Exodus 31:12 ¶ And the LORD
spake unto Moses, saying, 13 Speak thou
also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for
it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye
may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. 14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is
holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for
whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among
his people. 15 Six days may work be
done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD:
whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the
sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between me and the
children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and
earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. 18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an
end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Before I comment on sabbaths
I wanted to say something about the use of the word verily. It means, “truly,” or, “certainly,” or, “truthfully.” The
apostle, John, reports that Jesus used it twice for emphasis quite often.
Examples of the 25 verses in John’s gospel that state this use of verily are;
John 3:3 Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 10:7 Then said Jesus
unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of
the sheep.
For the Hebrew the seventh day was set apart as holy to God. This
symbolizes the seventh day of creation when God rested.
Genesis 2:1 ¶ Thus the heavens
and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work
which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he
had made. 3 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.
It was
a day of rest made for man.
Mark 2:27 And he said unto
them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
People are always remembering their rights under the U.S.
Constitution. What Christians forget is that having one day off a week to rest
is the right of God’s people afforded to them by God.
The observance of the Sabbath under pain of death was a sign of
Hebrew identity. Circumcision was a personal sign for men that they had a
covenant with God. But, the observance of the Sabbath was something the entire
community; man and woman, child and beast, could participate in. Our hunger for
material possessions and our false post-World War 2 middle class values created
by business advertising and propaganda prevent us from taking advantage of our
God-given right to a day of rest.
Now, what about exceptions? Apply common-sense and God’s character
of mercy to the rule.
Luke 14:1 ¶ And it came to
pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on
the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2
And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.
3 And Jesus answering spake unto the
lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and
healed him, and let him go; 5
And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox
fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?
6 And they could not answer him again to
these things.
Notice here that the Pharisees and Jesus were having a meal on the
Sabbath which someone had to prepare and serve, to serve at least if they
prepared it the day before. There was no refrigerator or microwave. Notice also
that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, which upset the religious elite, all the
while pointing out that they would have no hesitation in rescuing a valuable
farm animal from a pit on the Sabbath day.
So, keeping that in mind what do you make of the command to do no
work? Clearly, there was room for common-sense and mercy in God’s command. But,
it was not to be a day of commerce, a day just like any other day of the week.
Labor ceased on that day which was clearly a mercy to the hireling or the
servant and the beast.
Nehemiah 13:15 ¶ In those
days saw I in Judah some
treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading
asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the
sabbath day: and I testified against
them in the day wherein they sold victuals. 16 There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which
brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children
of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 17 Then I
contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the
sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers
thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet
ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath. 19 And it came to pass, that when the gates of
Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates
should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the
sabbath: and some of my
servants set I at the gates, that
there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day. 20 So the merchants and sellers of all kind of
ware lodged without
Jerusalem once or twice. 21
Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about
the wall? if ye do so again, I
will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath. 22 And I commanded the Levites that they should
cleanse themselves, and that
they should come and keep the
gates, to sanctify the sabbath day.
Later in Exodus the command will be given by Moses that not a fire
was to be lit in their dwellings on the Sabbath day. We can imagine how
literally this command was not followed. In their wanderings God even commanded
a person collecting sticks be executed for violating the Sabbath.
Numbers 15:32 And while the
children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered
sticks upon the sabbath day. 33 And they
that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all
the congregation. 34 And they put him in
ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. 35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall
be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones
without the camp. 36 And all the
congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he
died; as the LORD commanded Moses.
The command was fairly straightforward, perhaps one of the oldest
labor laws known to man.
Deuteronomy 5:13 Six days
thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14
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, nor thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy
cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as
thou.
So, why, you ask yourself, was God so strict with the Hebrews in
the wilderness but Jesus, who was and is God in the flesh, not as strict with
his Pharisee host on the Sabbath? What is the Holy Spirit trying to tell us?
Jesus told a man to pick up his former bed and carry it on the Sabbath day in
John 5:8 which greatly disturbed the Jews.
By the time that Jesus walked the earth in human flesh in the
first century the Jews had developed hundreds of laws regarding work but, as
revealed by the verses about Jesus being invited to a meal on the Sabbath,
exceptions were made.
Many
Christian faith traditions tried to call Sunday the Christian Sabbath all the
while making it not a day of rest but a day of obligation. The truth is that
early Christians, as history provides evidence, worshipped before dawn on
Sunday and then went to work. Sunday was not a day off from work for three
hundred years after Christ. If it were truly the Christian Sabbath then from
sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday you would do nothing, not even light a
candle in your home.
Moving
on, the Ten Commandments were written with the
finger of God.
Deuteronomy 9:10 And the
LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger
of God; and on them was
written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the
mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
Notice
how it was apparent when God’s hand was directly on something that happened?
Exodus 8:19 Then the
magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is
the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was
hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
Psalm 8:3 When I consider
thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou
hast ordained;
Daniel 5:5 In the same hour
came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the
candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace:
and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. 6 Then the king’s countenance was changed, and
his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his
knees smote one against another… 23 But hast lifted up thyself
against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house
before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk
wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass,
iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose
hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not
glorified: 24 Then was the part of the
hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
Luke 11:18 If Satan also be
divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I
cast out devils through Beelzebub. 19
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be
your judges. 20 But if I with the finger
of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
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