What do you want in life? What are the desires of your heart? How do you get these things you desire? The answer is surprisingly simple: “Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart”. (Ps 37:4) What are your desires? Is this a simple way to achieve them? Obviously we should not be coveting things, but there is nothing wrong with desiring good things for ourselves and others. What, therefore, does it mean to “delight yourself in the Lord”?
An important rule in Bible study is before you try to make your interpretation of a certain phrase or word in a scripture, see if God has already made His interpretation of it in another scripture. For example the Lamb mentioned in the Book of Revelation is able to be interpreted from John 1:29-36 as being Christ. Similarly, for this particular phrase “delight yourself in the Lord” we find that Isaiah 58:13-14 could provide a ready interpretation: “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 honourable, and shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord”.
It seems that keeping the Sabbath ‘Holy’ in this way is a sign to God that you delight in the Him. However there is more, for Isaiah 58:14 continues with a double blessing for delighting in God: “and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.” Now read again Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart”. The desires of your heart correlates with the blessing of: “I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father”. We therefore see that when interpreted by scripture the desires of your heart are not the specific desires of your heart but are a metaphor for God pouring out great blessings upon you, so as to cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
Isaiah 58:14 also concludes with “The mouth of the Lord has spoken.” God is adamant: “I the Lord have spoken and that is the way it’s going to be!” God is not messing around, He IS going to pour out blessings upon people who love His Sabbath and delight in it, and thus delight in Him.
But how exactly do we love His Sabbath and thus delight in the Lord?
Resting on the Sabbath
The word ‘Sabbath’ means ‘rest’. Why would having a rest and keeping the Sabbath holy also be seen as “Delighting in the Lord”- and why should you be rewarded for doing so by being given great blessings from God?
The Sabbath is important because in it God has given us His special day to rest on. When we keep the Sabbath we remember that God is the creator who rested on the seventh day: And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all His work which God created and made. (Genesis 2:3) To sanctify the Sabbath meant to set it apart. As God is the one that set it apart it is called the “Sabbath of the Lord” many times in the Bible (Ex 20:10, Lev 23:3, Deut 5:14). Yet it is now a time for mankind to rest, as God doesn’t need to rest. (Psalm 121:4)
So it is a blessing to have a rest on Gods special day that reminds us who God is, and God is therefore willing to give an extra blessing for taking a rest. Not a bad deal really!
However God not only gives blessings for keeping the Sabbath but when He gave it to Israel he also enforced keeping it with the death penalty for disobedience! Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever does work therein shall be put to death. (Exodus 35:2) Also see Exodus 31:14-15
So we see that the Sabbath was a Holy Day, a day that God seriously set aside for rest. It is also a time for people to congregate to worship God: Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. (Lev 23:3)
The Gift From God
What man is there among you if your son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him. (Matt 7:9)
This scripture tells us that we all know how to give a good gift to others. The first thing I think we need to understand about the Sabbath is that Christ tells us that it was made for man. The Sabbath is therefore a gift from God to the human race! I mean, how bad can that be? What God simply asks is that we take His very good gift and use it properly. Not only that, but he then promises that if you do respect this gift then He will actually reward you with more gifts. Not a bad deal really!
The Sabbath gift from God we could assume would be something we need. Yet how do we use this gift? If a father was to give his teenage son a brand new car, and he did not clean it, or maintain it, and drove it carelessly, this would be showing disrespect toward his father. The father would then be stupid to give him any more gifts because he obviously didn’t care enough to look after what he was given. Similarly you are showing disrespect toward God when you don’t correctly use, or respect, or delight in HHHhhjh’jlkjlkjlkjis Sabbath gift, which He has given you.
If you show respect toward the Sabbath then you are showing respect toward God and “then you shall delight yourself in the Lord” and then you shall be rewarded with the desires of your heart. It’s a simple logical sequence of events: 1) God gives you a gift. 2) You say thank you and respectfully use and rejoice in it. 3) God gives you another gift because you have shown that you can use and respect the gifts that He has given you.
Some people call the Sabbath the “test commandment” as if keeping it was a burden or very difficult, which in some cases it can be. But it was never meant to be a test, it was meant to be a blessing of great benefit. This approach of calling the Sabbath a test can cause it to become a burden, and those who keep it with this attitude can also become self righteous that they are somehow doing something difficult just to please God. God says “have a rest”, you say “ok”, why should you feel proud about having a rest!?
