Sabbath

Blog #107  September 05, 2025

Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Growing in the Gospel has shown me that this most challenging call to righteousness suffers from man's ability to ignorantly misinterpret God's truth. We assume that putting this verse in context would allow for clarity or maybe even a different insight, but it really doesn't.	

Exodus 20:9-11
20:9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;
20:10 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;
20:11 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.

As you can see it does appear that the only acceptable activity for anyone on the Sabbath Day is setting on our hands. The emphasis on a day of no work was repeated and made more challenging during Israel's time of manna in the wilderness.

Exodus 16:26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

This idea of one day a week of absolute reverence and dedication to God has over the centuries become more of a challenge than I think God intended it to be. Perfect church attendance has become a source of pride instead of a testimony of humble dedication. I know the Sabbath is important but I don't think God planned for this one day a week to be the single most important evidence of our efforts at a godly life.

Exodus 16:29-30
16:29 See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
16:30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

For years I have seen attempts to explain this Sabbath practice of attempting to do nothing by creating a rulebook that spells all the things you shouldn't do on the Sabbath compared to those things you might be able to "get away with". In other words we have been trying for literally centuries to guess at what God wants from us concerning the Sabbath. For me this has always seemed like an effort in futility. In my minds eye I can see God just shaking His head while Satan laughs. God wants more from His children. He designed us to be thinking people able to use the gift of discernment we were created with. I am convinced that He wants us to use the Sabbath for the good of His Kingdom.

Mark 2:25 And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 

To me it seems as if all of God's children that regardless of their religion, have come to a common understanding about the Sabbath: Break the rule but just don't talk about it. We truthfully need something different.First we need to come to a common understanding of the Sabbath. 

Sabbath (Dictionary.com whose source is the Random House unabridged dictionary)
1.The seventh day of the week, Saturday, as the day of rest and religious observance among Jews and some Christians.
2.The first day of the week, Sunday, observed by most Christians as a day of public worship and often of rest.
3.any special day of prayer, worship, or rest.4.	Often Sabbath a day or other period of rest or break from certain forms of activity

I think we can all agree that the Sabbath is meant to be a day of worship. To achieve unity in this concept is to agree that all day Friday, or from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown is as easy to recognize as a time to worship as Sunday. This frees us from the "old covenant/new covenant, Allah/Jehovah, discussion and recognizes that Israel, Moslems, and the Christians are seeking to obey the same mandate of a day of strict reverence to their beliefs. This eliminates the inter-religious difficulties and leaves us to deal with the world and the way it seeks to draw us away from our efforts at seeking moral integrity. 

Romans14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

In this "seven-day a week world" we find businesses that depend on the concept that any Sabbath recognized is no more that just another day of the week. If employers believe this the then their employees are paid to honor that belief. But Brethren it is not only unrighteous greed that challenges the Sabbath. In this hard world the sick don't have a day off from being sick; as a result neither do their caretakers.  Does this mean that all medical personnel working Sundays are going to hell? I certainly hope not. It appears as if we need a greater understanding of what the Sabbath means to God. 

Exodus 20:3-4
20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
20:4 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;

It seems as if God seeks to have a rather exclusive place in our lives. He listed for us all aspects of His nature that should open our hearts allowing Him this place in our lives, but it seems as if we are unwilling. Oh, we would if we could, but man, the Chiefs are at home this week, and we tailgate. If you consider this a blatant and ridiculous reason for turning our backs on a commandment from, tell me any of the reason we have been using for generations that isn't just an excuse in disguise, but beware because God knows our hearts.

Proverbs 24: 12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works? 

Once again we need to gain a common understand of what it is that God wants. We are told to remember the Sabbath and to keep it Holy. Perhaps we should define the word Holy. Because of obvious connection between the word "holy" and our worship of God I felt the Hebrew definition to be the most creditable. For a proper prospective I chose to use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the King James Bible as my source. I felt that achieving a full understanding required me to include both the word and its root word.

