someone for gathering firewood on the Sabbath, but the judgment is still important. It underlines a fundamental concept of Sabbath observance: the preparation day. If you are going to need firewood on the Sabbath, collect it the day before. After all, the Sabbath does not come as a total surprise each week.

When God decided to "rain bread (manna) from heaven" for the Israelites (Exodus 16:4-30), He did it in such a way as to drive home two important lessons about the Sabbath. Bear in mind that this is not a commandment, but an administrative statement as to how the Sabbath should be observed in this situation. It is a judgment. We will derive lessons from it, but we may apply those lessons a little differently under Christ's administration.

What two lessons do we learn from Manna coming from heaven?

The first lesson we learn from what happened to the Israelites in Exodus 16, when bread rained down from heaven, is that the proper observance of the Sabbath requires forethought and preparation:

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them (it was a test commandment), whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.'" (Exodus 16:4-5).

God gave them a very simple procedure. Gather just enough for your family each day and eat it all. If you gather too much and try to hold it over, it will breed worms and stink. It was to be their "daily bread." Then, on the sixth day, they were allowed twice as much and told to prepare extra for the Sabbath day. This time it did not breed worms and stink. They were being carefully taught to prepare for the Sabbath day.

The second lesson we learn is that the Sabbath could not be ANY one day in seven. It was established on a specific day. Some people tried to do otherwise and were left with smelly, worm eaten bread. Those who went out on the Sabbath to collect manna found none and were rebuked for their efforts:

"And the Lord said to Moses, 'How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.'" (Exodus 16:28-29).

What we learn from these judgments is that the Sabbath is on a specific day, and that proper observance of the Sabbath requires preparation. There is nothing in Christ's teaching to change that.

Are we sinning if we use MONEY on the Sabbath?

What we have read so far are God's judgments for a people fresh out of slavery. They had to be taught, and that teaching required discipline. There were questions to be asked about the observance of the Sabbath in that time and place, and those questions had to be answered.

When preparations were being made for building the tabernacle, Moses' opening instructions clarified a matter regarding the Sabbath. Even the work on the tabernacle would cease on the Sabbath. In fact, they were not even to kindle a fire on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3). Did this mean that they could not start a fire to keep warm in case of a sudden change in the weather? Not likely. They were not even to build a fire on the Sabbath preparatory to resuming work after the Sabbath was over, even if the work was on the tabernacle. Remember, this is a judgment of Moses given on a specific occasion. It has not been abolished. It remains in the law as a precedent, but judgments may be interpreted differently when we face different circumstances. Kindling a fire in our own age is hardly work. It may only involve the flipping of a switch. And there is no prohibition in any age to kindling a fire to get warm. It is a matter of judgment

Nevertheless, the concept of the preparation day calls for us to get our firewood ready the day before so we can truly rest on the Sabbath.

Much later, after the captivity when the leaders of Israel were anxious to restore obedience to God, a governor named Nehemiah rendered some judgments about the Sabbath:

"In those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.  And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions.  Men of Tyre dwelt there also, who brought in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.

"Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them,  'What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day?  Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? . . .'

"So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must not be opened till after the Sabbath." (Nehemiah 13:15-19)

In the days of Nehemiah some of the Jews were carrying on all their normal activities on the Sabbath day including setting up farmers' markets in Jerusalem. By means of a "city ordinance" he forbade the marketing of produce in Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. There was little he could do about work done elsewhere, but in Jerusalem, he was governor. Even when they tried to set up markets outside of Jerusalem, he drove them away. If you have ever been to that kind of market, you will realize how it can shatter the peace of a Sabbath morning.

Some have taken this as proof that it is wrong to buy, sell, or even for money to change hands on the Sabbath. There are four things to be considered about this passage.

1. First, there is nothing in the fourth commandment to prohibit money or goods changing hands on the Sabbath. The commandment is that you are not to do any work.

2. Second, although it is a small point, Nehemiah was the governor, and was establishing a Sabbath-keeping society. Different judgments may be called for in a non-Sabbath keeping society where you have no authority.

