Monday: Unrest Over a Rest Day
If, as so much of the Christian world argues, the seventh-day Sabbath was abolished, replaced, superseded, fulfilled (whatever), then why did Jesus spend so much time dealing with how to keep the Sabbath?
Read the following verses. What are the issues under contention in these scenes, and what are not the issues? Matt. 12:1-2; Luke 14:1-6; Mark 2:23-28; John 5:9-16.
Image © Providence Collection from GoodSalt.com
Knowing that one of the reasons Israel had gone into Babylonian captivity was because the nation had defiled the Sabbath, the Pharisees had wanted to prevent that from happening again. Hence, they created a whole litany of rules and regulations about what was and was not acceptable on the Sabbath, with the idea of protecting its sanctity. What were some of those rules?
If a hen lays an egg on the Sabbath, is it OK to eat it? The majority opinion of the Pharisees was that if the hen was an egg-laying hen, then it was not OK to eat an egg laid on Sabbath because the hen was working. However, if a hen was not an egg-laying hen—if it was just a hen being fattened up to be eaten—then it was OK to eat the egg because this wasn’t the hen’s primary labor. (There was also a suggestion that you could eat an egg laid on Sabbath by a laying hen, as long as you later killed the hen for breaking the Sabbath.) Is it OK to look at yourself in a mirror on Sabbath? The answer? No, because if you see a gray hair you might be tempted to pluck it, and this would be reaping and, as such, a violation of the Sabbath. If your house catches fire on Sabbath, is it OK to go salvage your clothes? The answer: you should carry out only one set of clothing. However, if you put on one set of clothing, then you may carry out another set. (By the way, if your home catches fire, it’s not OK to ask a Gentile to put out the fire, but if the Gentile is putting out the fire anyway, that’s OK.) Is it OK to spit on Sabbath? The answer: you may spit on a rock, but you may not spit on the ground because that would be making mud or mortar.
| We might laugh but, in our own way, how might we avoid doing the same thing, not just in regard to the Sabbath but in regard to every aspect of our faith; that is, losing sight of what is truly important and focusing, instead, on the trivial? |
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The Holy Spirit will lead us only in the path that is the way of Christ. If we are motivated by the Spirit of Christ we will have the mind of Christ. This will lead us in His righteousness. This protects us from getting our priorities mixed up.
If we don't give permission for God's Spirit to motivate us in our priorities we might get more mixed up than the Pharisees in how to keep the law of God and to run our life.
Jesus knew the mind of the Father, and we can know the mind of the Father the same way Jesus did--through the motivation and guidance of His Holy Spirit.
"Watch and pray always" choosing Jesus' Spirit as our motivation for all our thoughts and feelings. His righteousness follows.
Is it alright to buy food on sabbath or eat at the restaurant during sabbath specially when your in the city church attending the sabbath and no one invites you for potluck lunch and you travelled along way?
Yen, it seems to me that by making rules about precisely how to keep the Sabbath, we would be following in the footsteps of the Pharisees of Christ's time. We each need to listen to the Holy Spirit on individual choices, remembering that God reads the intention of the heart, and we can't fool Him. Of course, that also means that we cannot judge anyone who makes a different choice from ours.
But there are principles to keep in mind:
1.) Are you seeking to bless someone, or are you only attending to your own perceived needs? (In North America, it is usual to tip the servers, and church members are known to be very ungenerous tippers. This gives God a bad name. So if you should choose to eat at a restaurant, be sure to give an extra-big tip with the message, "God loves you," or something like that.)
2.) Is eating meals on Sabbath a matter of necessity, or would you be just as well off fasting for the day?
3.) Which choice will cause you to focus more on Christ and His work on this planet?
4.) Which choice will allow you to be more of a blessing to someone?
As far as being someone else's conscience,that is not my place.
Discussions of do's and don'ts. I remember a number of years ago in a class of young adults, a tongue in cheek question was, "Is it alright to take a walk on Sabbath afternoon in a nice grassy area with a golf club for stability?"
Some have innumerable possibilities and the answers are like the rich young ruler, I have all the answers, what else do I lack?
Do we need to make a list? It is like the driver for a man that wanted the driver to stay as far away from the edge of a dangerous curvy road as possible, and no matter how skillful the driver was at staying close without losing it.
