How to Properly Observe the Sabbath

Building on the previous podcast about why we should keep the seventh-day Sabbath, this episode explains how to properly observe it by reviewing the foundational principles for keeping God’s Sabbath as He intended. 

Transcript

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Few people have experienced the benefits that come from keeping God's Sabbath correctly. In fact, most people have not realized that this law of God even exists, let alone keep it. What about you? Do you know how to properly observe the Sabbath according to Scripture? If not, you're missing out on one of God's great blessings. Jesus Christ said the Sabbath was made for man in Mark 2.27. It was made to enable him to live a happier and more abundant life. It was never meant to be a burden. Each of us tends to become overly absorbed in the cares of this life, and God foresaw this. So he set aside the Sabbath as a time when we can completely forget about our regular work. The Sabbath is a time we can spend more time on activities that help us have a better relationship with God, our family, and our brothers and sisters in Christ. From the very beginning, God intended his Sabbath to be a delight. In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 3, we read, Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. To sanctify means to make holy or to set apart for holy use. We see that from the very beginning God placed special value on the seventh day of the week. In Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 to 11, we read about the fourth of the Ten Commandments. Here it says, beginning in verse 8, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. When the children of Israel were led out of Egypt, God instructed them to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. They could not be expected to remember something that no one had ever heard of, nor could they be asked to keep something holy which had not been made holy. God was not here instituting the Sabbath when he spoke to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. Rather, he was reminding them of it. We are commanded to keep the Sabbath holy. Only God can make a thing, a person, or time holy. And when God created the Sabbath on the seventh day, he blessed it and hallowed it. In verse nine, we continue, six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. God has given us six of seven days of the week to do whatever we need or desire to do. He does not specify exactly how we should use these other six days, but he does specify what we should and what we should not do on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not a day to do business or earn a living or do our normal routine activities. The term work that is used here refers especially to the labor of earning a living. In those days, society was primarily an agrarian society. Farming and those efforts which it was associated with were the main occupation. God commanded that even children and animals should rest from work on the Sabbath. Verse 11, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the Sabbath day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. The Sabbath is a memorial of creation. We learn from these verses that the Sabbath is to be kept holy, and that we are to rest on the Sabbath. These are the two main things that God commands us to do on the Sabbath. But let's look further regarding God's instructions regarding Sabbath keeping. Notice what it says in Leviticus twenty three, verses one to three. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, The feast of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feast. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it, it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. We might say the Sabbath is a commanded assembly. Here we see it's called a holy convocation. A holy convocation is a religious service convened by an authorized minister of Jesus Christ. To neglect such convocations or assemblies when they are held, except for sickness or the occasional unusual circumstances, it is to disobey the Sabbath command. We assemble on the Sabbath to be taught and to learn more about God and His way of life and the messages that we hear. We assemble to sing praises to God. We assemble to fellowship with one another. Convoking or assembling on the Sabbath is a big deal to God. God commands our attendance. Notice the Apostle Paul's solemn warning in Hebrews chapter ten, verses twenty three through twenty five. He writes, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Of course, the day approaching refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ. So how was the Sabbath kept in the days of Christ? The Sabbath day was customarily observed by holding services in a local synagogue. A definite series of readings of Scripture took place every Sabbath in the temple. We see this in Luke 4.16. Christ went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read, it says. These services were generally held in the morning, with those in attendance having a major meal or a feast in the afternoon. Often guests were invited home from the synagogue. Most of the Sabbath day was taken up with Sabbath services and with fellowship. Sabbath observance is not optional. The Sabbath is to be observed each week regardless of the pressing duties, rush business, or when it is even time to plant or harvest. In Exodus 34, 21, it simply says, Six days shall you work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, in ploughing time and in harvest you shall rest. Generally speaking, the Sabbath is a feast day. Notice again Leviticus 23, verse 2. He says, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, The feast of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. In the very next verse, the weekly Sabbath is mentioned first before all the other holy days. It's important to note that these are God's feasts, and that the Sabbath is normally a feast day, not a fast day. In some cases, however, a fast may be appropriate on a Sabbath. Fasting means that we abstain from food and water. And of course, any fast of a week or more would certainly include a Sabbath or Sabbath. We see that Jesus Christ on one occasion fasted for forty days. Usually the Sabbath, however, is to be a time that we enjoy the finest, most delicious meals of the entire week. We should strive to make the Sabbath special for our children and our families. Prepare a relaxing evening in a beautiful setting, maybe even listening to inspire or inspiring or tranquil music before or during or after the meal could add to the experience. Christ intended the Sabbath to benefit mankind. In Exodus 23, twelve, he says, Six days shall you work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your maidservant and the stranger may be refreshed. Notice the words rest and refreshed. The word Sabbath literally means rest. The Sabbath allows us to rest physically and mentally after a busy week. God knew that we as humans would need a period of rest from work. The Sabbath allows us to think more about God, to pray and worship Him and to study the Bible, to understand more about God's purpose for mankind. The scriptures also show we should prepare for the Sabbath. In order that we may have our minds free from last minute duties on the Sabbath, God has commanded that we prepare for it the day before. God demonstrated to ancient Israel the function of the preparation day when he sent manna from heaven for their food. The Israelites were instructed to gather each morning only sufficient manna for the day. Any left to the next day would spoil. However, each Friday God miraculously supplied two days worth of manna for each person to gather, and he kept the portion gathered on Friday for the Sabbath day from spoiling. Notice what it says in Exodus sixteen, beginning in verse twenty two. And so it was on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, This is what the Lord has said. Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today and boil what you will boil, and lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept until the morning. So they laid it up till morning as Moses commanded, and it did not stay, nor were there nor were there worms in it. Today we do not normally live under the same conditions the Israelites lived in then. But it should be evident from the examples given in Scripture that gathering fuel, gathering food, and heavy preparation should be done before the Sabbath, not during it. God doesn't want us to clutter up his Sabbath with long hours of cooking. We are to do our heavy cooking and baking before the Sabbath starts. Things that require considerable time and effort, such as potato salads and pies and the like, should be prepared in advance to reduce the amount of work done on the Sabbath. However, this does not mean that it's wrong to prepare food on the Sabbath or the holy days. God does allow food preparation on all of his feast days, including the weekly Sabbath, except on the Day of Atonement, which is a fast day. There's a difference between occupational or servile work and the preparation of food to be eaten on a Sabbath. Notice in Leviticus 23, verse 7, it says, on the first day, and here it's referring to the days of unleavened bread, you shall have a holy convocation, you shall do no customary, or as the margin says, occupational, as the King James says, servile work on it. So this kind of work should not be done on the Sabbath. However, when referring to this same holy day, note what kind of work may be done on the annual Sabbath or a weekly Sabbath, as they are all listed together in context. In Exodus 12, 16, it says, on the first day there shall be a holy convocation, again referring to the first day of the days of unleavened bread. And on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them, but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared by you. For example, imagine that we want to prepare a nice roast with an assortment of vegetables for the Sabbath. This may require plenty of slicing and peeling, browning the roast, etc. So what should we do? Well, one way to handle this is to cook it on Friday until it's nearly done, but not all the way, and then on the Sabbath you simply can warm it up. In this way, as little time as possible will be required on the Sabbath, and the roast will not be dry. The same is true for any kind of baking. Baked goods that require considerable time to prepare can be prepared ahead of time and enjoyed on the Sabbath. Elaborate salads and similar items should be prepared separately ahead of time and saved until the Sabbath. Simple food preparation of various kinds can be done on the Sabbath as already noted. Balance is the key. Remember, anything that can reasonably be done before the Sabbath should be, so we can spend our time the way God wants us to spend it on this special day. God also instructed the Israelites not to go out to gather firewood firewood on the Sabbath, because it was a lot of work. We see the instruction in Numbers 15, verse 32. Imagine two or three million people in the wilderness living in tents, cooking on open fires. How far would they have to go to find firewood? Especially if the pillar of fire or the cloud had not moved for days or even weeks. The Bible also talks about kindling a fire on the Sabbath. Some have wondered about Exodus 35, verse 3, you shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day. What about this verse? What does it mean? If we read the context of Exodus 35, we see that the Israelites are building the tabernacle. And they were so zealous about this work that Moses had to tell them to stop bringing on needed materials for its construction, and also to cease all work on the tabernacle and the things contained in it on the Sabbath. The instruction in Exodus 35, verse 3 concerns an industrial fire, a fire large enough to work metal. Building a fire on the Sabbath in itself is not wrong, because we see that God commanded certain fires to be kept burning continually. For instance, Exodus 27 and verse 20. So when do days begin and end according to God? When should we observe the Sabbath? When should we keep it holy? In order to do this, we must know when it occurs. We must know when it begins and when it ends. The world today begins and ends its days at midnight, but when do the days begin and end according to the Bible, according to God? Well, this is made crystal clear in the first chapter of the book of Genesis and in several other places throughout the Bible. Let's look at several verses in the first chapter of Genesis and find that in every case the evening precedes the morning. For instance, Genesis one five, so the evening and the morning were the first day. Verse eight, so the evening and the morning were the second day. Verse thirteen, so the evening and the morning were the third day, and so on and so on. It's very clear that God wants us to observe the Sabbath correctly and that it is holy time. Leviticus twenty three thirty two says, It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month that even from evening to evening you shall celebrate your Sabbath. This refers to the Day of Atonement listed along with the weekly Sabbath and the other annual Sabbaths. But it serves the same purpose to point out that the Day of Atonement is a fast day, and we see the principle of keeping the Sabbaths both annual Sabbaths and weekly Sabbaths from even to even, or we might say from sunset to sunset. Which day of the week is the seventh day? If we look at any basic calendar, we will see that Sunday is the first day of the week and that Saturday is the seventh day of the week. The weekly cycle has not been broken since man was created. God's Sabbath day is the seventh day, which is Saturday on the Roman calendar. And since God's days begin and end at sunset, that is when we should keep God's Sabbath, beginning Friday evening at sunset and ending Saturday evening at sunset. The book of Isaiah provides us with more information on how to properly observe God's Sabbath. Notice what said in chapter 58, verses 13 and 14. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and to feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. What are your own ways, your own pleasure, and your own words? First of all, your own ways, this means course of life or mode of action, that is your employment, your enterprises, your finances, the serious business of making a livelihood. We should not involve ourselves in working at what we normally do during the week, those things by which we feed, clothe, and care for ourselves and for our families physically. This includes working around the house, sewing, cleaning, washing the car, all the things that pertain to your physical maintenance during the normal course of the week. What about your own pleasure? What did God mean by this? It's difficult to call a day a delight when it contains nothing pleasurable. So forsaking one's pleasure does not mean that the Sabbath is to be a rigorous day of abstinence. The problem is derived from a misunderstanding of what is meant by your own pleasure in this verse. The Hebrew word is usually translated desire or purpose. The New English Bible, for instance, makes it plain. And it translates this verse as if you cease to tread on the tread the Sabbath underfoot and keep my holy day free from your own affairs, if you call the Sabbath a day of joy, not seeking your own interest or attending to your own affairs. So the instruction in these verses has nothing to do with pleasure in the sense that we normally use it. It does not refer to the proper type of entertainment, laughter, and joy that we can enjoy on the Sabbath. But let's not jump into the other ditch. The principle is that we should avoid having our mind, time, and energy taken up in hobbies, sports, and pleasure seeking. The Sabbath was not designed for activities such as hunting and fishing, golfing, going to the movies, attending or watching sporting events, those things that take up our leisure time. What about our own words? This is a spiritual application of the first two principles. In Matthew 12, verse 34 it says, For out of the abundance of the heart the mouse speaks. So what we talk about is what we are thinking. Our words show what is going on in our minds and hearts. This is obviously the most difficult of all. We may cease doing our own ways and our own pleasures, but it's much more difficult to cease thinking or talking about them. Those who do not take business calls, answer text, send emails, or even worry about their normal jobs on the Sabbath are following the biblical instruction and the spirit of the law. Such a person will experience the full benefit of the Sabbath. Again, we shouldn't become pharisaical. This doesn't mean that you can't mention physical things. There's no regulation such as you may not spend More than 30 seconds talking about cars on the Sabbath. You simply apply the principle by putting your mind on the positive purposes for which the Sabbath was made. If our mind is mainly on our own thoughts, dreams, and business deals and entertainment, then we miss the mark in keeping the Sabbath. Again, balanced Sabbath keeping is key. Christ taught balance and wisdom, having the right attitude in Sabbath observance. The Jews, steeped in physical rituals in Christ's day, could not understand. They would rescue an ox from a pit on the Sabbath, but condemn Christ for healing an unfortunate human being on that day. They, by adding their own traditions and interpretations, made the Sabbath a burden. The problem today is that some take Christ's teachings and they go to the opposite extreme from the religionist of Christ's time. When Christ said it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath, he was being accused of healing a man with a withered hand. This act did not require work of labor prohibited by the Sabbath command. But this example does not imply that since working as a nurse or a doctor on the Sabbath is doing good, that a person may be gainfully employed in that occupation on the Sabbath. Regarding the other example, that of the ox in the ditch, mentioned in Luke 14, the first five verses, some might conclude that any supposed emergency can be taken care of on the Sabbath. Some emergencies simply can wait, especially if they do not affect the life and limb of man or beast. After all, an ox does not fall into a ditch every Sabbath or even frequently, and it would not take all day to get the ox out of the pit or ditch. The principle of the ox in the ditch applies to genuine emergencies, like personal injuries or burning houses, accidents and other occurrences such as natural disasters, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., which would entail injury or loss of life or of personal property. This principle does not apply to those who push their ox into the ditch by acquiring or keeping a job where they know they'll be required to work on the Sabbath. God must always come first, even if we lose our job or suffer persecution for not working on the Sabbath. The Sabbath, after all, is a test commandment. Before sunset, Friday evening, we ought to have taken care of the necessary business or personal responsibilities so that we can truly enjoy the Sabbath. Every Sabbath we can be thankful that the Sabbath has arrived. It is the most enjoyable day of the week. It is truly a delight. We should be able to have the best night's sleep of all nights of the week. At bedtime we should have no business or anxious thoughts to prevent us from sleeping soundly. The Sabbath is a time for real family togetherness that may not be possible during the rest of the week. A special time and opportunity to teach children about God and His ways. A day we can visit the sick, the widows, and the elderly, a time when we can appreciate the beauties and marvels of God's creation, whether flowers or bees or any part of God's creation conveniently available. When's the last time you took a walk in the park with your family on a Sabbath? It is a day that we can spend extra time in prayer and study or meditating on God's law, since we have added time that is not available during the rest of the week. The Sabbath is unlike any other day of the week, it is holy time set apart by God for a special and wonderful purpose. How you observe the Sabbath will determine how well you please God and how much you will be able to rejoice in this most special day of the entire week.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Thank you for joining us for this episode. If you found today's program helpful, be sure to subscribe. Join us again for another episode of the Gospel Truth Podcast. For more information, visit our website at thegospeltruthpodcast.org. This has been a presentation of the Church of God Assembly.