There is simply nothing to get self righteous about when keeping the Sabbath. It was made for you to enjoy, if you keep it properly you get the benefit of enjoying it. If however you become self righteous in keeping it then God knows that you look at it as a burden and not really as a delight and therefore He will not bless you with more gifts.
Christ Clarifies the Sabbath
Christ took a great deal of time to clarify what it means to rest on the Sabbath, so that we who are followers of Christ should know how to keep it holy. Christ knew that to congregate, rest and contemplate Gods Word on the Sabbath day are the clear directives of scripture. He also knew that the Sabbath was to be a blessing for those who kept it. Time and again however we see that he was frequently grieved that people were not keeping the Sabbath correctly, but were causing it to be a liability to themselves and others. Instead of it being a joy and a blessing the Sabbath was too often seen as burden!
God says “take a holiday”. Man says “no, it’s too hard to do that!” How could a simple thing like a command to rest become so totally perverted? More importantly however is the question of what Christ expects us to do today. To answer this question we will first look at an incident with Christ that is recorded three times, with a slightly different emphasis each time.
At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn; and His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, your disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But he said unto them, Have you not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Matthew 12:1-5
Similarly in Mark: And it came about that on the Sabbath day he was going through the grain-fields; and while they were walking, his disciples took the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, Why are they doing what it is not right to do on the Sabbath? And he said to them, Have you no knowledge of what David did, when he had need and was without food, he, and those who were with him? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and took for food the holy bread, which only the priests may take, and gave it to those who were with him? And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; So that the Son of man is lord even of the Sabbath. (Mark 2:23-28)
While Christ is simply stating the obvious: we are not made to be a blessing to the Sabbath, but it was made as a blessing for us, He is also demonstrating that the Sabbath is not more important than our needs. For picking these grains, in the same way that David ate the shewbread, was permitted for the sake of hunger.
He also clearly points out that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and therefore it was He that made the Sabbath for Man.
Mercy and the Sabbath
Such an understanding of how to keep the Sabbath requires some wisdom and common sense to interpret. It also requires the important human quality of mercy, which is shown when we continue reading this account in Matthew 12:6-8
Or have you not read in the law, how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.
What has mercy to do with the Sabbath? In this instance Christ is telling the religious leaders of the time that their definition of work was incorrect and was lacking in compassion for people’s needs. Therefore what the Pharisees said was ‘not lawful’ was actually within the intent of the law as the Sabbath was made for a blessing for us.
According to Christ, mercy was an important determinant as to how to keep the Sabbath. Strict interpretation of the edict to not do any work was never intended, it was always to be tempered with a reasonable approach as to what was necessary and what was good.
Feeding animals by loosening them from their pens and taking them to water or grass is obviously permissible work (Luke 15:15), which the Pharisees agreed to, as was saving the animals’ lives or helping them when in danger (Luke 14:15). Christ also pointed out that they also agreed that the priest’s work of killing animals for sacrifices which was conducted on the Sabbath was also acceptable (Matt 12:5). He used all these examples to support the fact that there was some work that was permissible, and some that was not. Then He capped the entire argument by summarizing it in saying: Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day. (Mat 12:12)
Christ Lord of the Sabbath
The same incident of Christ going through the grain fields is recorded in Luke 6:1-5, and it again finishes with “That the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” From these and many other scriptures we can see that Christ and the Sabbath are intimately interconnected. The reason for this is obvious: Christ is God (John 1:1-5, 1Cor 10:4). The Sabbath is Gods Holy Day. Therefore Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath.
The Pharisees, by putting their own restrictions on people so that they could not even eat a few grains of wheat, had reversed Gods purpose of the Sabbath: they had made the Sabbath more important than mankind for whom it was made. When Christ said in Mark 2:28 The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; So that the Son of man is lord even of the Sabbath, He simply clarified the intent and the specific purpose of the Sabbath: it was meant to be a blessing from God for mankind. It was never intended to be a burden that was enforced by authoritarian religious leaders.
The scripture continues with the topic of how to keep the Sabbath in the verses immediately following Mark 2:28. “Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. (Mark 3:1-2) Now you may ask “accuse him of what?” Accuse him of “breaking” the Sabbath according to their definition by doing the “work” of healing on it. However Christ spelt out to them that healing is not work that is forbidden on the Sabbath. And he said to the man with the withered hand, "Come here." And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.” (Mark 3:1-6)
What ‘work’ did Christ do to heal this man? All he did was speak to him and he was healed. But the Pharisees were so blind by their hardness of heart that they wanted to destroy Christ for simply saying Stretch out your hand! The Pharisees may have thought they were being strict in their interpretation of the law, but what they were doing was to undermine the intent of the law. They enforced their own ridiculous notion of what “work” was, and in the process made the Sabbath a burden rather than a blessing. The Pharisees had many rules which made the Sabbath difficult to keep and thus the day of rest for mankind, given to us by God, became a burden and a curse rather than a blessing and a joy.
