Dr. Paul Manuel—Sabbath Emphasis Day—2002
What defines you as a Christian? How do other people know who you are? You can tell them, of course, but the most obvious indicator is how you act, especially under pressure.
After the six days of creation, Genesis records that God rested from His labor on the seventh day, establishing a precedent for something He would recall many years later. That initial account gives few details, simply that...
I. The Purpose of the Sabbath
As I said, much of this information appears elsewhere as well, but the repetition here underscores the importance of the day. For example, God calls the seventh day, "a Sabbath of rest,"3 a designation that appears several times in Exodus and that seems redundant, since the word Sabbath means "rest."
Several of the larger stores have discovered that offering their own credit cards is a way of getting customers to spend more money. As an incentive, these stores sometimes offer the applicant a special discount on whatever purchases he makes that day and will also give him a gift—but not just a gift...a free gift.4
Does the store think consumers are unfamiliar with the gift concept? ...No, it is simply a way to hype the product and attract attention. People are accustomed to companies competing for their business and may ignore the offer of a gift, but a free gift—now that is worth something.
I do not know if the same reasoning lies behind the term "Sabbath of rest." It is difficult to believe how a people recently freed from slavery could so quickly become accustomed to the concept of a weekly day of rest that they would need some redundant term to grab their attention. If, however, that is possible for them, might it be more so for us who are familiar with the concept of "a day off," even if we do not take it? This is one of the purposes of the Sabbath...
Did God command the Sabbath because He knew people might not rest on their own? ...For whatever reason, He stresses the importance of this day repeatedly in scripture. Of course, what you do on your day off is up to you, right? ...Not quite.
One of the unique features of this verse, and a reason we should not ignore it, is that here God identifies the Sabbath as "a day of sacred assembly" (NIV) or "a holy convocation" (KJV, ASV, NAS, RSV). This phrase appears nineteen times in scripture, eleven times in this chapter, all of which describe the times God has established for His people's corporate worship.5 Most of these times are annual events—yearly holidays that commemorate significant moments in the nation's history. One of these times, however, occurs weekly. God expects His people to gather every Sabbath to offer Him their devotion....
What about Sunday, when most Christians worship? Let me just say that Sunday is a wonderful day to worship God. In fact, it is a better day than Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, because it commemorates the day our savior rose from the dead, which is why the vast majority of the Church today gathers on Sunday. There is one difference, however, between the seventh day and the first day that few seem to consider.
God designates the seventh day as "a day of sacred assembly." Of course, once you have worshiped God on Sabbath morning, what you do with the rest of your day off is up to you, right? ...Not quite.
The last clause states that "it is a Sabbath to the Lord." In other words, all of it belongs to God, not just an hour or two in the morning. The Sabbath is God's time, when His people set aside their business to be about His business....
Have you ever seen the movie, The Frisco Kid (1979). It is a comedy western about a rabbi (Gene Wilder) who comes from Poland to America and makes his way from New York, where he lands, to San Francisco, where he is to serve the Jewish community. Along the way, he encounters various difficulties and finally teams up with a cowboy (Harrison Ford), who takes pity on him. Unbeknown to the rabbi, this cowboy is a bank robber by trade who, at one point, empties a local vault and flees, with the unsuspecting rabbi in tow. They elude a posse, which initially goes off in the wrong direction, and after a hard day's ride, the two fugitives are able to get some much-needed sleep. When morning comes, the bank robber anxiously awaits the end of his companion's personal devotions so they can move on before the posse realizes its mistake and doubles back. It is the Sabbath, however, and the rabbi refuses to ride his horse, insisting instead upon walking. As the day wears on, the posse gets closer and the bank robber gets frantic, but nothing he says will convince the rabbi to ride before the Sabbath is over. For the rabbi, God's interests take priority over his own.
You will probably never be fleeing from a posse intent upon elongating your neckline. Yet...
Along with addressing the purpose of the Sabbath, this verse speaks to...
II. The Priority of the Sabbath
God says, "You are not to do any work." Although that is a bit general, we know...
How do we distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate activities on the Sabbath? It might have been helpful had God given us a detailed list of approved diversions.10 Instead, He gave this very general guideline and left the specifics of sanctifying the Sabbath to us. I suspect this is a test of our willingness to put His interests above our own.11
When Linda and I were studying in Israel, keeping the Sabbath was much easier, because the pace of life changes. Stores close and public transportation shuts down. Outside Israel, like here in the U.S., the culture is not so accommodating. The weekly pace of life continues essentially unchanged, which makes keeping the Sabbath a greater challenge. There are more distractions, more opportunities to do other things. How are we to decide what is appropriate?