If we make a rule for ourselves that it is alright to buy food on Sabbath instead of making previous arrangements for this otherwise, we may open the door in our minds for buying other things and eventually use Sabbath afternoon for a shopping day and feel legally supported in our actions.
But if we let the Spirit of God lead us in every decision such as this without our self-imposed rules we will be living according to Isaiah 58:13 not thinking our own thoughts or doing our own pleasure on the Sabbath day. This is the way I think Jesus kept the Sabbath without the rules of the Pharisees--by the Spirit of God's Love.
When we impose our own rules as to what is OK to do on Sabbath we begin a path of legalism in regard to keeping it holy. We can learn from the Pharisee's mistakes and from Jesus' success in fulfilling the law.
I enjoyed Inge's answer, so I don't want you to miss it.
Preparation is an intentional act, projecting your plans, planning your projects. You said you "traveled a long way" which means you broke the Pharisees rule of walking more than a Sabbath-day walk. You arrived without lunch, which presumed you would impose upon someone else to work in your behalf. We could spend all day enumerating all the failures of our Sabbath activity, but what is the intention? All those failures are my reflecting upon how to please God by my actions. This implies that the more perfect my actions, the more perfect my worship to my Savior. The reasons I do or don't on a certain behavior should not be measured by my avoiding failure. I can never by seeing life this way get above the law.
(Instead) I went to the city to praise God and bring a message of hope to the city. I rejoiced in His presence all along the way, blessing people as I traveled and upon my arrival was blessed to hear others with the same mindset. We had the best of food like Jesus did with the woman at the well in John 4. We all ate plenty, both of spiritual meat, then of physical nourishment.
Have I eaten at restaurants on Sabbath? Yes! I travel to Africa, I preach a message to some very hungry people who cannot prepare enough for our whole team because of the cost. I am not always in charge of those plans. I then take the whole team out to eat so as not to impose our cost on the locals who cannot afford it. I encourage them to eat whatever they want to gain strength for later meetings. Many of them eat meat since they cannot afford it on a regular basis and this is a special treat. I quite often can pay for 20 people for less than an hour's wage at home. I am ever delighted to do so, and hope to be able to do so again.
It wasn't a restaurant but when Jesus took the 5 loaves and 2 fishes, did he know he took the boy's wages, he hired the servers, he cleaned up the mess? No one complains about the work He did, they rarely see it because of the blessing he brought. That is Sabbath rest.
My answer to that would be yes, but why not travel with your lunch? In these days we can get all kinds of good food from the supermarket which can be bought well in advance once there is nothing preventing that. I once heard a good answer from a pastor who cautioned us not to throw the animal in the ditch on the Sabbath. ...Got it?
Many times we do that but we have to remember God is not mocked. Last Friday I sat around all day debating whether or not I should cook some soup. I started making the soup so late that the Sabbath started and it wasn't finished. Even though I asked God to forgive me guilt and shame plagued me all Sabbath.
In answering this we should look at what God has to say in the fourth commandment. (It is worth bringing up as, surprisingly, I've found many SDAs admit they've never heard this part I'm quoting now). "... 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:" Ex 20:10. The Sabbath commandment does not just instruct us to rest, but also to extend that rest to others. To our family, to those who serve us, and even those who do not keep the Sabbath themselves (the strangers). According to the commandment we are not keeping the Sabbath rest unless we include these in that rest.
Interestingly, when Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath, He was giving rest to others. Rest from the bondage of Satan (Luke 13:16), rest from infirmities (Mt 12:13), and no doubt given the mindset at the time (John 9:2), rest from the guilt of sin. Its easy to have others work for us that we may rest, but much harder to give up our comforts to help others rest. We should follow Christ's example of making the Sabbath a day to bring rest to others.
"If, as so much of the Christian world argues, the seventh-day Sabbath was abolished, replaced, superseded, fulfilled (whatever), then why did Jesus spend so much time dealing with how to keep the Sabbath?"
99% of Christians believe this.
How do you tell these deceived "Christians " to come out of Babylon?
Maybe it is best not to "tell" the deceived as much as love them! Eventually, the they will ask then still best to not talk about "Babylon", rather go and tell them what, Jesus has done for you! "When, I be lifted up it will draw all men to me."