Unfortunately some theologians twist even these very clear scriptures by claiming Christ meant that because Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath he can therefore do away with it. However the exact opposite is being stated. For, as Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath (which He made as a day of rest for mankind because we need it) He is also able to clarify how we should keep it.
Those who think Christ did away with the Sabbath have very few scriptures to back them up. Why would He do away with a rest day, particularly one that is named after Him, reflects His authority, His name, reminds us of His creation week, and has many scriptural promises of blessings attached to it? Such a dramatic change in Gods way of doing things would need some extended explanation as to why it was being changed. Yet no such explanation is in the New Testament.
When you read about the Sabbath in scripture, it’s clear to see that Christ is explaining the intent of how to keep it. He is not doing away with it. Nor is He or changing its time from keeping it on the seventh day of the week to the first day. Do not be deceived by simplistic arguments about doing away with the Sabbath or changing its time of observation. Read all the scriptures on the Sabbath, including the context of the verses around them, and you will see that the Sabbath is a blessing and is good for us to keep today, and God expects us to do so.
God is telling you that you need a rest once a week. How bad for you is it to take a day off work? How hard is this to do? Yet God also promises for those that keep His Sabbath an extra double blessing: I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.” Yet, as we have seen, that blessing comes only if we follow the command to keep the Sabbath with a willing heart such that we actually do “delight in the Lord” and all His ways. It also requires the attitude of mercy, as we have also seen above.
The Sabbath and Forgiveness of Sin
While the seventh day is mentioned in Genesis it is not actually recorded in the Bible as being called ‘the Sabbath’ until over 2,000 years later when God spoke to Israel.
Following is the third and fourth of the Ten Commandments:
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not count him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day shall be the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger inside your gates, so that your manservant and your maidservant may rest like yourself.
And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deut 5:11-15)
As you can see the Sabbath is not just any old day off work, but it is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. This is Gods special day, in which we remember what He did at the time of creation.
In the above quote I included the third commandment (Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD your God in vain) because from the original context of these verses it’s clear that these two commands are directly linked together.
The third commandment is not simply talking about taking an oath, or using Gods name as a swear word (although these are also obviously included) but in the context is more importantly talking about calling yourself a follower of God (such as saying you are a Christian) and yet not being a Godly person. If we claim to be His people, called by His name, then we effectively take on His name, like a wife traditionally took on the name of her husband when she married. If we then do something that is wrong it shames God, for we are a representative of God on Earth.
Similarly if we claim to be His people but work on His Sabbath (His rest day) we take Gods name in vain because this is His Sabbath day and we should therefore follow Him by keeping His day as He directed- by resting. If we actually are taking His name in vain by working on the Sabbath then the consequences of it are significant: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.
Does this mean that forgiveness of your sin is directly linked to keeping the Sabbath? It’s difficult to read it any other way. However, perhaps we could put a positive spin on it by saying “You must take a holiday in order to be forgiven” which is not such a bad formula really! Relax and be forgiven- could be a catchy slogan!
The Sabbath the Great Leveller
As the word Sabbath means ‘rest’, when the scriptures tell us that it is the Sabbath of the LORD your God it means it is the rest of the Lord your God, as it reflects the rest that God had on the seventh day of creation.
But why would God need to command us to take a day off work? Despite the fact that we are made in Gods image, perhaps we are simply not smart enough to see that taking one day in seven off from work is actually a really good idea? More likely, however, He would see that while we ourselves may be happy to take one day a week off work, we may not be inclined to also allow our servants to do so? The Sabbath law is very egalitarian- everyone must take a day a week off, not just the rich.
This egalitarian element is emphasised in the Ten Commandments, please read again the above scripture in Deuteronomy 5:11-15. Not just ourselves, but also our servants and strangers from out of town, and even our animals are to have a day off work. Clearly the Sabbath commands are not just for us. If we force our servants, or allow others that don’t worship God to work in our land on the Sabbath, we are also taking Gods name in vain. We are not doing what he commands and are not resting on His day off.
What is the big deal about animals or strangers working on the Sabbath? If our animals are working then we need to be keeping an eye on them, and if strangers are working then they are not respecting the God of the land. Israel was to be a light to the world, and the Sabbath was a major example of who God is- the creator who rested on the Sabbath.