When God's people faced similar conditions in Babylon, He gave this general rule-of-thumb through the prophet Isaiah.
One of the questions that came out of a Young Adult Class study of the Ten Commandments was about the many other precepts God had given. How can we determine which of those 613 ordinances apply to His people, including us, today?12] ...Many of them do not apply, because they pertain to the temple (which no longer exists) or to the land of Israel (where we do not live). The Sabbath has neither of those limitations. In fact, this verse says that it obtains "wherever you live,"13 meaning that...
When God sent Israel into exile in Babylon, many of the people probably wondered if He had abandoned them. Did it matter if they still kept His instructions? Were those commands even relevant in a foreign land? Through the prophet Isaiah, God confirms that His expectations have not changed, especially regarding this precept.
There is, however, a disturbing trend among Seventh Day Baptists as an increasing number are imitating their Sunday brethren by viewing the weekly service as the extent of their religious obligation. They assume that, after attending worship, they are free to spend the rest of the day doing whatever they want. If you are serious about keeping the Sabbath, then you must keep it as God commands or you are wasting His time. After all, that is what the Sabbath is: God's time to do as He pleases, not your time to do as you please. I urge you to reflect carefully on what you do with this period. To help in this regard, I recommend three other passages that also express God's viewpoint.
People outside the congregation may also be watching. When Senator Joseph Lieberman, who is an observant Jew, became the vice presidential candidate in the 2000 election, "the mainstream media fussed and fretted over whether his Sabbath observance [would] conflict with his political duties." A Christianity Today editorial answered, "Of course it will [conflict].... A day of restful remembering that we live under the creative and liberating power of God is prescribed. And what better place to begin modeling that pattern...? ... Sabbath observance...could be a great...moral wake-up [for] a morally deadened citizenry." (Editor 2000:31) What kind of example are you setting? There is a testimony to others you must not ignore.
Again, I urge you to evaluate carefully what you do on the Sabbath in the light of what God expects. If the sanctuary is empty next week, I will assume you all adopted my earlier suggestion and concluded it would be best to avoid this problem altogether by attending church on Sunday, but I hope that will not be the case.
Many passages in scripture provide information about the Sabbath, and some of them are quite detailed. Yet even a single verse can offer significant instruction about the purpose and priority of the Sabbath, instruction we should heed if we would keep The Seventh Day as God intended.
A minister was on a plane, flying from Chicago to California, when it ran into severe turbulence. As it got worse, the passengers became more and more alarmed, and even the flight attendants began to look concerned. Finally, an attendant noticed that one of the names on the passenger list had "REV." in front of it. She approached him and said, "Sir, this is really frightening. Do you suppose you could...I don't know...do something religious?" "Of course," the minister replied.... So he took up a collection.There are many ways you can identify yourself as religious. One way, better than taking an offering, is your treatment of God's precepts, including The Seventh Day.
After the six days of creation, Genesis records that God rested from His labor on the seventh day, establishing a precedent for something He would recall many years later. That initial account gives few details, simply that...
Gen 2:3 ...God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.What implications God's decision might have had for others is unclear—perhaps none. There is no command here; neither is there evidence that anyone in Genesis followed His example. In fact, the issue of the Sabbath does not come up again until the book of Exodus when God commands Israel to observe it. From that point, the Sabbath receives extensive treatment, along with the rest of the Pentateuch as it offers instruction for God's people.1 Some passages about the seventh day are fairly long, yet even the shortest can offer important information.
Lev 23:3 There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.This chapter of Leviticus contains an extended discussion of the festivals God commands Israel to observe.2 The most important of these holidays is the Sabbath, which is why it appears first in this list. What is odd is that, despite its significance, the Sabbath receives the briefest explanation, just this one verse, whereas the other holidays all receive several verses. The reason for this apparent short-shrift is probably that God discusses the Sabbath at length elsewhere, so it is not necessary to go into great detail here. If we want to know about the seventh day, perhaps it would be better to look at one of those more extensive discussions instead. Were we to do that, though, we might miss what this verse tells about...
I. The Purpose of the Sabbath
As I said, much of this information appears elsewhere as well, but the repetition here underscores the importance of the day. For example, God calls the seventh day, "a Sabbath of rest,"3 a designation that appears several times in Exodus and that seems redundant, since the word Sabbath means "rest."
Several of the larger stores have discovered that offering their own credit cards is a way of getting customers to spend more money. As an incentive, these stores sometimes offer the applicant a special discount on whatever purchases he makes that day and will also give him a gift—but not just a gift...a free gift.4
Does the store think consumers are unfamiliar with the gift concept? ...No, it is simply a way to hype the product and attract attention. People are accustomed to companies competing for their business and may ignore the offer of a gift, but a free gift—now that is worth something.
