The musical group Rascals Flats in their hit song Maybury laments that, "Sunday was a day of rest/ Now its one more day for progress. If you have not guessed by now, this column will deal with the topic of sabbath rest.
The Fourth Commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy" (Exodus 20:8). The Exodus version of the Ten Commandments takes up a total of 15 verses. As we examine the Fourth Commandment, we see that it takes up five of those verses. One-third of the verses dedicated to the Ten Commandments concerns defining what sabbath rest means. (Obviously Yahweh believes this is important.)
The rabbis recognized this fact and went about creating a long list of what were acceptable activities to do on the Sabbath and what activities would be considered work and therefore unacceptable behaviors. To go into detail about permitted and unpermitted labor would take up more space than is available here. Needless to say, some of those forbidden activities would seem strange to us.
Some readers might ask, "Didn't Jesus abolish all those Old Testament regulations?" The answer is a strong no! One of the best-known teachings of our Lord concerning the sabbath comes from Mark 2: 23-28, with parallel passages found in Matthew 12 and Luke 6. Jesus was walking to the synagogue, along with his disciples. The disciples apparently did not have their Wheaties for breakfast that morning and were gleaning grain from the fields and eating the grain for nourishment, activities that violated the rabbis' definition of allowable activities. The clerics questioned Jesus concerning the actions of his disciples.
Notice Jesus did not say they were wrong or that the law no longer was valid. Instead, he starts by pointing to a time when King David once entered the house of God when his men and he were hungry and ate the consecrated bread – activity that was clearly forbidden in the Torah. Jesus' point being that there is an element of mercy, even in the law. After the story, our Lord then tells the rabbis they were missing the intent of the Fourth Commandment.
The commandment was not created for God's benefit, but for the benefit of humanity. Our Heavenly Father knew that we need one day a week where we cease our labors and worship our creator. We need to have one day out of each seven when we gather corporately to worship God. For most Christians that one day is Sunday. However, there is no requirement that Sunday be the Sabbath Day. Our Jewish friends might point out that Saturday is the Sabbath. Those who are members of the Seventh Day Adventist church still hold the Sabbath to be Saturday as well. I know many people whose work schedule requires them to work on Sundays. For them it may be necessary to have a different Sabbath day. (As an aside, many ministers take one day of the normal work week off and make it their Sabbath since they work on Sundays.) Remember, the intent of the commandment in question is to insure that we have one day each week to rest and honor God. If we obey the intent of the command, we will be honoring the Sabbath and keeping it holy.
I wish I could truthfully claim I am perfect in keeping the Sabbath. I remember one class during my time in seminary. I was attending seminary as a part-time student, working full time as a high school social studies teacher, officiating high school sports one to two days a week and leading a small drive-in church congregation. Clearly I was pretty busy. As the professor was about to start his class with the focus being Sabbath rest, he asked how many of us students kept a Sabbath day of rest. I did not raise my hand. He looked at me and said, "Even God rested on the Seventh Day (referring to Genesis 2:2,3). Are you saying that you are better than God and do not need a day of rest?"
My response was a denial of claiming to be better than God. I then continued to explain that I was proving that God was much better than I, since he could afford to take a day off and I could not. Please do not use my explanation of why you do not need to honor the Sabbath. I have found that when I do honor the Sabbath and keep it holy, the rest of the obligations of the week tend to take care of themselves. Taking a sabbath day of rest is not laziness. It is a necessity.
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