The Sabbath
Biblical Study
God Of Justice
A Look at the Ten Commandments for the 21st Century
Object:
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
-- Mark 2:23--3:6
Let me tell you a story.1 It seems a young Martian was studying comparative anthropology and, in preparation for a doctoral dissertation which was long overdue, made a quick flight down to Earth in his flying saucer to check on the habits of the residents of the planet. He could not get too close or make any prolonged inspection because his work had to be submitted in just a few days, so time was of the essence. He had made a fortunate choice of days and locations -- a fine summer Sunday over the United States -- and found the natives most obligingly coming out of their houses and spreading themselves all over the landscape for his observation.
The first thing he noted was that, like so many primitive life forms, the people of this planet were sun worshipers. Previous research had indicated that one day in seven was set aside for the adoration of their god (weather permitting). The rituals would vary, and each required a different form of dress, but most all were conducted in the open air.
What the student saw fascinated him. Some creatures gathered in vast arenas to watch strangely garbed priests perform elaborate ceremonies involving a ball (which every Martian school child knows is symbolic of the sun), some strangely shaped pieces of wood and certain ritual expressions chanted either by certain priests (like "Stee-rike one!") and occasional responses from the worshipers (like "Kill the umpire," whatever that means). There were even appointed times during the service for the worshipers to rhythmically stand and then quickly sit creating a great human wave as if to pay homage to some unseen god of the sea (perhaps a brother or sister to the sun god).
Speaking of the sea, others stripped themselves almost naked, went down to the shore, and performed their rites there. Often they would hurl themselves into the waves with frenzied cries. Many would carry with them, as might be expected, a ball, this one brightly colored. Then after the ceremonial immersion, the devotees would anoint themselves with holy oil, stretch out full length with eyes closed, and present themselves as a soon-to-be-burnt offering to the deity.
Still other earth creatures, no doubt the mystics and solitaries of their religion, either by themselves or in groups of two or four, dressed in gaily colored liturgical garments, traveled to quiet fields for their ritual. There they would place their ball on the ground, hit it with a long stick, chase after it, and hit it again until it finally would fall into the hole of some underground animal. It struck the Martian student as a rather strange process because after striking the ball the worshiper would often chant "Go in, Go in," but once it went in, they would promptly take the ball out and repeat the effort all over again.
Another group apparently had blood sacrifice as a part of their tradition. Thousands gathered in huge sanctuaries, semi-clothed, most sipping a foamy sacramental beverage from shiny cylindrical containers (which appeared to the Martian, by the way, to cross all religious lines -- all righteous earthlings seemed to share this practice). This throng would watch their priests enter large and noisy wheeled cubicles called cars which they propelled round in circles at terrific speed until one of the priests would be injured or killed. The worshipers frequently mimicked the practice outside the sanctuary with their own cars, running them at high speeds until they dashed themselves to bits against other cars or stationary objects. Many, particularly after one of their religious services, would enter their cars in unison and thus be too closely packed to move. They would then allow the sun god's rays to beat down on the metal which then cooked them slowly to death.
Finally, there was a small group of dissenters or heretics which did not practice sun worship. These could be identified by their habit of clothing themselves much more soberly and completely than the sun worshipers. They, too, gathered in groups (albeit much smaller groups) but they congregated in buildings, many of which had colored windows which blocked the light making certain that there would be no temptation toward sun worship. It was not clear to the student whether these buildings were places of punishment or not, nor was it clear whether these creatures had been excommunicated from the larger worship community or were simply unbelievers. The one thing that was clear was that their faces and gestures showed none of the joyful religious ecstasy with which the sun worshipers pursued their devotions. The only conclusion which the Martian felt could be legitimately drawn was that this poor group was obviously not happy. And so ended one extraterrestrial student's adventure.
One is forced to wonder: was the Martian wildly wrong or wildly right? We would have to admit that his descriptions of Sunday activities are easily recognized.
To be sure, Americans do think of Sunday as a special day, a holiday, a "holy" day, a day set apart from the rest of the week. But no longer is it "holy" or set apart as it was when many of us were growing up. We heard our preachers solemnly intone the fourth commandment:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.2
I do not know whether you noticed it, but in that list of all those who are not supposed to work on the sabbath, there is no mention of mother. For the one who has had to get the breakfast, the children, the dinner, and herself ready to try to make it to church almost on time, this is hardly a day of no work. But then, the scripture never said it would be ... not for Mom. The Bible never expects the impossible.