I do not know if the same reasoning lies behind the term "Sabbath of rest." It is difficult to believe how a people recently freed from slavery could so quickly become accustomed to the concept of a weekly day of rest that they would need some redundant term to grab their attention. If, however, that is possible for them, might it be more so for us who are familiar with the concept of "a day off," even if we do not take it? This is one of the purposes of the Sabbath...
A. It is a day of rejuvenation....an opportunity to relax and recuperate from whatever has taxed our physical, mental, and emotional resources that week.
Did God command the Sabbath because He knew people might not rest on their own? ...For whatever reason, He stresses the importance of this day repeatedly in scripture. Of course, what you do on your day off is up to you, right? ...Not quite.
One of the unique features of this verse, and a reason we should not ignore it, is that here God identifies the Sabbath as "a day of sacred assembly" (NIV) or "a holy convocation" (KJV, ASV, NAS, RSV). This phrase appears nineteen times in scripture, eleven times in this chapter, all of which describe the times God has established for His people's corporate worship.5 Most of these times are annual events—yearly holidays that commemorate significant moments in the nation's history. One of these times, however, occurs weekly. God expects His people to gather every Sabbath to offer Him their devotion....
B. It is a day of convocation....an opportunity He extends also to us to join our hearts and voices in joyful celebration of the wonderful fact that we know God and that He knows us.
What about Sunday, when most Christians worship? Let me just say that Sunday is a wonderful day to worship God. In fact, it is a better day than Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, because it commemorates the day our savior rose from the dead, which is why the vast majority of the Church today gathers on Sunday. There is one difference, however, between the seventh day and the first day that few seem to consider.
- The basis for worship on Saturday is the teaching of the Bible.
- The basis for worship on Sunday is the tradition of the Church.
God designates the seventh day as "a day of sacred assembly." Of course, once you have worshiped God on Sabbath morning, what you do with the rest of your day off is up to you, right? ...Not quite.
The last clause states that "it is a Sabbath to the Lord." In other words, all of it belongs to God, not just an hour or two in the morning. The Sabbath is God's time, when His people set aside their business to be about His business....
C. It is a day of dedication....an opportunity to demonstrate how important God is to us by giving priority to His interests rather than to our own.
Have you ever seen the movie, The Frisco Kid (1979). It is a comedy western about a rabbi (Gene Wilder) who comes from Poland to America and makes his way from New York, where he lands, to San Francisco, where he is to serve the Jewish community. Along the way, he encounters various difficulties and finally teams up with a cowboy (Harrison Ford), who takes pity on him. Unbeknown to the rabbi, this cowboy is a bank robber by trade who, at one point, empties a local vault and flees, with the unsuspecting rabbi in tow. They elude a posse, which initially goes off in the wrong direction, and after a hard day's ride, the two fugitives are able to get some much-needed sleep. When morning comes, the bank robber anxiously awaits the end of his companion's personal devotions so they can move on before the posse realizes its mistake and doubles back. It is the Sabbath, however, and the rabbi refuses to ride his horse, insisting instead upon walking. As the day wears on, the posse gets closer and the bank robber gets frantic, but nothing he says will convince the rabbi to ride before the Sabbath is over. For the rabbi, God's interests take priority over his own.
You will probably never be fleeing from a posse intent upon elongating your neckline. Yet...
- How easy it is to let far less serious matters intrude on God's time and cut short your devotion to Him.
- How easy it is to blur the distinction between your business and God's business.
- How easy it is to do what pleases you rather than exploring what pleases God.
Along with addressing the purpose of the Sabbath, this verse speaks to...
II. The Priority of the Sabbath
God says, "You are not to do any work." Although that is a bit general, we know...
A. It applies to all labor....especially to one's occupation,7 but we suspect it also applies to non-essential activities, some of which we would like to do on our day off.8 So, we come up with creative ways of justifying such things on the Sabbath.9
- Watching the game on TV is restful.
- Finishing the remodeling project that keeps getting put off is essential.
- Spending an afternoon at the mall is enjoyable.
- Hunting, which is communing with God in nature, is devotional.
How do we distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate activities on the Sabbath? It might have been helpful had God given us a detailed list of approved diversions.10 Instead, He gave this very general guideline and left the specifics of sanctifying the Sabbath to us. I suspect this is a test of our willingness to put His interests above our own.11
When Linda and I were studying in Israel, keeping the Sabbath was much easier, because the pace of life changes. Stores close and public transportation shuts down. Outside Israel, like here in the U.S., the culture is not so accommodating. The weekly pace of life continues essentially unchanged, which makes keeping the Sabbath a greater challenge. There are more distractions, more opportunities to do other things. How are we to decide what is appropriate?
