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December 25, 2019 |
| Keeping the Sabbath | ||
Among Christians who keep the Sabbath there is sometimes a concern that the Sabbath isn't being kept correctly. Even among the Jews of Jesus' time this was a problem. In the world we live in now, which is so different from that time, there is reason to wonder.
Keeping the Sabbath can also cause some trouble among the people who keep it. Some people want to set rigid rules for how it should be observed. People who are new to Sabbath keeping often aren't ready to keep all of it. Some people see it as an interference in their lives and don't want to observe any more of it than they have to. These differences can result in friction.
In this study we'll look at the core principles behind Sabbath keeping. A full correct understanding will help to reduce the concerns and friction.
This study is a continuation of the earlier study What Is The Sabbath, which provides some useful, though not essential, background for this study.
The thing about the Sabbath that seems to be missing from the Bible is instructions on how to keep it. Actually, that isn't missing at all. Instructions like that would be against the whole idea of the Sabbath observance.
Instead of instructions for what to do, we see a list of things not to do, many of which are not relevant to our time. For example, we aren't supposed to collect Manna on the Sabbath, start a fire, or pick up sticks.
God does this intentionally with the Sabbath and in other places as well. He provides examples of the wrong in the hope that his people will care enough about him enough to study the examples and learn and internalize the understanding of the right.
People aren't good at that however. Human nature fights against God and the result is always falling away to a cacophony of false teachers, some with rigid rules, some with a man-made Sabbath. In Jesus' time the Sabbath had been changed into rigid rules and cluttered by man-made rules.
God doesn't want us to live according to external rules. He wants us to internalize the principles and create rules for ourselves based on those. In human society we wish people would do the same - but many don't - so we need to have external rules that are enforceable. But many people chaff against the rules, preferring not to internalize them but instead to set their own. Both sides are wrong, both in society and with God.
The Bible is very clear that the Sabbath day is 24 hours long, beginning at sunset and ending at sunset.
Despite that clarity there are some who want a reason to reject the Sabbath based on time zones. They say that we aren't keeping the same Sabbath because ours starts many hours after it starts in Israel. They say this shows that the Sabbath was only intended to be observed in Israel by the Jews.
They have forgotten their school classes. Sunset travels around the surface of the earth as a longitudinal line. Therefore, even in the narrow country of Israel, sunset arrives in the east 6 minutes earlier than it does in the west. This time difference does not invalidate the Sabbath in Israel nor anywhere else on the face of the earth.
Mankind have agreed to an international date line that allows us to know the day of the week at any location. This was not contrary to anything God said, so it is acceptable to him. Therefore the Sabbath begins in some places before it begins in Israel and in other places after it begins in Israel.
Additionally the Jews never believed that Sabbath observance was limited to Israel. As they traveled to other lands they continued to observe the Sabbath.
Other people say that people have lost track of which day is the Sabbath. Therefore the Sabbath cannot be kept. This is wishful thinking by those who don't want a Sabbath. There is no evidence that the Sabbath was lost. Also, the Jews believe they have kept track of it from the time they were given it.
The Sabbath is one particular day of the week; each person cannot choose his own day out of a week. This results in a whole lot of people with nothing to do … at least it did in Israel - not so much in this country. What to do with this time?
The Bible says the Sabbath is a day for a holy convocation.
For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings. (Leviticus 23:3)
The word convocation means a gathering. Some people, especially pastors trying to keep the doors open, have claimed this means "go to church." How else could it be holy, they would say. It doesn't mean that. It couldn't, because that would mean we should spend the full 24 hours of Sabbath in church.
It means "be with people" and it is made holy because the Sabbath day is holy and kept holy by doing so. It is a day for community and for being neighbors and neighborly. This is also reflected in the eternal life as a community.
A good thing to do on the Sabbath is to be with people at church for a while. That's what many Jews did. The Bible does not require it though.
The Sabbath has some thing we must do - rest and make sure that those we have authority over also rest. We aren't told how to rest, though. Mostly all we have are specific examples of work that isn't to be done. As we said earlier some of these examples don't even relate to our time.
The 4th commandment is stated as a negative - not to do any work. From the time the commandment was given, however, there has been a problem understanding what work is and isn't.
It seems we can't know what we can and should do on the Sabbath, if we don't know what work is. The solution that seems obvious is to define "rest" as anything that is "not work." Then that is what is included in the Sabbath.