If we use our animals for transport (such as pulling a cart load of people to Sabbath services) then perhaps they would never get a rest, they may also get injured from the work and this would mean we would need to work on the Sabbath to help them.
Also Proverbs 12:10 tells us that Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel. (ESV) Resting our work animals on the Sabbath is showing them mercy and kindness. They are physical like we are, and also need rest.
Rest for animals is therefore another form of rest for ourselves, but it is also a reflection of God’s understanding, mercy and kindness toward animals- which is another part of God’s nature that we can glean from the Sabbath.
The Sabbath helps the rich and the poor, gentile and Israelite, slave and free, men and women to remember that God is not a respecter of persons. (Acts 10:34-35) It is the great egalitarian reminder that all people are made in the image of God, and all have the same potential to be born of God and to become the sons of God. (Acts 17:30) For we see that There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:28) Far from being a burden, the Sabbath lifts a burden off us all: the burden of inferiority for the poor and the burden of self importance for the rich and dominant in the society.
While many will agree that we all need a holiday one day a week, the Sabbath is not actually just one in seven days. It is the same day, every week, for everyone. Because we all have a day of rest at the same time rich people can’t have a day off while their servants feed them, and then the servants have a day off when the rich don’t need them.
Similarly women, who in most countries still do most of the domestic work of making food and caring for children, should also have the Sabbath day as a day of rest. This can be achieved by husbands and children helping out more than usual on the Sabbath, and also by preparing food and clothing as much as possible beforehand so that we don’t need to spend a lot of time on domestic chores. This seems to be the intent of the command when the first time that the Sabbath day is mentioned by name (as opposed to just being called the seventh day) in Exodus 16:23:
And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD has said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which you will bake to day, and seethe that you will seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. (Exo 16:23)
Cooking on the Sabbath?
This requirement for baking and general food preparation to be undertaken on the day before the Sabbath is fairly clear, but what does it mean for us today? There are some people who consider that we should do all our cooking prior to the Sabbath. However, it has also been noted that not baking or general food preparation is never explicitly mentioned again in any other scripture, which has led others to conclude that this prohibition on cooking was only for this occasion when Israel was in the desert being fed manna. They support this argument by highlighting that not buying and selling and not harvesting on the Sabbath are mentioned more than once, however the prohibition on food preparation is not specifically stated in any other scripture, neither as a command nor as an issue that God had with Israel at any time.
We must be very honest when reading the scriptures, we should not try to pick and choose those laws we want to obey and ignore or dismiss those we don’t. Despite this lack of repetition prohibiting food preparation on the Sabbath there is some distinction between work that is permitted on the weekly Sabbath and that which is permitted on the Holy Days. We will now look at this distinction in a degree of detail as it seems to clarify (for us at least) what we should be doing on the weekly Sabbath.
The Holy Days and the Sabbath
Many times God clearly tells us not to do any work on the Sabbath day: Exo 20:10, Lev 23:3, Dut 5:14, Jer 17:22-24. And God is particularly serious about this prohibition as three times He warns those that do work that it will invoke the death penalty (Exo13:4-5 and 35:2). We therefore should also take it seriously, and spend some time to find out exactly what sort of work is permissible on the Sabbath. Once we have this answer we will then ask; did Christ change anything in this regard for spiritual Israel today? (Rom 9:6-7, 1Peter 2:4-10)
The Sabbath is clearly identified as also being a Feast or Holy Day: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. (Lev 23:1-3)
There is however a clear distinction between the weekly Sabbath, where God says to do “no manner of work”, and the Feast Day Sabbaths, where God, on every occasion, says to do “no servile work”.
We can see what “servile work” means by comparing two scriptures that talk about the first and last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In Numbers 28:18 God tells Israel to ‘do no manner of servile work therein’ for the first day and in verse 25 he says the same thing for the last day. Then we compare this to Exodus 12:16 where God says: on the first day shall be a holy gathering, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy gathering for you. No manner of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.
Servile work therefore seems to be anything other than making food for yourself. Yet on the Sabbath God says “do no manner of work”, so we have a clear distinction. Don’t do any work on the weekly Sabbath, but on the Holy Days you can make food for yourself.