3. Third, this is a judgment of a governor to meet a specific situation. While it is a precedent, it is a narrow precedent.

4. Fourth, we have yet to consider Christ's judgments relative to the Sabbath.

How did JESUS interpret the Sabbath law?

Jesus' administration of the Sabbath was a common sense approach. By the time He came on the scene, the Jews had rendered the Sabbath almost unrecognizable. Following what they thought was Nehemiah's example, they had decided how far a person could walk on the Sabbath, how much he could carry, whether one could take things out of his house if it were on fire, and even whether one could heal on the Sabbath.

Jesus and His disciples for the most part ignored the traditions of the Jews regarding Sabbath observance. On a day when they were passing through grain fields, they were plucking ears of grain as they went (Mark 2:23). To the pharisees, this was unlawful and they challenged Jesus on the question. They saw no real difference between the act of plucking one head of grain, and harvesting fifty or five thousand. The difference was only a matter of numbers.

Now common sense tells you that isn't so. Obviously there is a difference between plucking a few heads of grain to eat right then and there, and harvesting your entire crop. What is the difference? The difference is in your intent. One man might have gone out to collect sticks on the Sabbath to build fire to keep warm after a sudden cold snap-this man might have gone unpunished while another man who performed exactly the same act might have been stoned. One was reluctantly working to meet a human need, and the other was arrogantly flouting God's law. It was purely a matter of intent.

Jesus replied to the critics,

"But He said to them, 'Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?'" (Mark 2:25-26)

What did this reply have to do with the Sabbath? Merely that a simple human need like hunger could, on a rare occasion, take precedence over the law - even the fourth commandment. Such an occasion in no way invalidates or sets aside the commandment - it is an exception to the rule.

Jesus even acknowledged that there could arise a conflict between two laws. In Matthew's account of this incident, Jesus continues by asking,

"Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? " (Matthew 12:5).

In truth we would expect that the greater law would take precedence over the lesser, and who would argue that the sacrificial law is greater than the Sabbath? The priests were commanded to do the work of sacrificing animals. The Sabbath forbade work. Which commandment took precedence? The sacrificial law took precedence.

This deserves some consideration. The Sabbath, Jesus continued, was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Man was not expected to worship the Sabbath, but to worship God on the Sabbath. The offerings were a part of the worship of God and so were offered every day. They were also a presentation of the Gospel since every sacrifice pointed to Christ.

Having made this point, Jesus continued:

"Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple." (Matthew 12:6).

If the service of the temple could continue on the Sabbath, then so could the service of Christ.

"But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless . . . " (Matthew 12:7)

The rigid, ritualistic observance of law was not as important as mercy, according to Christ.

He concluded,

"For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:8).

How did Jesus expand on the INTENT of the Sabbath?

Jesus is the final judge of proper conduct on the Sabbath day. He took us beyond the ministration of death to the ministration of the spirit and defined this day at a level no scribe or Pharisee would ever have seen.

They asked Him,

"Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? . . ." (Matthew 12:10)

They were only setting a trap - trying to find some accusation against Him. When they asked this, there was a man standing near who had a withered hand. Jesus said:

"Then He said to them, 'What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? . . . ' " (Matthew 12:11)

Plainly, all of them would have rescued the dumb animal. If not, then His question would have been meaningless. Elsewhere, He asks a similar question regarding an ox in a ditch, plainly expecting that even the strictest pharisee would save the animal even though it involved backbreaking work. After all, it was an emergency. Jesus taught that work is permissible in an emergency, even to save an animal.

Then He hit them with the clincher:

"'Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is LAWFUL to do good on the Sabbath.' Then He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other." (Matthew 12:12-13).

You would think the dramatic healing would have been all the authority Jesus needed to pass judgment on how to observe the Sabbath, but the men went out and conspired how they might destroy Him.

Did Jesus look for opportunities to CORRECT errors of the Jews?

