Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord
thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed
the sabbath day, and hallowed it — Exodus 20:8-11
It has to be seen to be
believed. Go to any major city in Israel: it is busy, bustling, traffic jams,
full of noise and activity. Tel Aviv is where the party never stops, almost
Then comes Friday
sundown and when the horn sounds, everything comes to a grinding halt.
Businesses close, cars come off the roads and get parked for a day, while a
holy hush comes upon the streets.
Congratulations. You
have just experienced the beginning of the Sabbath. During the evening a
special family meal is prepared and the Sabbath candle is lit. The Sabbath is
synonymous with food, family, and fellowship, which occurs the next morning in
the synagogue. It is clearly a highlight, even the Queen, of the week.
Sabbath-keeping is not
just part of Jewish tradition; it is the 4th of the 10 Commandments. The key
command is that you can and should work 6 days a week; but on the 7th day, as
the Lord’s commandment, you, your family, and even the livestock shall not do
any work at. Failure to observe the Sabbath was a capital crime (Exodus 31:15)
and in one instance a man was executed for gathering sticks on the day of rest
(Numbers 15:32-35).
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on
the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the
seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his
work which God created and made - Genesis 2:1-3
The Sabbath is tied to
the act of creation. After 6 days of ‘working’ on creation of the heavens and
earth, God finished everything on the 7th day. According to Genesis 2:2,
the LORD ‘rested,' blessed,’ and ‘sanctified’ this day. From here came the 4th
Commandment and one of its great features is a memorial to creation. Of course,
the notion of God being tired and needing a rest may seem strange, since God
doesn’t slumber of sleep (Psalm 121:4). A better way to understand it is that
God is completed His creative work, paused to reflect, and He saw it ‘was
very good.’
While the command to
‘not work’ sounds simple enough, in practice it became complicated and
controversial. The rabbis were in a constant conversation on how to
practically observe the Sabbath. Many rules and regulations have been made
during the centuries. Is turning on a light switch ‘work’ which violates the
Sabbath? Is walking more than a kilometre a violation? Today Jewish hotels have
‘Sabbath-elevators’ that stop on every floor, so no one will transgress the
sabbath by pushing the button. Trying so hard to not violate the Sabbath can be
hard work.
What was Jesus’
attitude to the Sabbath? What should the attitude of Biblical Christians today?
If we believe in a Sabbath’s rest, then what will that look like?
TO BE CONTINUED
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