Keep
holy the Sabbath day
“Remember the
Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labour and do all your
work, 10 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 male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing
in your towns. 11 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."
What
is the Sabbath day?
Growing up I remember all shops being closed on Sunday,
the High Street was deserted and if you didn’t have something you’d have to
wait until Monday before you could buy it.
This all changed in 1994 when shops were allowed to trade on a Sunday. Why was this law in place? Well in large part it can be traced back to
the 4th Commandment – the idea that one day in 7 should be held
special to the Lord and a day of rest.
So closely has Sunday come to be associated with the ‘sabbath’ that if I
were to ask most people in society when the ‘sabbath’ was they would quickly
say ‘Sunday’. Yet for the Jew’s who received this commandment the sabbath was a
Saturday. So why the change?
After the Resurrection, the first followers of Jesus,
who were all law abiding Jews, saw fit to recognise the day Christ rose as the
most important day of the week calling it ‘The Lord’s Day’ (kyriakē hēmera). John
calls it this in Rev 1:10 and Paul says it was the practise of the early church
to gather on the first day of the week (Sunday) to ‘break bread’ (Acts 20:7) The Didache, a first century ‘manual’ on Christian practice,
shows that early Christians linked these together and refers to a gathering of
the church on the Lord’s Day to partake of the Lord’s Supper.
Why
did God give us the ‘sabbath’?
God knows that our bodies are frail and weak, He
designed them that way. He also knows
that some of us have a tendency to overwork.
Robert Murray McCheyne, a Scottish
theologian and pastor, said to a friend as he lay dying at the age of thirty,
“God gave me a message to deliver and a horse to ride. Alas, I killed the horse
and now I cannot deliver the message.” The horse he referred to was his own
body. There are also others, who
unfortunately, would exploit the labour of others (animals are included in the
Commandment), working them beyond what their bodies can cope with for any
length of time.
It is for both groups, I believe, that God instituted
the Sabbath. For the first group God is,
in effect saying, take a day off do not ‘work yourself into the ground’. The second group is being told to be
equitable with your employees and animals – do not over work or misuse
them.
However the Sabbath was never meant to simply be a day
to, using modern vernacular, ‘veg out’.
Rather it is to be a day unto the Lord.
We are to use it to remember the Lord and His blessings. As Christians, following the example established
by the early church, it is the day we gather to worship the Lord.
The
Sabbath a bind or a benevolence?
This leads on to the next question. What can I do on the Sabbath? Now I am aware that many good brothers and
sisters hold some very strong opinions on this issue on both sides so I hope to
avoid controversy and walk a middle line.
The first guiding principle can be found in the words of Jesus in Mark
2:27 “Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
The Jewish leaders had made so many extra-biblical ‘laws’ that it was a real
‘bind’ on the people with the emphasis on what they could not do. I believe here, Jesus is rebuking this idea
and in effect saying, God gave you this day as a benevolence – a kindness, so
that you could relax and enjoy it – not something to cause you more stress and
constrain you.
Our second guiding principle can be found in Romans
14. “5One
person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every
day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever
regards one day as special does so to the Lord.” Here the inspired Apostle wants us to learn
two things a) Christians can, in good conscience, hold certain days (and by
extension the way the observe them) as more important, while others may not;
and b) Both can do what they do ‘to the Lord’.
How this is to be lived out is found later in the same
chapter 14:10-22. We are not to judge or
condemn a fellow Christian by what they do or do not do in regards to issues
where the Lord has given liberty. Rather
we are to build each other up in our faith. What does this look like? I would suggest that if we were entertaining
believers after church and they hold to a stricter view of the Sabbath, do not
do anything that may offend them (eg they may frown on TV watching or playing
computer games). Likewise if you hold to
a strict view of the Sabbath do not look down on or condemn (gossip) about
those who feel they have the liberty to do things you would not. As Paul tells us in this chapter “12So then, each of us will give an account
of ourselves to God.” And 22 So
whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed
is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.
Summing
it up
Having tried to walk the ‘middle line’ I do believe
that we as believers should hold Sunday special, however as said above, this is
something that each family must decide for themselves. Yet I would make two
appeals to you. Firstly. as far as it
depends on us (shift work, illness or pandemic notwithstanding) we should be in
church on Sunday ‘not neglecting the gathering together of the saints.’ So we
should not regularly schedule sports or other activities at a time when church
is ‘on’. Secondly, I believe that we
should spend Sunday morning preparing for church. We are blessed to have good, faithful ministers of the word who
have spent a good deal of time preparing to minister the word to us on the
Lord’s Day. If professes to take their faith seriously: what preparations are we
making to be ready to be ministered to? What a blessing it would be for our
pastor if we approached services (virtual and real) prepared and expectant,
with an obedient heart and a ready mind! And how much your own soul needs that
time after a week of warfare with the world!
Song
for the day.
An ever popular song regarding the Lord Day can be
found here
Prayer
for the day.
Lord,
We as your people desire to be in Your presence. We thank you that you have given us a day of
rest from out labours and spend time with you, our God and Maker. Let us use that day wisely, as we can not
physically be together allow us not to neglect the things of you and still come
together through the means we have. Give
us the grace and understanding when we meet with brother and sisters who hold
to different traditions regarding Sunday observance and love and respects them
as they do things as unto you. Prepare
our hearts for Sunday services to hear and receive from you, always praying for
the time we can all be reunited in person.
We ask all this in the mighty name of Jesus
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