The Ten Commandments, Part 4
The fourth commandment, the longest of the ten, is, “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 manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 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)
Yehovah (God) was the first to ever celebrate Sabbath. He worked for six days and rested on the seventh to show me how to live. He could have finished creation more quickly perhaps, or taken a longer break, but instead showed us His perfect plan. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” (Genesis 2:1-3)
While some say this is the old covenant, according to Christ it still remains, otherwise, He would not have reiterated Sabbath in Matthew 12:1-13. Why would Christ tell people what was to be done on the Sabbath if it was no longer to be done? The new covenant is love: “They will know you by your love.” In the new covenant we should love the Lord’s law. “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;” (Hebrews 4:9) (Please read the whole chapters on your own every time I use but one verse).
While vast numbers of Christians have opted for days other than what God commanded, the fact is only one day was ever set aside by God. The Sabbath, according to the Hebraic calendar used in the Word of God, is from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. What do we do on this day? We should use it to rest our bodies, abstaining from our normal routine of work or business like buying and selling, and take the time to study His Word so we can keep the Sabbath holy. The true benefit from the Sabbath comes by seeking the spiritual things of God. Physical gratification is short-lived; it does not satisfy the soul. Spiritual things do. Aside from meditating on God, valuable time can be spent in prayer and family Bible study. (Matthew 4:4 and Proverbs 22:6) But be on guard so that the Sabbath does not become a tradition that has lost meaning.
Friday is designated as the preparation day. This gives man the opportunity to prepare in advance. Consider the example in Exodus 16:22-23. All heavy cooking should be done on the preparation day, so that kitchen labor can be kept to a minimum on the Sabbath. Livestock can be tended to, but not worked. Leviticus 23:2-3 shows a holy assembly is a requirement. Jesus set the example in Luke 4:16. On the Sabbath, one’s mind should be calm and peaceful. If you cannot find an assembly of like-minded people, it would be best to observe the Sabbath at home with family and find an assembly during the week. I see no harm in going to church on Sunday…and nor do I see harm in fellowship on any of the other days, so long we do not attempt to be higher than God by trying to override His command and celebrate Sabbath at a different time other than the one appointed.
There are arguments to go against everything the Bible says and each one of them comes from the wicked one. Most churches believe drinking wine is sinful and foolish when Yehoshuah (Jesus) Himself drank wine. (However, alcoholism and the like there is a problem with. If you wish to read more please on alcoholism, click here.) Some also say that we are to get together on Sunday and not Sabbath, or that there is no longer a Sabbath. However, God said to honor Sabbath, His Son did indeed do this, and it is my desire to be like Christ. Well, let’s assume that the Sabbath was moved to Sunday. Did God in His Commands do this? No. Did God’s Son remove or change Sabbath while on earth? No. Will I follow the traditions of man that God’s Son hated? No. Why should we doubt when the Messiah Himself kept the Sabbath? Christ was only against the teachings of man, not the teachings of God.
“He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.” (2 Peter 3:16-17)
In Acts 20:7 we read, “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.” The term ‘breaking of bread’ is still used by many cultures and people to signify getting together and eating (this was not communion link Passover). Paul was leaving soon and obviously still had much to say and so spoke until midnight. If I were leaving for a long time tomorrow, would I not go and spend a lot of time with my family? Yes I would, as did our brother Paul. Many, as the above verse states, will twist this Scripture, and say this means Sabbath was changed to Sunday.
However, whose disciples are we? “What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas "; still another, "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?" (1 Corinthians 1:12-13) Christ never said ‘take up your cross and follow Paul’. I say this with all honesty, if the President, Moses, Noah, Jeremiah, Solomon, David, John, Paul, Peter, Matthew, and every other man and woman in the world that has ever been, said it’s ok to steal and murder, would it make a difference? Christ said it wasn’t ok, and God wrote them both, along with eight other commandments, in stone. Hence, there is no argument. There remains then a Sabbath rest for His people.
There are other attacks by those who do not desire to keep His commands, one of which is, ‘only if you’re a Jew do you need to keep the commandments’…I am not Mr. Brandt of Colorado, an American Gentile...I am I AM's! I am His servant and nothing will ever change that! No flame of hate, or flame of fire, will ever burn that from me! Isaiah 56 explains that those, including any foreigner, who has bound himself to the Lord to serve, love, and worship the name of Adoni (Hebrew for Lord), who keep the Sabbath (all of the Lord’s [not Jewish] feasts are also Sabbaths) without desecrating them will be blessed. So I guess if you have not bound yourself to Adoni (Lord) then you do not have to keep His Sabbaths.
After the ascension of Christ, the disciples started meeting on the first day of each week for prayer and praise. The Jewish Christians for a long time kept both the seventh day and the first. Why did they keep both? Well, the Gentile Christians, having never kept Sabbath before, celebrated only the first day of the week. The Jewish Christians embraced the Gentile celebration to the Sun (hence Sunday) to try (past tense of try is fail) and gain more converts.
“The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same." You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:29-32)
Much like the church embracing Halloween (insert link) to gain more people has brought in demons, the celebration of the seventh day by Christians was finally abandoned because they embraced the pagan practices of others. Though some will say it is to remember Christ’s resurrection, don’t let them fool you into the same thinking that got them fooled into Easter (insert link). I’ve never seen any of the people they ‘reached’ through celebrating Halloween go to church afterwards, because when we embrace the world…that is all we have, but if we embrace God then we have something desirable. Oddly enough, God’s Word remains true. He does not change. He cannot lie. Hence His desire to be worshiped His way has not changed. What a powerful stronghold Satan has in the traditions of man. What a wicked generation we live in. … But fret not, as His return is so near.
Sabbath is the Lord’s Labor Day, only He gives us one a week, while man gives us one a year. As usual, God’s plan is so much better than man’s. I am afraid to say this but I think some of us are giving the Lord one day of rest…and not six days of work. There’s more than one side to a coin and there is more than one side to a command from God. Let us not be twisters or ignorers of His Laws but, as Christ Himself was not here to change the law but rather fulfill it, so then should we who desire to follow Him. Let us honor more than the day of rest, let us honor the other six as well by working for Yehoshuah (Jesus)! “Then said He unto His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.’” (Matthew 9:37) I wonder if the workers are few because we are taking God’s rest and man’s work. We need to stop being man’s servant and start being God’s servant! Go ye and spread the Good News!
While on the Sabbath it is unlawful to work for man, work in the form of serving God and showing mercy is lawful. To spend the entire day doing good deeds would hinder the purpose of the Sabbath, but certainly the sick can be visited and the discouraged lifted up by encouragement on this Holy Day. Yehoshuah (Jesus) helped others when the occasion arose to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God. If you read Matthew 12:1-21 you’ll see what I say through Christ Himself. In fact, while you’re at it, please read Exodus 20:8-11, Nehemiah 13:15-21, Ezekiel 20:11-21, Psalms 92, Jeremiah 17:21-22, Isaiah 58:13-14, Lamentations 2:5-7, Mark 2:23-28, Luke 14:5, John 5:17-18, Acts 1:12, Colossians 2:15-17, and Hebrews 4:1-11, and take His Word for it, not mine. “for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:10) Have restful Sabbath.