Ah yes, telling them is not loving them, because they might think that you are judging them and will be offended at the truth about how they can have a closer relationship with Jesus and a higher quality of life. And also, good point about telling them about what Jesus has done for them. No other denomination does that, only the Adventist church. The other churches never mention the cross.
All other churches I have visited, do mention the cross and they do tell others of what God has done for them. Some churches regularly have 'testimony services' where people testify of what God has done for them. Many other churches, although they have differences put these aside to fellowship together on occasion because they have a common goal - to reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus.
Denominations are manmade - no one denomination is 100% but all claim to be 'the truth'. In the bible God is coming back for HIS Church - not a manmade denomination. It's about a spirit-filled personal relationship with Jesus - His spirit connecting with our spirit....not a religion (as per today's equivalent of Pharisees/Sadduccees). Christianity is the most (if not one of the most) divided faiths, which is ironic as Jesus is all about Unity - oneness.
God's grace and mercy is higher than the law and it is HIS grace and mercy and HIS righteousness, otherwise if it was dependant on keeping the law, no man would enter into the Kingdom.
Jim Bob,
I suggest that it is not yet time for a general call to be made to God's people that are currently in Babylon, for them to "come out".
The GENERAL call will be made in the time of the Latter Rain, represented under the figure of that angel which lightens the earth with his glory. (Rev 18:1, Rev 18:4)
Many of those people that do come out will, I believe, be the "11th hour workers".
Not time yet? Then what are these mass mailings of Great Controversy books in cities all about?
What are those mass mailings all about? I cannot say for sure Jim Bob, but in a word, I would suggest, "evangelism". But I don't think those mailings can constitute THE call to come out of Babylon.
Our job description, in broad terms, is to present the three angels' messages.
Of course the FIRST of these announces [basically] the beginning of the Investigative Judgment, and the preparation that is necessary to stand in it.
The SECOND announces the fall of Babylon... but this message doesn't include the specific call to "come out of her".
The THIRD announces the warning against the mark of the beast.
But it is interesting I think, that in "sounding the first, second, and third angel's messages... [we] are THUS BEING PREPARED for the coming of that other angel from heaven who is to lighten the earth with his glory." (6T p.406)
It is in the time of this "OTHER ANGEL" that the call is made - "Come out of her My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev 18:4). This call will bring about what might be termed, a "mass exodus", from Babylon, and many of those people will, I believe, constitute a significant part of the "eleventh hour workers".
And "they will come to the front" (16Manuscript Release p.238), which, for many of us could be a big test.
When I read Rev 14:6-11, I see that the message is the "everlasting gospel" or the "Good News" in the context of the investigative judgment, including the call to come out of Babylon. But it is primarily the message of the "everlasting gospel."
See also:
It seems to me that even those in Babylon will see their sinful condition when the "Good News" of justification by faith is given by people who demonstrate the message in their lives. It is this living demonstration that gives the message power and will, by contrast, demonstrate the fall of Babylon. (Preaching the "fall of Babylon" without the demonstration of the living gospel is nothing more than empty rhetoric.)
If Jesus was physically with me on the Sabbath day what would I do
As a matter of fact on everyday of the week my love for Jesus must motivate what I do because He's always near
Let's not be strick as the Pharisees or be so slack that the Sabbath gift becomes polluted by our lack of preparation for it
How about just loving these "deceived Christians "to the Lord. How about them seeing in us,the change we desire to see in them. The fact is, at one point in time,all of us were " deceived" because all have sinned. Thank God for His Love and Patience to us all in the process of Santification.. I believe the Love of Christ daily lived through us will draw others to Christ. Too much theology without Godly Love that is not applied and practiced daily can be dangerous to the kingdom of God.
Yes you got that right! The Bible tells that the world will know whose we are by our love.
Sabbath is for holy activity ,if you said you keep the Sabbath by going to church only you deceive yourself God need your heart and obey his command
The author of this lesson introduced today's topic with the following probing question:
"If, as so much of the Christian world argues, the seventh-day Sabbath was abolished, replaced, superseded, fulfilled (whatever), then why did Jesus spend so much time dealing with how to keep the Sabbath?"
