Courtney Gilmore Remember the Sabbath day, to keep 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, you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Exodus 20:8-11
This is one of the Ten Commandments. It seems like we should obey all the Ten Commandments, although many people do not keep the Sabbath anymore. So is it wrong to work on Sunday or have we been set free from this law?
The word Sabbath literally means intermission, and it’s derived from the word that means to cease. God worked for 6 days to create the earth and everything in it, then He ceased. He could’ve let that be the end of the week, but instead He created another day to break up, or give an intermission to, their continuous work. So, the last day of the week was a holy day, different from all the others, set aside to the Lord.
Burden or Blessing?
The Pharisees made keeping the Sabbath seem like a burden, but God meant it as a blessing. Instead of feeling restricted from their work, they should’ve been thankful that they had been given permission to rest on this one special day each week. When they were slaves in Egypt, their masters made them work every day. They never got to rest. But now, with God as their Lord, (Master) they were allowed a day of rest.
God created work from the very beginning. Adam and Eve tended the garden and took care of the animals on day one. Work is good for us. It gives us purpose and a way to provide for ourselves. We feel accomplished and even invigorated with a job well done. We were made to work. But, God did not make our bodies, our minds, or our hearts to function well without rest, too. Eventually, our bodies will give out, our thoughts will get foggy, we will get cranky, our productivity will diminish, and most likely our motivation will weaken. We need a break!
The creation week was meant to be a model week for us. God did not need a day of rest, but He knew that we would. So, He made the first six days for work and set the seventh aside for rest. But it was not only a rest day. It was also for worship, teaching, learning, fellowship, and offering. This day was created as a blessing for God and man.
This specific word for blessing does not just mean to give something beneficial or good. It comes from the word that means to kneel as you would in adoration or when you are saluting. So just by blessing it, God gave us the picture of rest (kneeling), worship, dedication, and honor.
So… Is It a Sin, or Not?
Are we still supposed to gather together? If so, when should we meet? Is it still a sin to work on the Sabbath or on whatever day we meet together?
The Bible is clear that we still need to meet together as believers to learn, worship, pray, give, & build one another up. The majority of the New Testament centers around the church, so it’s obviously important.
Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one anther.
Hebrews 10:24-25
The seventh (Sabbath) day for the Jews was Saturday. But after Jesus died, his followers began meeting on Sunday, which was the first day of the week. This was the day that Jesus rose from the dead, Resurrection Day. Churches were planted in all the surrounding towns and the people continued meeting together for worship, prayer, and fellowship.
A New Rest
But the teachings of the New Testament say that we’ve entered a new rest in Jesus and we’re not bound to the rituals of cleansing and sacrifice, nor the feasts and sabbaths kept by the Israelites. All of these were only a preview of what was to come with the Messiah.
In Him, the fullness of deity dwells bodily. You have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In Him also, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him.
Therefore, let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Colossians 2:9-17
So, our circumcision is now of the heart, our baptism is in the Holy Spirit, our cleansing and sacrifice, along with our joy & rest, are found in Jesus, our Savior. Praise God that we don’t carry the burdens of the law anymore since we never could uphold them anyway!
What Should We Do?
But just because it isn’t mandatory to observe a day of rest, does it mean that we shouldn’t?
Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Mark 2:27
If God made the Sabbath for us, doesn’t it seem like we should accept it? It was supposed to be a day to bless the Lord and a blessing for us. So, I believe we still should set aside one day to worship the Lord, to refrain from our regular work, and be restored for the coming week. We need it! Starting the week refreshed is beneficial to us in so many ways.
Today, Christians stay in keeping with the early followers of Christ and meet on Sundays. This is typically also our day of rest. Even though it isn’t the day the Jews observed as the Sabbath, it is still the day before we go back to work, so it is our last day of the week. By resting and worshipping on Sunday, we still get the intermission God intended before we start working all over again the next week.
He Will Provide
I know it’s tempting to work on Sundays when we have a million things to do or we need the money. But God told the Israelites to rest one day a week even during their very busiest seasons.
Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. Exodus 34:21
Exodus 34:21
When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, God provided sweet wafers for them every morning when the dew lifted. They would go out each day and gather this provision of bread. But He gave them double on the sixth day so they didn’t have to gather or cook on the Sabbath. He also tripled their produce in the sixth year so they could give their land a Sabbath in the seventh year. He had commanded them to let their land lie fallow in the seventh year, so He gave them enough in the sixth for that year, the year they couldn’t harvest, and the next year until their crops came in.
God did not tell the people they couldn’t gather, harvest, or cook and then just hope they didn’t go hungry. No! He provided a way for them to obey Him. God will never ask us to do something and then not provide a way for it to be done. It may not always be easy. There may be hard times. We may have to make some sacrifices now and then. But that only heightens our worship and magnifies the purpose of the day.
Trust Him
Just as He set us aside to Himself, we set the day aside to Him. If He was willing to sacrifice His life for us, then we can not complain about the small sacrifices we are asked to make for Him.
If we trust Him in all this, He will make sure that our work is productive enough in the first six days of the week to sustain us for the seventh. Accept this day as the blessing it was created to be and not as a burden.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1
Excerpt from Episode 104 “Take a Break, You Need Some Rest” on Podcast and YouTube
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