At any rate, those sermons we always heard about keeping the sabbath were not really about the sabbath -- the seventh day, Saturday -- they were talking about Sunday. But was that right? Nowhere in the Bible is there any instruction for Christians to consider the Lord's Day as a replacement for the Jewish Sabbath. The Reformers were clear on that: Luther liked the principle of a day off each week for rest, refreshment, and worship but said it did not matter which day; Calvin said, "The Jewish holy day was abolished ... the observance of days among us is a free service and void of all superstition."3 Still, we were taught that Sunday had become the new sabbath anyway. And it resulted in a set of restrictions being set around Sundays that were almost as bad as the over-1,500 which the Jews had placed around the sabbath.
You have heard about some of those Jewish regulations, no doubt. For example, under the general law, "You shall bear no burden on the sabbath," the scribes solemnly set down, as a by-law, that while a woman could have a ribbon sewn onto her dress, it must not be merely pinned on. If it were only pinned, it was not secure enough to be considered a part of the dress, and in wearing the ribbon with a pin, she was carrying a burden. Under the same heading, it was decreed that false teeth were not to be worn on the sabbath ... they were a burden.
In Mark's gospel, the Pharisees complained to Jesus that his disciples were gathering corn on the sabbath ... reaping. That was work, a violation of the fourth commandment. But consider this: a woman was not allowed to use a mirror on the sabbath to prevent exactly the same sin: reaping. You see, they were concerned that she would see a gray hair and pull it out, and pulling out gray hairs was reaping. The healing of the man with the withered hand? Jesus put that in perspective with his question, "Which is lawful on the sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" Yes, healing is work -- ask any nurse or doctor. But....
No wonder Jesus got into trouble. He hated sham and hypocrisy; he despised displays of righteousness. When it came to the observance of the sabbath, he put everything into perspective in one sentence: "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." All those ridiculous restrictions had nothing to do with God's intention in giving the commandment. This was social justice policy to guarantee that people would not be overworked. There is nothing in it that talks about wearing ribbons or false teeth or pulling gray hairs or even healing; there is nothing in it about going to church or synagogue; there is nothing in it about avoiding certain kinds of physical recreation; all it really says is that there should be a day set apart -- kept "holy" -- different -- for folks to take a break.
Jesus would probably have gotten into just as much trouble with church folks through the years. After all, beginning in about the eighth century, our people began that identification of the sabbath with Sunday and ended up doing to Sunday almost as much as the orthodox Jews did, and still do, to Saturday.
For a while, having Sunday thought of as different was easy. In America, for example, the traditional 11 a.m. worship hour that many churches still observe was set to accommodate farmers who, considering morning chores and travel time by horse and wagon, could not arrive until that hour. A two-hour service might be followed by a picnic lunch on the church grounds. Then a period of Bible study (Sunday school, if you will), another time of music and worship, a picnic supper, a vesper service, and finally the long trip home. (For those who call for a return to the "Old Time Religion," this is what they would have if they got their way.) Sunday was automatically special because there was no time for anything but church. Society was geared to that, so no one planned to conduct business on that day. Everyone was otherwise occupied.
But as the rural character of the nation changed, as transportation became more efficient, people had more time to do things on Sunday besides go to church. Businesses began to operate since there were opportunities to "make a buck" that had not existed before. Sports events began to be scheduled on Sunday afternoons because folks were no longer spending that time in church.
Of course, there were raised eyebrows among the faithful. There were attempts to legislate reverence for the Lord's Day with the enactment of Blue Laws which tried (unsuccessfully) to force Christianity on everyone. That turned people away from the church rather than toward it. The English writer, John Ruskin, said that Monday morning was the happiest time of the week for him because that meant there were six days until the dreaded, miserable Sunday would come around again. I know the feeling -- I grew up not being allowed to do much of anything except church on Sunday (no ball games, no picnics, nothing fun), and it was boring!
Of course, some will object, "How will you get people to come to church if they do not have to?" Good question. How are we doing it now? Poorly, obviously. That is why the Martian would see so many sun worshipers. The answer is not in a legalistic approach. Folks will come to church when they feel that doing so really does give them a break, a break from a rat race where it seems that only the rats ever win, a break from a world that does not care whether I live or die, a break from a world full of pain and suffering and hate. Men and women, boys and girls will come when they begin to sense their need of a loving and gracious God and for the company of God's people, a God and a people who care when no one else does. When the churches begin to do a better job of communicating that instead of making folks feel more unwanted and unloved than they already feel, people will come. You could not keep them away with clubs.
