8 “Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. 9 You have six days in which to do your work, 10 but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. On that day no one is to work—neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country. 11 In six days I, the Lord, made the earth, the sky, the seas, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That is why I, the Lord, blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.
Exodus 20:8-11 (GNT).
I want to talk about the Sabbath. I feel like everyone has some misconceptions about this day. It is a day of rest where we’re not supposed to work or buy stuff. It is important enough to be one of the Ten Commandments. It is a day for us to chill. If we had no chill day, maybe the tyrants of the world would have tried instituting working seven days a week nonstop. Maybe some people would buy into the raw efficiency of working hard nonstop, and instead live life to live life, play games, and love each other. We might just all be drones working nonstop because that is the philosophy drilled into us by the guys at the top. Stuff may seem like that now, but imagine if God didn’t tell us to take a day off.
And Jesus concluded,”The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:27-28 (GNT).
We’re not to work or buy stuff if it is unavoidable. We should do our best not to go out to the store and buy bread. If all we have is scraps of bread, we didn’t prepare for the Sabbath well, but if all you have are scraps of bread, By all means, eat them. Work calls, and says,
“Hey, if you can, come into work.”
And you can reply, ”No sorry, I work the other six days.”
You should do your best to avoid working or buying stuff on the Sabbath.
Jesus left that place and went to a synagogue, 10 where there was a man who had a paralyzed hand. Some people were there who wanted to accuse Jesus of doing wrong, so they answered him,”Is it against our Law
to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 Jesus answered, “What if one of you has a sheep and it falls into a deep hole on the Sabbath? Will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 And a human being is worth much more than a sheep! So then, our Law does allow us to help someone on the Sabbath. 13 Then he said to the man with the paralyzed hand,”Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it became well again, just like the other one. 14 Then the Pharisees left and made plans
to kill Jesus.
Matthew 12:9-14 (GNT).
Sometimes doing work is unavoidable. What if you’re a doctor, and you work seven days a week, helping people where other doctors would not help? Well, then you can go help! Society needs help. Even if you’re not a doctor, some jobs will fire you if you don’t come in on call. In that way, it is best to just come in when they say and keep your job. Maybe your parents ask you to go grocery shopping for them because they need to make something for a party unexpectedly. Sometimes doing work is unavoidable.
These moments are traditionally called, “Ox in the Mire” moments. You can pray quickly to God,”This is an ‘Ox in the Mire’ moment that I didn’t want to buy or work today, but people are making me against my choosing.” It isn’t bad to do even if you have many of them every Sabbath. Remember the Sabbath was made for man, not man made for the Sabbath. Don’t feel guilty either.
I’ll explain in detail why we should try our best to keep the Sabbath, but not get legalistic. For you see the leaders of the Hebrew faith were undoubtedly in the wrong by being legalistic back in Jesus’ time, that the conclusion was, “This healer broke our law. Let’s kill him.” Legalism can get really bad. It is supposed to be fair, but you can get people into trouble because they broke the letter of the law while doing something really good. This is what happened with Jesus Christ.
Let me explain further why we should not be legalistic. Why take up in your mind the space of all the rules you can or cannot do on the Sabbath? Surely even with all those rules, situations come up that are grey areas. You might find
yourself in a mental prison.
“Oh I can’t do this, because maybe it is work, so I’ll just sit in my chair and do nothing at all and be bored. Oh, I want to chill and just clean up but maybe that’s work. I want eggs for breakfast, but maybe cooking is work. I can’t order in because that’s buying stuff, looks like cereal for me.”
You see, that stuff is all a bunch of mind prison stuff. And being the prison guard for a mind prison is far more work than just living life and enjoying yourself on a Sabbath. The only soft rules are to avoid buying and selling, not working, and to not travel. Other than that, don’t get paralyzed analyzing if it is okay or not, just go with it. A run and gun, cavalier spirit is attractive.
The LORD says,”If you treat the Sabbath as sacred and do not pursue your own interests on that day; if you value my holy day and honor it by not traveling, working, or talking idly on that day,14 then you will find the joy that comes from serving me. I will make you honored all over the world, and you will enjoy the land I gave to your ancestor, Jacob.
I, the LORD, have spoken.”
Isaiah 58:13-14 (GNT).
So we’re basically not supposed to pursue even our own interests. If you’re doing the Christian thing right, every day, you should be serving God. You should be telling people about Jesus. You should be helping the poor. You should be good and loving. You should be preaching. Dedicate the Sabbath as a special day for God. If you’re not doing Christian stuff right, hey at least on the Sabbath, try your best to obey the Sabbath. Sometimes our own interests and God’s interests align. But even if not, if you served God a lot of the day and want to chill a few hours, I’m sure he doesn’t mind. Just try and serve God some each week. Serving every day is better, but at least on the Sabbath is preferable over not at all.
Photo Credit: https://askgramps.org/sabbath-day-actually-begin-end/
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by website attributed with the photo credit are their own, FSS does neither claim to advocate or disagree with them explicitly.