Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.
Acts 20:7.

 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.  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.
Exodus 20:8-11

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.–Isaiah 55:8-9

Keep the Sabbath Holy

The Lord exhorts us to remember the Sabbath
He asks that we keep that day holy for Him
He only asks that we give Him one day
Still, we wonder if to refuse is a sin.

He included it in His commandments
It was important enough to be number four
Why would we think it’s an option?
And for some reason okay to ignore?

God does not give commandments lightly;
He doesn’t do it to show that He can.
When He upgrades from request to commandment
It’s for the protection of all mankind.

Have you thought about what He’s asking?
What a lovely way to spend a whole day.
At rest and at play and at worship,
And yet somehow we still disobey.

We have become compulsively busy,
Addicted to the screen of our phones.
And if we can’t turn them off just for one day
We are slaves and they are millstones.

As creatures of habit, it’s difficult
To change the way that we live.
But constantly running in circles
Can only make peace elusive

The Lord’s ways are higher than our ways,
His thoughts are much different than ours.
And when He gives a commandment
He gives it because it empowers.

The Lord exhorts us to remember the Sabbath
And we know He doesn’t ask on a whim.
And after all of the miracles, He’s done for us,
Can’t we keep one day holy for Him?
©Linda Troxell 09/30/2018

Lately, I have heard a lot of bickering and arguing about several aspects of the Sabbath Day. Arguments about whether or not Christians need to keep the Sabbath or if it is just for Jews and about whether it should be observed on Saturday or Sunday, or if we are free to pick our own day to observe the Sabbath. I’ve even heard some say that Jesus is the Sabbath for Christians and so they no longer need to set a day aside for rest. I’m not sure how they came to this conclusion, there’s some very complicated reasoning attached to this theory which, I must admit, I don’t fully understand. From what I can gather, it seems to be that God completed his work, which was the creation of the world, on the seventh day and He rested. However, when sin entered the garden God had to break His rest and deal with Adam and Eve. So, as the theory goes, when God gave the Ten Commandments He was saying only to remember the Sabbath and that sin breaks the rest of the Sabbath, so to keep it holy, or without sin. This theory says that God was not saying that we should rest on the Sabbath only that we should remember to keep it holy. I didn’t find any explanation about why, if this is true, God went on to specifically say in the 4^th commandment to do no work and exactly who should do no work; which was essentially everyone.

However, the theory explains that the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of the New Testament. In the Old Testament God announced He was finished creating by entering His rest. In the New Testament Jesus announced He had completed His work of salvation by bowing His head and saying, “It is finished.” Then He entered His rest at the right hand of God thereby rendering the Sabbath no longer relevant to Christians. The theory tells us that the Sabbath was an agreement between God and the Jews. And because they are still waiting for the Messiah it is proper that they should continue to honor the Sabbath. But Christians no longer need to honor it because… well, it gets a bit murky for me here and I don’t quite understand why, according to the theory, Christians no longer need to honor the Sabbath. I can only guess it has something to do with Jesus being our Messiah. But that leaves me to wonder why Jesus, who was the actual messiah, observed the Sabbath. As I said, I don’t understand the complicated, perhaps even convoluted, logic, attached to the theory. However, YouTube has a video of a sermon by Bishop T.D. Jakes in which he explains it far better than I can. If you want to try to understand this theory you should watch the video.

I’ve also read assertions that Acts 20:7 tells us that the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday. Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.-Acts 20:7. I can find no indication in this verse to suggest the Sabbath was changed to Sunday. At best it might be construed that this is when Sunday became the Christian communal worship day, which only indicates that the day of rest, Sabbath, was separated from the day of worship. There is no command to worship in 4^th commandment, only to cease work. However, it was the custom of early Christians to gather together, break bread, and worship God every day.  There is, in fact, no commandment about when we should or should not worship. And, indeed, we should worship God every day.