By the way, as we have noted before, the Ten Commandments are listed virtually identically in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. This particular commandment is not identical. The Exodus version gives as the rationale for sabbath observance the fact that God rested on the seventh day of creation. But Deuteronomy?
Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. [And here is the kicker.] Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
-- Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Remember where you came from. You were at the bottom of the heap, but God delivered you. Now that you are on top, do not forget those on the bottom so they do not have to go through what you did.
One of the issues that has been confronting our nation in recent years is illegal immigration, and the problem has become a political football. Despite what some politicians say about how dangerous these folks are and that they can be here only for nefarious purposes, we know that most of them have only come for the opportunity for the chance at a better life for themselves and their families and are doing jobs that would go begging if they were left to Americans. Huge amounts of money flow from these workers back to countries south of our border to support families who would be otherwise destitute. Of special interest in that regard is the instruction that Israel heard in this commandment to make sure to include the immigrant aliens in their sabbath celebration. One wonders what might happen if the church in America would take that instruction as seriously.
"Remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy -- no work -- take a break." This commandment was one of the most gracious gifts that a loving God could have ever provided. It was as if Yahweh had created an oasis for Israel in the midst of a weeklong desert. Then a fence was put around it and a sign on the gate that said, "Use this oasis freely, but leave the desert outside."
For Christians, by tradition Sunday is our little oasis ... our place apart in the noisy din of a hectic week. What makes the day "holy" for you? Worship? Prayer? Praise? Study? Wonderful. Family? Terrific. Recreation? Fine! The point is that it is up to you. Jesus taught that one day in seven was made for you and not you for the day ... a day to take a break. "Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy ... set apart; six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day" ... ah, the seventh day ... is a gracious, wonderful gift from your lavish, loving Lord.
Study Questions
1. What was sabbath-keeping like when you were younger? How has it changed, if at all?
2. If sabbath-keeping is more concerned with "rhythm-of-life" issues than religion, how can we get people to come to church?
3. What do you make of the differences in this commandment between Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5?
4. What are some of the things we should set aside time for, but are routinely ignored?
5. To what do we become enslaved when we fail to keep the sabbath?
____________
1. Embellished from a story by Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954), pp. 49-51.
2. See Exodus 23:12; 31:12-17; 34:21; 35:2-3; Leviticus 19:3b; 23:3; 26:2; and Numbers 15:32-36 for the penal code equivalent of this commandment.
3. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 2.8.32, 34.
He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
-- Mark 2:23--3:6
Let me tell you a story.1 It seems a young Martian was studying comparative anthropology and, in preparation for a doctoral dissertation which was long overdue, made a quick flight down to Earth in his flying saucer to check on the habits of the residents of the planet. He could not get too close or make any prolonged inspection because his work had to be submitted in just a few days, so time was of the essence. He had made a fortunate choice of days and locations -- a fine summer Sunday over the United States -- and found the natives most obligingly coming out of their houses and spreading themselves all over the landscape for his observation.
The first thing he noted was that, like so many primitive life forms, the people of this planet were sun worshipers. Previous research had indicated that one day in seven was set aside for the adoration of their god (weather permitting). The rituals would vary, and each required a different form of dress, but most all were conducted in the open air.
What the student saw fascinated him. Some creatures gathered in vast arenas to watch strangely garbed priests perform elaborate ceremonies involving a ball (which every Martian school child knows is symbolic of the sun), some strangely shaped pieces of wood and certain ritual expressions chanted either by certain priests (like "Stee-rike one!") and occasional responses from the worshipers (like "Kill the umpire," whatever that means). There were even appointed times during the service for the worshipers to rhythmically stand and then quickly sit creating a great human wave as if to pay homage to some unseen god of the sea (perhaps a brother or sister to the sun god).
Speaking of the sea, others stripped themselves almost naked, went down to the shore, and performed their rites there. Often they would hurl themselves into the waves with frenzied cries. Many would carry with them, as might be expected, a ball, this one brightly colored. Then after the ceremonial immersion, the devotees would anoint themselves with holy oil, stretch out full length with eyes closed, and present themselves as a soon-to-be-burnt offering to the deity.
Still other earth creatures, no doubt the mystics and solitaries of their religion, either by themselves or in groups of two or four, dressed in gaily colored liturgical garments, traveled to quiet fields for their ritual. There they would place their ball on the ground, hit it with a long stick, chase after it, and hit it again until it finally would fall into the hole of some underground animal. It struck the Martian student as a rather strange process because after striking the ball the worshiper would often chant "Go in, Go in," but once it went in, they would promptly take the ball out and repeat the effort all over again.
