I have been mulling over the question of the Sabbath day for some time now. Should I keep the Sabbath day? What does it mean to keep the Sabbath: is it a day of rest or of worship or both? And does it matter which day is set aside as the Sabbath day, as long as society works for six days and rests on the seventh day? This is a somewhat rambling post, but hopefully you will see the complexity I see posed by this matter. And, no, I don't know the answer!
I have read that the concept of a week consisting of seven days derives from God's creation of the world in seven days and the corresponding Sabbath commandment, and each day of the seven day Jewish week is named for the day it is, for example, first day, second day. The seventh day is Sabbath day, which in English in known as Saturday. It is difficult to honour the Sabbath in our modern world, though of course important is not what is easy or difficult, important is to do what is right. What makes keeping the original Sabbath especially difficult is that the day of worship observance was changed from Saturday to Sunday by the Roman Catholic Church many centuries ago, and most of the other Christian churches then followed this example. Much of western society is structured around Sunday being a day of complete rest, and even though Saturday is part of the weekend, it is more and more being seen as an ordinary day of commerce. Incidentally, I have heard a few Christians criticise the Catholic Church for not being entirely Biblical, yet most Christian churches followed the Catholic Church's example in changing the day of worship to a Sunday! Personally I have no qualm with the Catholic Church and my experience is that most Catholics follow the Bible, though I have seen some cases where additional doctrine has crept in, as I have seen is the case with many other churches too. It is best not to find fault with others, and to rather make sure one's own conscience is clear.
Many Christians believe that the Sabbath commandment was done away with and may say we now find our rest in Jesus alone. I have written previously on this blog how Jesus told us to still honour and teach the Ten Commandments, and I concluded by saying we are not under the law but we live by the Spirit, and the Bible says the Spirit leads us to keep the commandments. Assuming one does believe in keeping the Sabbath, what does keeping the Sabbath mean? The Bible says it is a day of rest where we stop our own pursuits and rest from our labours and keep the day holy. If this is the case, then I believe no buying or selling should take place on this day, and included in this formula, I include no collection of money in churches (1). In Jewish Synagogues, money is not carried on Sabbath at all, and collection of money is done at other times. Perhaps this is why the Bible speaks of money being collected on the first day of the week, not because churches necessarily met on that day, but because it was the day after Sabbath and the first opportunity money was allowed to be collected: "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." (1 Corinthians 16:2 KJV) Jesus said, "Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?" (Matthew 12:5 KJV) Jesus pointed out that priests and pastors work on the Sabbath, yet are blameless. Perhaps this is why the church was inspired to change the day when worship was done from a Saturday to a Sunday, as most churches tend collect money on the day people come to church? I know a few Christians who rest on Saturday, keeping to the original day of Sabbath rest, and then go to church on Sunday.
Many Christians believe that the Sabbath commandment was done away with and may say we now find our rest in Jesus alone. I have written previously on this blog how Jesus told us to still honour and teach the Ten Commandments, and I concluded by saying we are not under the law but we live by the Spirit, and the Bible says the Spirit leads us to keep the commandments. Assuming one does believe in keeping the Sabbath, what does keeping the Sabbath mean? The Bible says it is a day of rest where we stop our own pursuits and rest from our labours and keep the day holy. If this is the case, then I believe no buying or selling should take place on this day, and included in this formula, I include no collection of money in churches (1). In Jewish Synagogues, money is not carried on Sabbath at all, and collection of money is done at other times. Perhaps this is why the Bible speaks of money being collected on the first day of the week, not because churches necessarily met on that day, but because it was the day after Sabbath and the first opportunity money was allowed to be collected: "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." (1 Corinthians 16:2 KJV) Jesus said, "Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?" (Matthew 12:5 KJV) Jesus pointed out that priests and pastors work on the Sabbath, yet are blameless. Perhaps this is why the church was inspired to change the day when worship was done from a Saturday to a Sunday, as most churches tend collect money on the day people come to church? I know a few Christians who rest on Saturday, keeping to the original day of Sabbath rest, and then go to church on Sunday.
Many people will say the Sabbath commandment is an everlasting covenant with Jewish people; the Bible says, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11 KJV) The Bible does not say here that this commandment is being given to the Israelites only, though of course the Israelites were being addressed. God only speaks directly to Jewish people where this commandment is given in Deuteronomy, where an additional reminder is added, as the Bible says in Deuteronomy 5:15 (KJV), "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that
the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a
stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep
the sabbath day."