This is a question we should use more often when discussing the topic of Sabbath observance with non Adventists!
Jesus made most of His Sabbath statements, as with in every other principle, by DEMONSTRATING through living, more than by preaching. In response to the question of Jesus spending time dealing with "how to keep the Sabbath", I see in most of the scriptural references, that the issue came up for debate primarily because Jesus and His disciples were constantly being attacked and falsely charged by the Jewish sects with Sabbath breaking. His enemies were always on the prowl watching His every action and looking for some way in which they "might accuse Him", as in the case of the man with the withered hand (Luke 6:6-10). This is how the servant of the Lord sums up the Jewish dilemma on Sabbath keeping:
The church leaders of the day were even more enraged when Jesus declared that He, the Son of man, was "Lord also of the Sabbath" (Mk. 2:28; Matt 12:8; Luke 6:5). With so much history behind us, we can ill afford to MISS the message, like most of the Jews missed the message and the MESSIAH!
Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
Oh, what words I hear Him say!
Happy place! so near, so precious!
May it find me there each day;
Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
I would look upon the past;
For His love has been so gracious,
It has won my heart at last.
thanks for sharing Claudette Hartley
You are welcome,Jon. Blessings to you and family.
The lessn reminds me of the verse below:
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord , and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Micah 6:6-8 KJV
May I ask a question, what does it mean to err on the side of mercy?
The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. This is a gift from our God in order to show us that we need rest in him from this rushing to nowhere fast world. Take time daily to read work and pray, but enjoy the alone time with God doing the Sabbath hours as a special treat for the two of you to wonder in his love as you read and pray within your heart as you lay on the green pastures he provides for each of us. Let us not get caught up in the what to and what not to do. Follow the Shepherd, he knows the way.
Amen! He does!
Myrtle wrote:
"Let's not be strick as the Pharisees or be so slack that the Sabbath gift becomes polluted by our lack of preparation for it"
Some Adventists use the Sabbath hours for planning their activities during the coming week; others use the week for planning for the Sabbath hours.
I find Sabbath a real blessing, and I respect the fact that we all celebrate Sabbath differently but with the same intention- to worship our heavenly Father because He has given us a day just for that purpose.
Although I try to prepare for every Sabbath, sometimes I find that I need to be different. I am a full time carer for my husband, who is not a believer, so Sabbath is not always a complete rest but I have tried to make some boundaries around what I will and won't do.
I trust that God will understand and that my intention is to worship and praise him for all the blessings He has bestowed on me.
Let us not judge others for what they need to do that might be different!
I'm in the same boat! Same thing, set certain boundaries!
I believe that the Sabbath is a personal issue. I believe that each of us should call out to the Holy Spirit for direction for how our Lord would want us to keep the Sabbath each and every Sabbath.
Catherine I believe as you. The Sabbath is a personal issue. Yes be guided by The Holy Spirit. In all our decisions. Each life is different and as such, that life will be a responsible life.
I thank God for all the comments made for the Monday portion of the lesson for this week. It sums it up thus: Christ is our righteousness and our supreme example; let us emulate Him daily
i we say we are christians,then we ought to be christlike who by the grace of God did the will of His Father.be blessed
I remember Mrs. White using the term, "Pharisaical exactitude" (TM 195). It can sound quite jargony, but those words say a lot to me. "Pharisaical exactitude" can be very dangerous.
But the determining factor, when it comes to deciding what is acceptable and what is not acceptable during Sabbath, is summed up in one word. That word is, "holy". Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it "holy". Is what I am doing on Sabbath "holy" or is it "common/every-day/profane"? I suggest that that is the key question when it comes to Sabbath observance.
On Sabbath we have a wonderful, ongoing, opportunity to be "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2Cor 7:1) Used rightly, the Sabbath is perhaps the greatest means that we have, of "perfecting holiness". And through it we can learn the difference between the holy and the profane (i.e. the common) (Eze 44:23)
this weeks lesson is a wonderful study given by the spirit of prophecy. indeed the pharasies had covered Gods law which is supposed to set man free and have rather mistified it with their own litany of dos and donts. now the question is as we also be followers of christ in our generations what are some of the judgement that we make on others when we see them in a way which seem different from the norm?