That still leaves us without a definition for "work". Some say "work" should be defined as exertion. That was the idea behind the limit in Jesus' time for how far a man could walk on the Sabbath. There are problems with that though:
The Sabbath cannot be defined as "not work." The Jews have also tried to define the Sabbath as "not creative work" but that just replaces one unclear and unworkable definition with another. Both of these fail.
The Jews have also tried to define work using equivalences. That approach has led to foolishness. For example, Orthodox Jews will not turn on a light switch on the Sabbath. This is because they say turning on a light switch is the equivalent to lighting a fire, which was work, and therefore not to be done.
The correct understanding of "rest" on the Sabbath actually comes from another day. Most people didn't notice that God made another day important when Israel began eating Manna in the desert. That day is introduced in the Bible with the introduction of the Sabbath in Exodus 16. On that day, twice as much Manna was available and it did not go bad that night. Note the verses carefully though.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in my instruction. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily." (Exodus 16:4-5)
He was teaching them to keep the Sabbath, which is our topic. They were to prepare the Manna on the day before the Sabbath so they would have what they needed on the Sabbath without doing any work.
God does not mention the Sabbath day here. That will come a little later. God established a day that is now called preparation day. Most people miss the significance of this day and think of preparation day as only a support day for the Sabbath rather than a day in its own right, if they think of it at all.
Preparation day is a foundational principle of the Sabbath. To have a Sabbath day there must first be a preparation day. This is especially true for the preparation of food for the Sabbath.
This also connects to the future rest, the eternal Sabbath. In this life we do our work and prepare ourselves for that eternal life where we will do no work. From that connection we get our definition of work - everything that we will not need to do in that future rest.
We only know a little of what that life will be like but we know we will not need food and water to sustain our lives. Like Sabbath foods, all one needs do is reach out and partake - no preparation is required because the preparation has been done. We will not need to maintain our houses (is that redundant?). We will not need to work to earn money to live.
From that connection to the eternal Sabbath we also get our understanding of what we should do on the earthly Sabbath - it's a day for growing in faith and learning to rely on God - preparation for that future Sabbath.
You see, ceasing work on the Sabbath is also an act of faith. We don't recognize it so much as city people but for farmers and others, a lost day at critical times might mean disaster. Part of the purpose of the Sabbath is to trust that God will take care of you. Again, that points us toward that eternal rest.
Not only is the present Sabbath a picture of that future Sabbath, it's a practice session.
There is another important statement in verse 23 of Exodus 16.
Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 then he said to them, "This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the Lord." (Exodus 16:22-23)
We also need to understand that the Sabbath is an observance. The rules for the observance of Passover don't say which hand you should use to hold the bread, whether you should be standing or sitting, or other things like that. Those decisions are left to us. We only need to do the part we are instructed to do.
The Sabbath is the same. Therefore some people will see things a little differently and do things a little differently and we shouldn't judge them for those differences.
Also understand that the Sabbath is an observance, not a law, and certainly not a death pact. As an observance, the intent of our hearts must be to observe it but it comes with the understanding that sometimes it will not be possible.
It is acceptable to work to preserve our existence. Jesus spoke about pulling an ox out of a ditch on the Sabbath. If it had been left there for the Sabbath it may have died or been permanently incapacitated - a major loss for the owner.
Jesus made many references to this idea and said it most clearly when he said to them "The Sabbath was created for the sake of man and not man for the sake of the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)
There is potential for this aspect of the observance to be used as wiggle room for those who don't want to keep the Sabbath. A good heart will do its best to keep the Sabbath and a bad heart will find reasons not to do so.
Work can be said to be anything we won't do in the eternal life. That isn't so helpful now though, because we don't have much understanding of what that life will be like.
A more useful definition would be any maintenance work, work that needs to be done to continue living.
This is my list of things that we will not need to do in the eternal life and therefore things that we should not do on the Sabbath.
These are some examples of work that does not maintain our existence.
After all of this, keeping the Sabbath turns out not to be so difficult to understand.
One of the Sabbath practices in our house is that we don't do the dishes … at all. We don't even put them in the dishwasher. When we finish eating something we just put them on the counter to clear the table so it can be used again.
Do we do this because the dishwasher also needs rest? No, this is our little way of recognizing that we won't be doing dishes in that eternal rest.
Remember this. When it comes to starting a fire on the Sabbath, it isn't about the fire, or how it is started, or really, even starting it on the Sabbath. It's about obtaining wood and starting the fire in preparation for the Sabbath, so it doesn't need to be started on the Sabbath and won't be a concern.