This line is drawn even clearer when you compare the Sabbath and the Day of Atonement, which is a day of total fasting, so there is no doubt that food preparation is not permitted on this Holy Day. Atonement is called in scripture “the Sabbath of rest” (Lev 16:31, 23:32). As the word Sabbath means rest, then this simply means “a rest of a rest”. Such a total rest on Atonement seems obvious as you are not preparing food, indeed you are not doing anything much as you don’t have any energy as you are not eating. However it may come as a surprise that the weekly Sabbath is also often called a “Sabbath of rest” (Exo 16:23, 31:15, 35:2, Lev 23:3). This may also indicate the importance of not preparing food on the weekly Sabbath, just as is required on the Day of Atonement.
This however certainly does not mean that you fast on the Sabbath, as Exodus 16:23 says to bake to day, and seethe that you will seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. So they were to make everything for eating for the Sabbath day.
We therefore have four indications that we should prepare food prior to the Sabbath so that we can totally rest on the Sabbath:
Exodus 16:23 Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which you will bake to day, and seethe that you will seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
Many times God says not to do any work on the Sabbath day: Exo 20:10, 13:4-5, 35:2, Lev 23:3, Dut 5:14, Jer 17:22-24- three of these occasions also invoke the death penalty for doing work.
There is a clear distinction between the work directive for the weekly Sabbath and the Holy Days, where the Sabbath is commanded to do no work but the Holy Days are no servile work, which indicates that food preparation is allowed on the Holy Days.
Finally there is also a clear parallel between the “Sabbath of rest” spoken of for Atonement and the seventh day Sabbath which is also called the ‘Sabbath of rest’.
The Sabbath, Mercy, Ignorance and Presumptuousness
The above arguments seem to lean toward the fact that cooking food is not acceptable on the Sabbath. However, given the silence that we have regarding Israel not being corrected for cooking on the Sabbath, and the fact that a clear reiteration of the prohibition of cooking was never made, it also seems that God never made a big issue of cooking on the Sabbath.
If we look again at the issue of picking grain on the Sabbath we will see that Christ never said that what the disciples did was acceptable. On all three occasions in the Gospels (Mark 2:23-28, Matt 12:1-8 Luke 6:1-5) where the disciples were picking wheat and eating it on the Sabbath Christ never says to the Pharisees “this is only your tradition”, which He did on other occasions when accused of things being unlawful that were not unlawful (Matt 7:6-13). Each time Christ defended the disciples with the example of David and the shewbread- which was certainly unlawful to eat. Yet for mercy, as he was hungry, David was permitted to eat of it, and Christ tells us that he was counted as guiltless in this regard. So from the context that it was actually ‘unlawful’ for the disciples to pick grain and eat the grain on the Sabbath, but as they were hungry it was permitted for mercy sake.
Similarly we see a clear injunction against kindling a fire on the Sabbath in Exodus 35:2-3. We also see in Numbers 15:32 the famous case of a man being put to death for gathering wood on the Sabbath. This is often used to show how little mercy there was in the Old Testament. Yet every commentator clearly sees that this example must be taken in context, for the preceding verse talks about people committing sins either in ignorance or in a presumptuous manner.
And if you have erred and have not done all these commandments which the Lord has spoken to Moses, all that the Lord has commanded you by the hand of Moses from the day that the Lord commanded, and onward in your generations, then it shall be if it is committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer up one young bull for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour to the Lord, with its food offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one kid of the goats for a sin offering. (notice that this is a minimal sacrifice, primarily it was acknowledgement of sin)
And the priest shall make an atonement for all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them, for it is ignorance. And they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their ignorance. And it shall be forgiven all the congregation of the sons of Israel and the stranger that lives among them, since all the people were in ignorance. And if one soul sins through ignorance, then he shall bring a female goat of the first year for a sin offering.
And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul, when he sins through error before the Lord, to make an atonement for him. And it shall be forgiven him. And you shall have one law for him who acts through ignorance; for him that is native among the sons of Israel and for the alien that resides among them.
But the soul who acts with a high hand, whether of the native or of the alien, the same blasphemes the Lord. And that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the Word of the Lord and has broken His commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off. His iniquity shall be upon him. (Num 15:22-31)
Following this clear show of mercy for those who sin ignorantly, and then an equally clear strict directive for those that ‘despised the Word of the Lord’, is the case of the man who gathered firewood on the Sabbath. This man did this act in full knowledge of what God said. He therefore acted presumptuously and for his attitude of despising God he was put to death.