I’ve also read about those who maintain that the day on which we observe the Sabbath doesn’t matter as long as we have a Sabbath once in every 7 day period. Those who believe this sometimes offer as support for their belief the fact that we can no longer discern which day of the week is the Biblical Sabbath because the calendar was changed by Pope Gregory XIII. And it is true that the calendar was changed in 1582. Julius Caesar had calculated the length of a year as 365 ¼ days, and in reality, it is 11 minutes longer than that. So, by 1582 the calendar was off by 10 days. In order to correct that Pope Gregory changed Friday, October 5 to Friday, October 15. By doing this he created the Gregorian calendar we use today.  So, those who say we can’t know which day on the Gregorian calendar corresponds to the Sabbath day in the Bible, might have a point right? Well not exactly. While it’s true that the Pope fast forwarded the year by 10 days, that did nothing to confuse the days of the week. Moving the calendar forward did not change the fact that Tuesday follows Monday or that Friday precedes Saturday. Therefore, it is still possible to know, with accuracy, that the day on which Sabbath was observed in the Bible was Saturday.

Amidst all of this controversy what is the most amazing to me is that there is so much resistance to a commandment which it seems we should all love and be excited to follow. I mean basically remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy means that we don’t work on the Sabbath whichever day we decide it to be. This means that we are mandated to spend a 24 hour period relaxing, spending time with our families and worshipping God. I personally love having an excuse to just stop. Our world has become so fast-paced, at least in North America, that we barely have time to breathe. Between working long hours to make enough money to pay the bills and have a bit of entertainment, and the plethora of information, as well as social media, that we must wade through each day just to keep up with what’s going on in the world, it is increasingly difficult for us to slow down and relax. And that doesn’t even account for checking our email, spending time with our families, or spending time with God.

The CDC reports a lack of sleep as one of the leading causes of many impairments and chronic diseases which plague our society in the 21^st century. And as the pace of our society increases, they report, the number of hours of sleep for many in the population decreases. Their reports tell us that more than a third of American adults are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis. Sleeping less than seven hours per day regularly is associated with an increased risk of developing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. It is estimated to be one of the major causes in many accidents including the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It is responsible for an estimated 100,000 automobile accidents and 1,550 vehicle deaths per year. It contributes heavily to major depression and it impairs cognitive abilities such as memory and ability to make sound judgements. It seems God was right when He mandated us to take a day of rest.

Nearly every culture, from Babylon through modern times, rested on the 7^th day. The custom began long before written language and long before God made a covenant with Abraham and the Hebrew nation was born. As language developed the 7^th day was named rest day in every language. For example, the Babylonians called the seventh day of the week “sa-ba-tu” which meant “rest day”.  The word sabbat comes from the Hebrew verb sabat which means to stop or to cease. And of course, Sabbath comes from the word sabbat. So, the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, the 7^th day of the week, is a day to stop or to cease; it is a day to rest. In modern times more than 100 languages worldwide, use the word Sabbath for Saturday and designate no other day on the calendar as a rest day. So, it seems clear that God made man with the instinct to have a rest day every seven days. That he codified it with the Jews only underscores its importance.

So, while I believe it is clear that we are commanded to observe the Sabbath, and which day of the week God designated as the Sabbath, this space is not to argue that point. What I want to make clear here is two points. The first being that regular rest and relaxation, including regularly getting 7 hours of sleep each night, is a need that human beings have and have always had. When we don’t get it, it doesn’t take too long for our souls, that is our mind will, and emotions to break down; nor can our bodies withstand long periods without regular rest. The next point is that, once again, God proves to us that He is much wiser than are we: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.–Isaiah 55:8-9. That’s why He knew that left to our own devices we would not get the rest we need. So He mandated that we cease all work on the Sabbath day. Sadly, He also knew we humans would try to find a way to justify ignoring His commandment.

All of the arguing about whether we have to observe the Sabbath and which day is the Sabbath day is much ado about nothing as far as I’m concerned. I believe it is designed to deflect our responsibility which is a favorite pass time of mankind. In the Bible, God very clearly commands us to: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 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. Exodus 20:8-11. There is no equivocation, in this verse, it doesn’t say pick whatever day you want for your personal Sabbath, it does say cease work on the 7^th day. So, let’s all just give in, relax and enjoy our Sabbath, 24 hours of blissful rest.