Strong's H6944: qodesh (pronounced ko'-desh)from H6942; a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, consecrated (thing),hallowed (thing), This word is a noun.

Strong's H6942: qadash (pronounced kaw-dash')a primitive root; to be (causatively, make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally) This word is a verb or action word.

The word "quodesh" is a noun describing those "things" we chose to revere as sacred. Defined this way it has little to do with anything we can control. We can both accept it and revere it, or not. I am convinced that God wants more. The root word "qudash" as a verb implies action. It seems to challenge us to be truly involved in the truth offered. This application requires us to not only make it holy and call it holy in the face of the world, but we must help others to see it as holy, too. I believe that God's wants us to set this day aside as a testimony of God's work in the world of man. 

Luke 6:5 And he said unto them, That the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

Christ came, ministered, and was crucified. Some might say that because of this everything changed. Man was allowed a way to be forgiven of His sins, God, as a God of judgment became our heavenly Father. In fact, God brought with Christ a new covenant.

Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah;

Hebrews 8: 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Before we get all excited about the big change that Christ wrought, we should remember that Christ and HIs sacrifice has been a part of the God's plan since the very beginning. 

Genesis 4:7-8
4:7 And then the angel spake, saying, This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth;
4:8 Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest, in the name of the Son. And thou shalt repent, and call upon God, in the name of the Son for evermore.

In lieu of this, maybe we should say that our hope in God grew to become complete. Again other aspects of God's Kingdom grew. Cleansed of our sins by baptism we are now able to receive the Spirit of God and become God's children. By the virtue of this Spirit, God's children could now seek to become one with Him. I am convinced that even the Sabbath grew and instead of it being a day to celebrate the Creator and creation, it became a day to celebrate the Redeemer and redemption.

Alma 16:9 For thus saith the scripture, Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.

Brethren, even in the case of the Sabbath it comes down to our choice. It is up to each of us to set this day aside in a way that pleases God. How should we do it? Well, God likes testimonies and public worship is a really good testimony. But I would like to add that it must be done from the heart that the testimony is about God and not about church. Paul gave us good direction.

Romans 14:7-8
14:7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

What about those of us that have to work on Sunday? In Christ discussions with church leadership he alluded to two forms of labor that the Pharisees sought to condemn Him for. One was necessity.....

Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.......

the other was mercy.

Matthew 12:8 And, behold, there was a man which had a withered hand. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that they might accuse him.

To Christ both of these situations were ample reason for "laboring" on the Sabbath. He even made a declaration about His own acts on the Sabbath. In fact He challenged the Pharisees with a choice. 

Matthew 12:9-10 
12:9 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out?
12:10 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.

Now here comes the part of this discussion and it really excites me. Think about Christ and the work He did in His ministry. If you look closely you will find that He performed acts of necessity (feeding the 5000 Matthew 14:16-18) and acts of mercy (blind to see. lame to walk,....to many to quote). Brethren these are the same labor He performed on the Sabbath. I am kind of wondering if Christ is trying to show us that we should strive to do the works of God any/every day of the week.

Alma 5:41 And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works;

In closing I hope we have a better common understanding about the Sabbath. I hope that we give up that fruitless venture of trying to create a rulebook for the Sabbath. I am convinced that the Father wants His children to make there own decisions about the Sabbath. I think the foundation is here, but remember all that is of God comes by growth. If you have a question, go to God in prayer. Go forward with the good of the Kingdom in your heart and if it is a mistake the Father will most surely show you the right way. Have faith and trust in God; you can depend on Him.

Psalms 16:11 Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

Should we just throw away all that the Scriptures say about the Sabbath? No, it is a part of God's fullness and to throw it away is to keep others from learning what we have. Should we go to Church on Sunday/Saturday/ Friday? Yes, anytime we can create for the world a testimony of God; do it. I would like to say also there is nothing wrong with setting aside Tuesday for worship, or Tuesday and Thursday, or the first two weeks of every month, or for that matter every day for the next twenty years. 

Just remember:
It's a very worthy labor for He who is worthy of all the love we can show Him

FRED