As Paul says in Romans 11:1-22 the mercy and severity of God! Put to death for collecting sticks? No he was put to death for acting with a high hand and thumbing his nose at God, blaspheming the very name of God by not respecting the clear directives given to him. This shows how serious God is when YOU take on the name of God by resting on His special day of rest. Does this mean you can’t collect sticks on the Sabbath? Yes, if you don’t need to and you do it in an “I can do whatever I want” type of attitude. If you want to keep the Sabbath, then remember it is Gods day, not your day. If you keep Gods Sabbath keep it His way, then He will bless you.
We therefore need to take heed from this example so we don’t profane the Sabbath of the Lord. When we keep the Sabbath we are actually taking on the name of the Lord as it is His day, and the Lord will not count him guiltless who takes the name of the Lord in vain.
Isaiah tells us “… but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at my word. (Isa 66:2) We therefore need to be careful to keep the Sabbath in the correct spirit, and to set a good example to others. At the same time we should not judge how others keep the Sabbath, which is what the Pharisees did when they condemned the disciples for picking grain. God is the one who judges others, that is not our job. Obviously where the scriptures are clear we will have our standards that will teach and encourage people to understand, but there are many unclear and unimportant areas that can only ever be a personal matter between God and the individual.
How do we keep the Sabbath Today?
The question however is not what was required back then, but what do we do today? The answer seems to be that it is our responsibility to determine how to apply these scriptures in the modern context. What is certain is that we must make up our minds what it means to do work on the Sabbath. Should we make toast with an electric toaster? The scriptures tell us to kindle no fire on the Sabbath (Exo 35:3). Yet we today need to determine if pressing a toaster leaver is the same thing as lighting a fire. Similarly with putting on the electric or gas heater.
Due to these issues some say that keeping the Sabbath is not possible as we would need to disconnect our house from power and water every week! Others consider this a foolish “straw man” argument, as the intent of the Sabbath is to rest from our everyday work, not simply to stop all work as an object in itself. It seems that God wants us to have a set period of time to congregated with others, contemplate on his creation and on his Word, rather than somehow try to turn back technology to 1,000 years ago.
This then brings up the issue of buying food on the Sabbath. If we are allowed to ‘buy’ electricity and water then why not buy food in a restaurant? We are told that our servants are to have a day off work on the Sabbath. If we don’t ‘buy’ electricity and water then it won’t make any noticeable difference to those working in the power stations or water supply companies. However if we don’t go to restaurants then it may make a significant difference to the number of staff they put on.
There is also another reason for not going out to restaurants and that is to be a light to the world. If we do go out to a restaurant or buy some food at a market then people will notice that we are buying food on the Sabbath. If we are to be a light to the world we need to demonstrate to others how to live, which is to rest on the Sabbath.
If you think that turning off your power and water is what God wants you to do then perhaps your neighbours will notice that you don’t have the lights on and that your food in the fridge needs to be thrown out every Sunday, or that you are freezing in winter without a heater, or that you smell a bit as you don’t have a shower on the Sabbath- but are these the sort of things that we want people to notice about us?
How far do we take this prohibition to employing people is something we need to work out in our own circumstances in our own society. For example; are we also going to not buy food on Sunday because it was harvested or transported on Saturday?
How far we travel on the Sabbath also was an issue that ancient Israel needed to determine, and there is nothing in the scriptures to say what is reasonable. The religious leaders of Christ’s time came up with “a Sabbath day’s journey” (Acts 1:12) as an acceptable distance. This distance (of about 2,000 cubits, which is just under a mile) is not something spelt out by scripture. However if it were enacted it would have meant that most people would need to live within a short walk of the local Synagogue, or close to Jerusalem to go to the temple. Today we need to determine how far we can travel in our car. Certainly driving is not as exhausting as walking, but it is surely not as restful on a busy freeway for even 5 minutes than walking down a country lane for less than a mile.
All these things need to be taken into account when you determine how to implement the directives God has provided in the Bible, which are at lest 2,000 years old and given in a very different situation to ours.
The Tax Collector and the Pharisee
How you keep the Sabbath today is what you need to determine in prayer and meditation about the purpose and intent of the scriptures. We also need to be very careful however not to condemn others for doing what we may consider foolish excesses or on the other hand not undertaking what we consider to be clear scriptural directives. The following parable of Christ is worth considering in this context:
And He spoke this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed within himself in this way: God, I thank You that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And standing afar off, the tax-collector would not even lift up his eyes to Heaven, but struck on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. (Luke 18:9-14)
Although he did every good work that God commanded it was the self righteousness of the Pharisee in despising the tax collector that meant he was not justified before God. However the tax collector was honest in his self condemnation, and, although he seemed to have no good works to speak of, due to being humble he was justified by God. We therefore need to be careful not to fall into the same trap of despising others for not doing what we do, or all our righteousness will be worthless.