When God's people faced similar conditions in Babylon, He gave this general rule-of-thumb through the prophet Isaiah.
Isa 58:13 ...keep...from doing as you please on my holy day... honor it by not going your own way and not...speaking idle words[.]This principle is still useful. When you have to decide what activity is appropriate on the Sabbath, consider whom you are trying to please.
One of the questions that came out of a Young Adult Class study of the Ten Commandments was about the many other precepts God had given. How can we determine which of those 613 ordinances apply to His people, including us, today?12] ...Many of them do not apply, because they pertain to the temple (which no longer exists) or to the land of Israel (where we do not live). The Sabbath has neither of those limitations. In fact, this verse says that it obtains "wherever you live,"13 meaning that...
B. It applies in all locations.Keeping the seventh day is not restricted to a specific place.
When God sent Israel into exile in Babylon, many of the people probably wondered if He had abandoned them. Did it matter if they still kept His instructions? Were those commands even relevant in a foreign land? Through the prophet Isaiah, God confirms that His expectations have not changed, especially regarding this precept.
Isa 56:2 Blessed is the man...who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it.... 6 [including] foreigners...all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it...There is divine advantage to sanctifying the seventh day, regardless of where one lives. Keeping the Sabbath is not restricted to a specific place, which is, in part, why there are Seventh Day Baptists in this community.
There is, however, a disturbing trend among Seventh Day Baptists as an increasing number are imitating their Sunday brethren by viewing the weekly service as the extent of their religious obligation. They assume that, after attending worship, they are free to spend the rest of the day doing whatever they want. If you are serious about keeping the Sabbath, then you must keep it as God commands or you are wasting His time. After all, that is what the Sabbath is: God's time to do as He pleases, not your time to do as you please. I urge you to reflect carefully on what you do with this period. To help in this regard, I recommend three other passages that also express God's viewpoint.
- The first passage indicates that there is a penalty for disobedience you must not ignore.
Exod 31: 14a-b Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death....Although failure to keep the Sabbath as God commands is not a capital crime outside the theocracy, this verse indicates that He does not regard disobedience lightly and that it is not in your interest to do so either. There is a penalty for disobedience you must not ignore.
- The second passage indicates that there is a testimony to others you must not ignore.
Ezek 22:26 [Jerusalem's] priests...shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.Because, as Seventh Day Baptists, you claim to keep the Sabbath, what you choose to do or not do reflects positively or negatively on God. It can sanctify or profane His name to others by making His holy day significant or insignificant. This is especially important for those who have positions of leadership in the church, such as elders and deacons. Others in the congregation judge the importance of the Sabbath and the extent to which they should keep it by their observation of what you do on this day.
People outside the congregation may also be watching. When Senator Joseph Lieberman, who is an observant Jew, became the vice presidential candidate in the 2000 election, "the mainstream media fussed and fretted over whether his Sabbath observance [would] conflict with his political duties." A Christianity Today editorial answered, "Of course it will [conflict].... A day of restful remembering that we live under the creative and liberating power of God is prescribed. And what better place to begin modeling that pattern...? ... Sabbath observance...could be a great...moral wake-up [for] a morally deadened citizenry." (Editor 2000:31) What kind of example are you setting? There is a testimony to others you must not ignore.
- The third passage indicates that there is a reward for obedience you must not ignore.
Isa 58:13 "If you keep.. .the Sabbath... 14 then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." The mouth of the LORD has spoken.As the demands on your schedule increase, there is a tendency to let things encroach on the seventh day that do not belong there, and it requires constant vigilance to guard the sanctity of the Sabbath. You may be able to justify your actions to yourself or even to those around you—"It's the only time I have to do this or that"—but what is God's assessment? That is not a question people ask very often, despite the fact that His opinion is the only one that truly matters. Is what you have planned this afternoon, for example, "doing as you please on [His] holy day"? Keeping the Sabbath often entails giving up what you normally enjoy—hunting, watching a game on TV, going out with friends-but what you get in its place is incomparably better, for "then you will find your joy in the LORD." That is surely something you will not want to miss. There is a reward for obedience you must not ignore.
Again, I urge you to evaluate carefully what you do on the Sabbath in the light of what God expects. If the sanctuary is empty next week, I will assume you all adopted my earlier suggestion and concluded it would be best to avoid this problem altogether by attending church on Sunday, but I hope that will not be the case.
Many passages in scripture provide information about the Sabbath, and some of them are quite detailed. Yet even a single verse can offer significant instruction about the purpose and priority of the Sabbath, instruction we should heed if we would keep The Seventh Day as God intended.
For the Bibliography and Endnotes, see the pdf here.
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Jim Skaggs