Another group apparently had blood sacrifice as a part of their tradition. Thousands gathered in huge sanctuaries, semi-clothed, most sipping a foamy sacramental beverage from shiny cylindrical containers (which appeared to the Martian, by the way, to cross all religious lines -- all righteous earthlings seemed to share this practice). This throng would watch their priests enter large and noisy wheeled cubicles called cars which they propelled round in circles at terrific speed until one of the priests would be injured or killed. The worshipers frequently mimicked the practice outside the sanctuary with their own cars, running them at high speeds until they dashed themselves to bits against other cars or stationary objects. Many, particularly after one of their religious services, would enter their cars in unison and thus be too closely packed to move. They would then allow the sun god's rays to beat down on the metal which then cooked them slowly to death.
Finally, there was a small group of dissenters or heretics which did not practice sun worship. These could be identified by their habit of clothing themselves much more soberly and completely than the sun worshipers. They, too, gathered in groups (albeit much smaller groups) but they congregated in buildings, many of which had colored windows which blocked the light making certain that there would be no temptation toward sun worship. It was not clear to the student whether these buildings were places of punishment or not, nor was it clear whether these creatures had been excommunicated from the larger worship community or were simply unbelievers. The one thing that was clear was that their faces and gestures showed none of the joyful religious ecstasy with which the sun worshipers pursued their devotions. The only conclusion which the Martian felt could be legitimately drawn was that this poor group was obviously not happy. And so ended one extraterrestrial student's adventure.
One is forced to wonder: was the Martian wildly wrong or wildly right? We would have to admit that his descriptions of Sunday activities are easily recognized.
To be sure, Americans do think of Sunday as a special day, a holiday, a "holy" day, a day set apart from the rest of the week. But no longer is it "holy" or set apart as it was when many of us were growing up. We heard our preachers solemnly intone the fourth commandment:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.2
I do not know whether you noticed it, but in that list of all those who are not supposed to work on the sabbath, there is no mention of mother. For the one who has had to get the breakfast, the children, the dinner, and herself ready to try to make it to church almost on time, this is hardly a day of no work. But then, the scripture never said it would be ... not for Mom. The Bible never expects the impossible.
At any rate, those sermons we always heard about keeping the sabbath were not really about the sabbath -- the seventh day, Saturday -- they were talking about Sunday. But was that right? Nowhere in the Bible is there any instruction for Christians to consider the Lord's Day as a replacement for the Jewish Sabbath. The Reformers were clear on that: Luther liked the principle of a day off each week for rest, refreshment, and worship but said it did not matter which day; Calvin said, "The Jewish holy day was abolished ... the observance of days among us is a free service and void of all superstition."3 Still, we were taught that Sunday had become the new sabbath anyway. And it resulted in a set of restrictions being set around Sundays that were almost as bad as the over-1,500 which the Jews had placed around the sabbath.
You have heard about some of those Jewish regulations, no doubt. For example, under the general law, "You shall bear no burden on the sabbath," the scribes solemnly set down, as a by-law, that while a woman could have a ribbon sewn onto her dress, it must not be merely pinned on. If it were only pinned, it was not secure enough to be considered a part of the dress, and in wearing the ribbon with a pin, she was carrying a burden. Under the same heading, it was decreed that false teeth were not to be worn on the sabbath ... they were a burden.
In Mark's gospel, the Pharisees complained to Jesus that his disciples were gathering corn on the sabbath ... reaping. That was work, a violation of the fourth commandment. But consider this: a woman was not allowed to use a mirror on the sabbath to prevent exactly the same sin: reaping. You see, they were concerned that she would see a gray hair and pull it out, and pulling out gray hairs was reaping. The healing of the man with the withered hand? Jesus put that in perspective with his question, "Which is lawful on the sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" Yes, healing is work -- ask any nurse or doctor. But....
No wonder Jesus got into trouble. He hated sham and hypocrisy; he despised displays of righteousness. When it came to the observance of the sabbath, he put everything into perspective in one sentence: "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." All those ridiculous restrictions had nothing to do with God's intention in giving the commandment. This was social justice policy to guarantee that people would not be overworked. There is nothing in it that talks about wearing ribbons or false teeth or pulling gray hairs or even healing; there is nothing in it about going to church or synagogue; there is nothing in it about avoiding certain kinds of physical recreation; all it really says is that there should be a day set apart -- kept "holy" -- different -- for folks to take a break.
Jesus would probably have gotten into just as much trouble with church folks through the years. After all, beginning in about the eighth century, our people began that identification of the sabbath with Sunday and ended up doing to Sunday almost as much as the orthodox Jews did, and still do, to Saturday.