The Apostle Paul addresses this topic in some depth in Romans chapter 4, which it seems appropriate to now quote in full below; however the rest of the book of Romans also needs to be read to get the full context of the discussion being addressed by Paul.
For indeed one believes to eat all things; but being weak, another eats vegetables. Do not let him who eats despise him who does not eat; and do not let him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. Who are you that judges another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. But he will stand, for God is able to make him stand.
One indeed esteems a day above another day; and another esteems every day alike. Let each one be fully assured in his own mind. He who regards the day regards it to the Lord; and he not regarding the day, does not regard it to the Lord. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and gives God thanks.
For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For both if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore both if we live, and if we die, we are the Lord's. For this Christ both died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why do you judge your brother?
Or also why do you despise your brother? For all shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each one of us will give account concerning himself to God.
Then let us not judge one another any more, but rather judge this, not to put a stumbling-block or an offense toward his brother.
I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing by itself is unclean; except to him who esteems anything to be unclean, it is unclean. But if your brother is grieved with your food, you no longer walk according to love.
Do not with your food destroy him for whom Christ died. Then do not let your good be spoken evil of, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
For he who serves Christ in these things is well-pleasing to God, and approved by men. So then let us pursue the things of peace, and the things for building up one another. Do not undo the work of God for food.
Truly, all things indeed are clean, but it is bad to the man eating because of a stumbling-block. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.
Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Blessed is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But, the one doubting, if he eats, he has been condemned, because it is not of faith; and all that is not of faith is sin. (Rom 14:2-23)
The one thing that is clear from the above excerpt is that it is up to you personally how you interpret the intent of scripture. Therefore no one else should judge us or despise us for what we do. It is up to us to do it with an attitude of faith and love toward others.
We should work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12). Does this mean we can do anything we want? Obviously not. Nor does it mean that we can have any sort of weird belief and expect others to want to fellowship with us. What it means is that we will be judged by God on what we do according to our limited understanding of the scriptures- for we ALL know in part (1Cor 13:9-12) and therefore none of us will know it all. Similarly, we all need to grow in grace and knowledge (2Peter 3:18). God therefore is merciful and allows us to make mistakes due to ignorance and is willing to forgive us upon repentance, once we understand what we have done.
We therefore should not judge or despise others in how they interpret the law, for it is God who will judge them and us. If we judge others we put ourselves in the position of God. Be humbled before the Lord, and He will lift you up. Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against his brother, and who judges his brother, speaks against the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a doer of the Law, but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you who judges another? (James 4:10-12)
The Day of Preparation is not actually Friday
Given the above it seems reasonable that we should prepare for the Sabbath, in whatever way we feel is necessary, according to our time and ability to do so.
Some people therefore reason that Friday is “the day of preparation” in which we should take time to prepare food and do all our work ready to rest on the Sabbath. While this seems logical there isn’t any indication in the scriptures that Friday is the time set aside for preparation for the Sabbath. The only place in which a specific “day of preparation” is mentioned is in the Gospels, and this is exclusively talking about the day Christ died (Matt 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14, 31 and 42). While this day was “the day before the Sabbath” it was not any normal Sabbath but was a Holy Day – see John 19:31. This Holy Day was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it can be determined from scripture that this particular day was actually a Wednesday.
There is no other reference in scripture to a “preparation day” for the Sabbath. So we need to be careful in our use of this term. Nonetheless Exodus 16:23 does tell us to “Bake that which you will bake today (which was Friday) and seethe that you till seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. So it is logical to spend some time on Friday to prepare for the Sabbath, unfortunately some people can spend so much time preparing for the Sabbath that they dread Friday, as it then becomes a day of rushing and doing two days work in one.
Obviously, however, it is not the intent of the Sabbath that we can only rest on it by overworking on other days! The lesson of the Sabbath is that we should organise our lives so that we do what we need to do on the six days, so that we have adequate time to focus on God. This includes studying His Word and His Creation and to also congregate with others for this one day per week. It’s a matter of prioritising. What the Sabbath is about is having a balance in life, it’s not a about getting ‘everything’ done.
The Sabbath therefore is not just a one day per week command; it is a part of how to live a healthy balanced life. We need to take the opportunity of understanding Gods command (to have a day off by keeping His Sabbath) to re-evaluate our entire lives. We don’t just need to develop a ‘work life balance’ (as if work were opposed to living!) but rather what we need is to make our lives worth living by doing something worthwhile with all of our time. The Sabbath is only one of the Ten Commandments; all ten show you how to live your life seven days a week.
