Honoring the Sabbath

Recently the topic of the 10 Commandments has come up in several of our small groups/church things. I’m guessing God wants me to make a discovery here. So here they are:

Exodus 20 –
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in taking God’s name in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 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: 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.

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

So . . . If you notice, most of the commandments are one liners. I think that is because they are so simple, even humans can figure it out. Don’t kill (God created that person), duh!

But two of them stand out a little. No idols and honor the sabbath. It makes a lot of sense that God would need to spell the no idols one out, seeing as how the Israelites were in the process of building a golden calf while Moses was on the mountain. And the command is even more relevant today in a world where people give themselves over to worshiping celebrities, food, addictions, TV, and sex.

I think I’m usually pretty good about all of them except the Sabbath one. Nate and I have been trying to decide what that first sentence really means, but all we need to do is read the rest of the paragraph: don’t work, don’t make anyone else have to work for you. But if you just end the understanding there, the question of
what is work is sure to rise. The Isralites had the same problem and they ended up writing a lot of laws that defined it and what you could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath. But they missed the big picture. Here’s what Jesus did:

Mark 3:3-4
3. And He said to the man with the withered hand, “Rise and come forward!” 4. And He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5. And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6. And the Pharisees went out and immediately began taking counsel with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

Jesus was grieved that we (humans) took that commandment so literally that we didn’t stop to think what He wanted. Healing isn’t work!! Doing anything that praises God or helps others to understand God’s love isn’t work!!

I believe the def of work should be “what you have to do to make money for yourself”. So, with that definition, we haven’t been too bad, but I have gone into work on Sundays before. I’ll have to stop that. It is nice to take a step back and keep yourself from getting so legalistic that you cut everything out of a day that you usually use for God’s service. Going to a ministry meeting, volunteering on the YARP website, attending bible study/small group, and taking time to call your parents/siblings/friends are not work. They are part of keeping the family of God healthy and bringing praise to Him.
Oh and don’t forget to do a little bible reading and praying too!