The Sabbath

January 18

Genesis 34-35:15

Psalm 11:1-3

Proverbs 3:1-2

Matthew 12:1-21

The Sabbath

“When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, ‘Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.’  But He said to them, ‘……But I say to you that something greater than the Temple is here.  But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’”  Matthew 12:2,6-8 LSB

Exodus 20:8-11 gives us clear instructions about the sabbath day, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yahweh your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or female slave or your cattle or your sojourner who is within your gates.  For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the Earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” LSB  Jesus was not suggesting that the sabbath was no longer important and didn’t need to be followed.  Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets, I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”  Matthew 5:17 LSB  The sabbath was just as significant in Jesus’ day as it was in Moses’ day, and it is just as significant today.  The Pharisees had gone beyond God’s commandments and had added their own requirements that turned the Sabbath into a legalistic prison. 

            The fourth commandment is a gift to us from our heavenly Father.  He knows that our bodies need rest.  He created them and He knows that they get tired and burned out and the best way to prevent that is regular periods of rest and reflection.  He also knows that our minds need rest.  We are not intended to work nonstop without a break.  He knows that the way we function best is to work hard and accomplish much for 6 days and then take a day of rest to rejuvenate our hearts and our minds.  The sabbath is important for our physical health and our mental health,  but it is also important for our spiritual health.  God knows that we need to set aside time each week to focus on Him.  We can easily get weighed down with the cares of this world and become overwhelmed.  Taking time to focus on Him reminds our souls that He is in control, He loves us and He is working in the world around us. 

            The sabbath was never intended to be a strict list of rules of things not to do on that day.  God gave us the sabbath day each week to refocus and reset.  He knows how hectic life is.  He sees our struggle.  He gave us the Sabbath to help us slow down and remember Him.  He is the point of the Sabbath.  While we should not get caught up in a list of things we can’t do on the sabbath, I’m afraid we have gone too far in the other direction and we give very little attention to it at all.  Do we honor the sabbath to keep it holy?  Do we even think about it other than to go to church on Sunday morning?  Do we use it as a day to catch up on our household chores?  Do we use it as a day to refocus our attention on God and prepare us for the week to come?  The sabbath is a gift that our Father gave us because He knows we need it.