In order to “Delight in the Lord” we need to have the understanding that we are not ‘losing one day per week to God’ but we are gaining time with God that we never had. When we start to keep the Sabbath of the Lord our God we need to appreciate that we should rearrange our entire lives to serve God. This time with God is not just another thing we need to do in our busy lives, so that we now must cram seven days work into six. It is an opportunity to simplify our lives and to delight in the truth of God and his Way of Life, which includes resting for ourselves, for those who work for us and also for our animals.
To Choose to Keep the Sabbath
Some people live in a society where it’s very difficult to keep the Sabbath, undermining the intended benefits of it. This does not mean we are not still required to keep it, we are, but we must be delighting in the Lord when we do so, or we may as well not keep it.
Every time we have a test of our faith it is an opportunity to ask God to fight our battles for us, just as the Israelites had to depend on God to give them victory over their enemies. They had to both trust God and to do whatever their part was. Even today in our Western society keeping the Sabbath holy may often be an opportunity to live by faith and obey God.
There is also the other issue that many people fall prey to when keeping Gods commands: if we do keep the Sabbath when it’s hard to do so we need to beware of the temptation to self righteousness! We should not condemn those who want to keep the Sabbath but feel they can’t do so at this stage in their life. In some countries you can be threatened with disinheritance, loss of income, indeed loss of life for keeping the Sabbath. God is the one testing us, and will not put us through what we can’t handle. It is not up to us to judge how others handle their situations which God has given to test them. Only God can determine the intent of one’s heart.
We must remember that the entire state of Israel in Biblical times was organised around the Sabbath, so it was relatively easy to keep. Indeed it would have been difficult to get a paid job doing work on the Sabbath. However there were always temptations to work on the Sabbath, such as at harvest time, yet work during harvest was strictly forbidden. (Ex 34:21) Keeping the Sabbath is therefore not only a blessing it is also a test of faith, particularly if you could lose much of your year’s food if you didn’t get it harvested when it was ready. Yet God required people to have faith that He would provide for them.
If you are convinced that keeping the Sabbath is something that God requires of you today, then you too have the same requirement from God - to trust Him to provide for you.
Even if keeping the Sabbath is easy it will still make you stand out, which may make it a bit uncomfortable. However that should not be a reason to not keep it as we should have realized that as Christians we are to let our examples be a light to the world so that all may see us (Mat 5:14-16). We are also warned that if we accept the Christian road we should expect persecution (Mk 10:30), and many people certainly have been persecuted for keeping the Sabbath. If you choose to keep the Sabbath then all these consequences are what you have also chosen, and need to accept as possibilities to endure, along with the blessings to enjoy.
The fact that Saturday is the biggest shopping day of the week in our western societies, and is also important for sports and other social events, means that keeping the Sabbath will get noticed by others. Your friends and relatives may think (even if you say nothing to them) you are somehow accusing them of sin by your very actions. Yet none of these reasons is an excuse for not keeping the Sabbath.
The intent of the Sabbath is to be a blessing not a curse, however there will be a cost to pay for keeping it. It is up to you to determine, after study of the scriptures, mediation and prayer, if that cost is acceptable and necessary at this time. It is not something that others can judge you about. It is between you and God.
Many scriptures, other than Isaiah 58:13-14, show that too often the Israelites simply didn’t want to bother keeping the Sabbath day holy. They looked on the Sabbath not as a joy but rather as a day when they just couldn’t do their own thing. So while they may have been keeping it in works they were not keeping it in their hearts.
While keeping the Sabbath may provoke some people to call you a fanatic, or say you are being selfish by not doing things with them on the Sabbath. While keeping the Sabbath will make it difficult for you to fit within this society, it’s relatively easy within most Western democratic countries.
The difficulty perhaps is not to become self-righteous about keeping it, nor to judge others for not keeping it the way you think they should keep it. The Sabbath is gift from God, why should we feel self righteous about using that gift?
If other people can keep the Sabbath but they don’t bother, it’s like they have chosen out of preference the food fallen on the floor, rather than the clean food on the table. Ironically they may then say you are out of step for eating the clean food, and even persecute you for doing so! While they are deluded into doing something foolish, there is nothing for us to feel proud about just because we keep the Sabbath as God commands us to.
By keeping the Sabbath you are not better than other people, you are simply using the gift God has given mankind, which, if you delight in it, includes Gods promise to give you more gifts; indeed the desires of your heart.