Here is the crux of why I first thought to write this piece: the Sabbath in Jewish culture is the seventh day of the week, a Saturday, and on this day they both rest and worship in synagogues, and Jewish culture is the forerunner of Christianity. Jewish people keep the Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. What does the Bible say? The Bible says to work for six days and to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath. The Bible does not specifically say which days must be part of the continuous six days! I therefore suspect that there is no reason why Christians cannot start their working week on a Monday, which they effectively do, and therefore set Sunday aside as their Sabbath (incidentally the ISO 8601 standard lists Monday as the first day of the week). The first day of the week can officially remain a Sunday, but does this impact the formula of working for six days and resting for a seventh day? I suggest it does not, but this is my supposition.
The way I interpret the Sabbath command is that keeping the Sabbath should be done as a nation, as the Bible mentions even strangers within the gates should be obliged to keep the Sabbath day of rest, and there are a few other references to this in other parts of the Bible. I therefore don't believe each of us individually can choose which day suits us best to honour the Sabbath. A nation should therefore be in one accord about which day is set aside as the Sabbath, to really honour the Sabbath. Many Christian countries say that their Sabbath is a Sunday, but, of course, is there any longer such a thing as a Christian country? How do we continue to honour the Sabbath as a nation, when previously Christian countries have given away the roots of their Christian culture to make way for the many different gods people now worship? Perhaps we could learn much from Jewish culture, as, in Israel, people still keep the Saturday Sabbath and they do this as part of Jewish culture even if some of them as individuals may live in other countries, and I am sure they will continue to honour this as a cultural group until time immemorial. Surely society can put one day aside as a day of rest, or one day simply merges into another, week after week?
I had the above all neatly worked out in my mind, and then I read Exodus 16, which threw my argument somewhat! This chapter speaks about when Moses led the Israelites in the desert, and God sent them manna to eat, but only for six days of the week, and God sent a double portion of manna on the sixth day, as there was none sent on the Sabbath day, which would have been a Saturday, as people needed to rest totally. The Bible says, "And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day." (Exodus 16:27-30 KJV) The way I rationalise this is that I feel God would send manna on the day appointed as the Sabbath day of rest of the current time, or at the very least He would show us if we are going wrong, for example, businesses would not be very successful on the Sabbath if God wants them to be closed on this day.
Here is the crux of why I first thought to write this piece: the Sabbath in Jewish culture is the seventh day of the week, a Saturday, and on this day they both rest and worship in synagogues, and Jewish culture is the forerunner of Christianity. Jewish people keep the Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. What does the Bible say? The Bible says to work for six days and to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath. The Bible does not specifically say which days must be part of the continuous six days! I therefore suspect that there is no reason why Christians cannot start their working week on a Monday, which they effectively do, and therefore set Sunday aside as their Sabbath (incidentally the ISO 8601 standard lists Monday as the first day of the week). The first day of the week can officially remain a Sunday, but does this impact the formula of working for six days and resting for a seventh day? I suggest it does not, but this is my supposition.
The way I interpret the Sabbath command is that keeping the Sabbath should be done as a nation, as the Bible mentions even strangers within the gates should be obliged to keep the Sabbath day of rest, and there are a few other references to this in other parts of the Bible. I therefore don't believe each of us individually can choose which day suits us best to honour the Sabbath. A nation should therefore be in one accord about which day is set aside as the Sabbath, to really honour the Sabbath. Many Christian countries say that their Sabbath is a Sunday, but, of course, is there any longer such a thing as a Christian country? How do we continue to honour the Sabbath as a nation, when previously Christian countries have given away the roots of their Christian culture to make way for the many different gods people now worship? Perhaps we could learn much from Jewish culture, as, in Israel, people still keep the Saturday Sabbath and they do this as part of Jewish culture even if some of them as individuals may live in other countries, and I am sure they will continue to honour this as a cultural group until time immemorial. Surely society can put one day aside as a day of rest, or one day simply merges into another, week after week?