For a while, having Sunday thought of as different was easy. In America, for example, the traditional 11 a.m. worship hour that many churches still observe was set to accommodate farmers who, considering morning chores and travel time by horse and wagon, could not arrive until that hour. A two-hour service might be followed by a picnic lunch on the church grounds. Then a period of Bible study (Sunday school, if you will), another time of music and worship, a picnic supper, a vesper service, and finally the long trip home. (For those who call for a return to the "Old Time Religion," this is what they would have if they got their way.) Sunday was automatically special because there was no time for anything but church. Society was geared to that, so no one planned to conduct business on that day. Everyone was otherwise occupied.
But as the rural character of the nation changed, as transportation became more efficient, people had more time to do things on Sunday besides go to church. Businesses began to operate since there were opportunities to "make a buck" that had not existed before. Sports events began to be scheduled on Sunday afternoons because folks were no longer spending that time in church.
Of course, there were raised eyebrows among the faithful. There were attempts to legislate reverence for the Lord's Day with the enactment of Blue Laws which tried (unsuccessfully) to force Christianity on everyone. That turned people away from the church rather than toward it. The English writer, John Ruskin, said that Monday morning was the happiest time of the week for him because that meant there were six days until the dreaded, miserable Sunday would come around again. I know the feeling -- I grew up not being allowed to do much of anything except church on Sunday (no ball games, no picnics, nothing fun), and it was boring!
Of course, some will object, "How will you get people to come to church if they do not have to?" Good question. How are we doing it now? Poorly, obviously. That is why the Martian would see so many sun worshipers. The answer is not in a legalistic approach. Folks will come to church when they feel that doing so really does give them a break, a break from a rat race where it seems that only the rats ever win, a break from a world that does not care whether I live or die, a break from a world full of pain and suffering and hate. Men and women, boys and girls will come when they begin to sense their need of a loving and gracious God and for the company of God's people, a God and a people who care when no one else does. When the churches begin to do a better job of communicating that instead of making folks feel more unwanted and unloved than they already feel, people will come. You could not keep them away with clubs.
By the way, as we have noted before, the Ten Commandments are listed virtually identically in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. This particular commandment is not identical. The Exodus version gives as the rationale for sabbath observance the fact that God rested on the seventh day of creation. But Deuteronomy?
Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. [And here is the kicker.] Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
-- Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Remember where you came from. You were at the bottom of the heap, but God delivered you. Now that you are on top, do not forget those on the bottom so they do not have to go through what you did.
One of the issues that has been confronting our nation in recent years is illegal immigration, and the problem has become a political football. Despite what some politicians say about how dangerous these folks are and that they can be here only for nefarious purposes, we know that most of them have only come for the opportunity for the chance at a better life for themselves and their families and are doing jobs that would go begging if they were left to Americans. Huge amounts of money flow from these workers back to countries south of our border to support families who would be otherwise destitute. Of special interest in that regard is the instruction that Israel heard in this commandment to make sure to include the immigrant aliens in their sabbath celebration. One wonders what might happen if the church in America would take that instruction as seriously.
"Remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy -- no work -- take a break." This commandment was one of the most gracious gifts that a loving God could have ever provided. It was as if Yahweh had created an oasis for Israel in the midst of a weeklong desert. Then a fence was put around it and a sign on the gate that said, "Use this oasis freely, but leave the desert outside."
For Christians, by tradition Sunday is our little oasis ... our place apart in the noisy din of a hectic week. What makes the day "holy" for you? Worship? Prayer? Praise? Study? Wonderful. Family? Terrific. Recreation? Fine! The point is that it is up to you. Jesus taught that one day in seven was made for you and not you for the day ... a day to take a break. "Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy ... set apart; six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day" ... ah, the seventh day ... is a gracious, wonderful gift from your lavish, loving Lord.
Study Questions
1. What was sabbath-keeping like when you were younger? How has it changed, if at all?
2. If sabbath-keeping is more concerned with "rhythm-of-life" issues than religion, how can we get people to come to church?
3. What do you make of the differences in this commandment between Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5?
4. What are some of the things we should set aside time for, but are routinely ignored?
5. To what do we become enslaved when we fail to keep the sabbath?
____________
1. Embellished from a story by Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954), pp. 49-51.
2. See Exodus 23:12; 31:12-17; 34:21; 35:2-3; Leviticus 19:3b; 23:3; 26:2; and Numbers 15:32-36 for the penal code equivalent of this commandment.
3. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 2.8.32, 34.