Jesus seems to have SOUGHT OUT opportunities to correct the errors of the Jews. On one occasion, Jesus found an impotent man lying on a pallet (John 5:1-11). He could easily have said, "rise up and walk" when he healed him, but that would have left an issue unresolved. What he actually told the man he healed was:

"Rise, TAKE UP YOUR BED and walk. " (John 5:8)

Jesus spoke this on the Sabbath. He knew that the Jews had precisely defined the size of the burden a man could 'lawfully' carry on the Sabbath. When the Jews saw the man carrying his pallet, they said,

"It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed." (John 5:10)

The man's answer is instructive:

"He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'" (John 5:11)

He had no question about Jesus' credentials in interpreting the Sabbath. Any man who could heal him could certainly explain the nuances of Sabbath observance.

Did Jesus intend to completely invalidate the Sabbath? Hardly. What concerned him was the TRIVIALIZING of the Sabbath.

The Jews can hardly be blamed for being careful. They knew it was carelessness on the Sabbath that had resulted in the Babylonian captivity. They recalled vividly Jeremiah's admonition "nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day" (Jeremiah 17:22). God had warned through Jeremiah that if they would not listen and routinely carried a burden through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath that He would kindle a fire in the gates of the city (verse 27). They recalled Nehemiah's admonition that God had brought captivity upon their fathers for profaning the Sabbath (Nehemiah 13:18).

What they could not see was the difference between carrying a heavy burden of firewood, and carrying a rolled up blanket under the arm. There is a difference, but it cannot be measured in kilograms or pounds. Once again, it is a matter of intent.

When Jesus was challenged on the matter, He responded,

"I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me." (John 5:30).

It was not God's intent to prevent a man from carrying even a light burden on the Sabbath, or from doing good on the Sabbath. It was His intent to set a man free from his work on the Sabbath.

Jesus' judgment about the Sabbath was the Father's judgment, the Father's intent. It was the true interpretation of the original intent of the Sabbath law.

Did Jesus answer ALL the questions about the Sabbath?

Jesus realized that there was no way He could answer all questions for all generations on the Sabbath or any other teaching. What about the questions that would arise as technology radically changed man's lifestyle? Would there be a continuing need for interpretation?

Jesus told, not only Peter, but all the apostles,

"'And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'" (Matthew 16:19, see also Matthew 18:18).

This does not include the power to change laws, but simply to pass judgment on doubtful matters. Jesus' statement does include the support of these decisions at the highest level of God's kingdom.

This is NOT to say that the 'ordained' ministry should decide for the people what THEY can decide for themselves. As it was in Old Testament times, the decision-making process was only for those things that were too hard for someone to make a judgment.

Using Jesus' principle that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, the ordained ministry have long since determined that while it is wrong to work at your job on the Sabbath, it is NOT wrong for you to benefit directly or indirectly from the work of others. The extreme opposite view would argue that proper observance of the Sabbath requires that we use no electricity on that day. We must turn off our air conditioners and use candles to light our home. Even the candles should be lit before sundown as we are to kindle no fire on the Sabbath.

But in following that approach, we are going far beyond the requirements of the law, and we may well defeat the very purpose of the Sabbath.

Does intent MATTER when keeping the Sabbath?

The keeping of the Sabbath is very much a matter of intent. God revealed through Isaiah the right attitude toward the Sabbath:

"'If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,

"'Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.'" (Isaiah 58:13-14).

The purpose of the Sabbath is to get man to pause - to step out of the rat race for a moment and to find a little time for God, for family, for friends, for brothers. It is not a time to sit in the dark because you don't want to turn on a light on the Sabbath. It is not a day to be cold because you don't want to light a fire in the fireplace. It is not a day to be alone because you won't go to a restaurant with brethren for fellowship.

But it is God's day. It is a day when you have all the time in the world. You have time for reading the Bible, time for prayer, time for fellowship, time for your children, time for thought, time for yourself, and, above all, time for God.

Don't you feel sorry for those poor souls who have no Sabbath?