I had the above all neatly worked out in my mind, and then I read Exodus 16, which threw my argument somewhat! This chapter speaks about when Moses led the Israelites in the desert, and God sent them manna to eat, but only for six days of the week, and God sent a double portion of manna on the sixth day, as there was none sent on the Sabbath day, which would have been a Saturday, as people needed to rest totally. The Bible says, "And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day." (Exodus 16:27-30 KJV) The way I rationalise this is that I feel God would send manna on the day appointed as the Sabbath day of rest of the current time, or at the very least He would show us if we are going wrong, for example, businesses would not be very successful on the Sabbath if God wants them to be closed on this day.
Besides all the above, I then pondered on the examples Jesus gave us. The Bible often speaks of Jesus attending synagogue on Saturday, which was the original Sabbath day, as was the custom for Jewish people. Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi, and He was often called Teacher. Whilst Jesus honoured the Sabbath in attending synagogue, I have read examples where Jesus did minor work on the Sabbath. There are examples where Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, and was therefore criticised by the Pharisees for doing work on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were devising ways to arrest Jesus, and were hoping they could say He broke the law. Isn't is amazing how people can plot and scheme against another because of hatred and to get revenge, yet Jesus did the Pharisees no wrong, except that He challenged their beliefs and was outspoken?! "And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. And
he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have
one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay
hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other. Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him." (Matthew 12:9-14 KJV) There are a few other examples where Jesus did what was considered work by the Pharisees on the Sabbath, for example, walking through wheat fields and plucking wheat to eat, or the act of making mud to smear on someone's eyes to heal the person of blindness. Jesus did not need to make mud to heal someone--though I have read in a few articles (unsure which) that perhaps Jesus was paralleling the creation of man from dust and thus using the mud to create something missing for this man, in this case his eyes and his sight--I speculate that this also may have been a purposeful act by Jesus to do some minor work on the Sabbath, but He would not have done this for spite, but to show the correct path; perhaps Jesus was showing us that keeping man-made laws for the sake of the law is pointless; Jesus did say the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27), and keeping the day should therefore not be a burden to people but rather a way to unburden. The definition of what work is has also changed through the years, and a more recent definition of work would be when one makes money. Jesus could of course also have consciously done some minor work knowing this would be mentioned in the Bible and be debated in future. Jesus did point out to the Pharisees that they were not keeping the Sabbath correctly as they too worked on the Sabbath, yet were deemed blameless--should they perhaps have changed the way they kept the Sabbath? (The need to keep this commandment or not is truly something I have restless nights over! I will keep searching for my own answers.) (Click here to read a good article I found explaining Jesus' actions on the Sabbath and also see the link just before this one which explains the Pharisees' complex Sabbath keeping rules) I believe a nation should have an appointed day set aside as an opportunity to rest from the week (or we may get burnt out!) and at the same time we should set this day aside to do good and to honour God.
Irrespective of my personal beliefs, and as we are unfortunately not in one accord as Christians, I feel this matter comes down to individual beliefs. As Paul said, "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." (Romans 14:5 KJV) and, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:" (Colossians 2:16 KJV)
Link to related blog articles:
The Ten Commandments
(1) I wonder if the mark of the beast spoken of in Revelation 13:17, receiving a mark in the hand or forehead, refers to action and a way of thinking related to the Sabbath?: work on Sabbath is done by action of one's hand, and keeping or not keeping the Sabbath is a way of thinking about the day, thus one is marked by one's own hand and forehead. I read recently too that 666 is associated with King Solomon in the Old Testament, which was gold he taxed his subjects in a year, and he was someone punished by God for not obeying His commandments and for following after other gods--is the mark of the beast therefore someone, or even an organisation or movement, who will be like King Solomon? Then too, I will continue to ponder Jesus' examples!
Link to related blog articles:
The Ten Commandments
(1) I wonder if the mark of the beast spoken of in Revelation 13:17, receiving a mark in the hand or forehead, refers to action and a way of thinking related to the Sabbath?: work on Sabbath is done by action of one's hand, and keeping or not keeping the Sabbath is a way of thinking about the day, thus one is marked by one's own hand and forehead. I read recently too that 666 is associated with King Solomon in the Old Testament, which was gold he taxed his subjects in a year, and he was someone punished by God for not obeying His commandments and for following after other gods--is the mark of the beast therefore someone, or even an organisation or movement, who will be like King Solomon? Then too, I will continue to ponder Jesus' examples!
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