Opus 2025-540: Lord’s Day or Sabbath

I don’t think it really matters which term you want to use.  Christians have a habit of calling Sunday the Sabbath.  It isn’t.  The biblical Sabbath starts at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday. 

(Lev 23:32 KJV)  It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.

It is the seventh day of the week.  At least that’s what they like to tell us when they want to show their intellectual superiority by telling us that Sunday is not the Sabbath.

I haven’t done a lot of research on the Sabbath, but when you think about it, who is to say what the first day of the week is.  That is arbitrary.  It’s just like the New Year.  The biblical new year is a lunar calendar and has to do with the interaction of the sun and the moon.  It changes every year.  Who is to say the Sabbath isn’t the same thing.  This is especially true when you look at modern pocket calendars.  They now start the week on Monday and you’ll notice Sunday becomes the tail end.

The issue though is a day of rest.  The issue is taking one of seven and setting that aside to stop work.  The original Genesis account doesn’t say go to church or synagogue.  It simply says stop working.  So the Sabbath is a day of rest.  It still makes a difference, but you don’t notice this as much if you live in the city as you do out in the country.

I could go out in the morning at 5 o’clock and tell you which day is Sunday.  I might get it a little confused with Saturday but generally speaking there is still a difference.  How can I tell?  Are the animals lined up facing the rising sun?  Is there a glow in the Earth?  No.  On Sunday, as a general rule, the larger part of the population is not going to work.  Although this is changing a lot in modern culture, there are still large numbers of people that don’t work on Sundays.  They may do sports.  They may go shopping.  They may work in the garden.  But they don’t go to work.

What that means is that the road about a half mile from my house is generally empty and quiet on Sunday morning.  You might have an occasional car driving by on their way to grandma’s house or to the local coffee shop but in general, nobody is going to work.  It is obvious that the day is different.

I would encourage you to take seriously the command to work six days and then take a day of rest.  If you go to church on Sunday, that often involves a lot of work.  You might want to take Saturday the way it was originally established as your day of rest.  Either way, although we’re not under the law, God has reasons for His standards.  I would suggest that we take them seriously.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-279: Ode to Old: Fat and Sappy

Which is better, a Sabbath or retirement?

Both are types of rest.

I got off on this tangent because of God threatening to withhold the hardhearted from His rest.   

(Psa 95:10-11 KJV)  Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:   Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

After a bit of thought I decided this referred to eternity.  Eternal life was being referred to as “rest”.  It is a synonym for what people think of as heaven.

The original reference to rest is at the end of creation.  God used that as a reminder that He would provide for us, and you will find that the Sabbath rest is the reward for a week of work.  I am thinking that eternity might be an alternating series of work and rest.  What will be different from now is that the work will be fulfilling and filled with joy and the rest will always be refreshing.

Sabbath is restoring break because it is followed by more productivity.  Retirement is different.  It can fool us into becoming despondent.  It can be destructive if it makes you feel you are not longer useful.  This is a common feeling among older men.  

If you believe what the Bible has to say then you know you don’t have to rust away.  Notice that the KJV and NASB have one difference in the English.  One says “full of sap” and the other says fat.

(Psa 92:14 NAS77) They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and very green,

(Psa 92:14 KJV)  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

Maybe we could do a take off on “fat and sassy” to “fat and sappy”.  No?  Okay.

Retirement does not need to be a time of stagnation.  I am looking for ways to continue to yield fruit.  Join me.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-150: Sabbath Observations: Restless

I am not sure where it started.  I am going to guess it was pharmacies.  From there it probably went to coffee shops, the kind called Mabel’s Diner not the ones called Starbuck’s.  Then maybe family restaurants, donut shops and grocery stores.  I can remember when Sears broke the Lord’s Day barrier and opened on Sunday.  Sure, it was only on the afternoon, so you could still go to church.  Now we live in a culture of 24/7.

I go down this path because 24/7 has come to my hill.  I noticed that the temperature was perfect and a breeze was blowing so I got my coffee and went out on the porch to enjoy the morning.  Sunday morning is awesome.  Early in the morning there is very little traffic on the road down the hill and between cars you have stretches of what the country used to be like.  That includes roosters and braying donkeys.  Not this time.  A new house is going in close by.  The beginning stages involve leveling and tearing out the cypress that thrives up here.  It seems like the guys doing it have a day job so they are working on weekends.  Today when I went out I could hear nothing but the wood chipper as it made mulch out of the cypress.  Everything was perfect for a porch sit except the decibels.  

I don’t begrudge the local pagans their extra source of income.  That is what free enterprise is all about.  The guy who is willing to work can get ahead.  My problem is with all of us Christians who have taken a tradition of a day of rest and figured that did not apply to the waitress in the restaurant we went to on Sunday.  Or the clerk in the grocery store we shopped in on Sunday.  Or the local attraction that was going like gang-busters on Sunday.  See how it works?

In case you were not aware of it, the idea of a day of rest in rooted in the Bible.  It was called the Sabbath and runs from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.  It was important to God because He knew our limitations.  He declared a day of rest and set the example on the seventh day of Creation.  You will also find it listed in the Ten Commandments.  Yes, it is that important.

Think about that next time you patronize local businesses on a Sunday.  Christians moved the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday.  Some have trouble with that.  I don’t, because the principle is the same and if you have noticed the pagans in publishing have rearranged you pocket calendar so that the week begins on Monday instead of Sunday.  

Just another case of the law of unintended consequences.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-262: Because, Gorges, Part 2 of 2

What do I do with the Sabbath. 

(Exodus 20:8-11 KJV)  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.

Again, that is pretty clear and I am not sure any of us try to pay attention to it.  I have a feeling that if we did the shopping malls and restaurants would start closing up one day a week.

I could make the defense that I am not a Jew and this is the Law, thus it does not apply to me.  That does not work too well because if I can do that with the Sabbath I can also do it to stealing and adultery, if you catch my drift.  While I feel comfortable doing that with the ceremonial law I can’t do it with the moral law.

So lets go literal.  What is the purpose of the Sabbath?  It seems clear that it is a day of rest.  It is a day for no work.  Notice that there is no mention of worship, synagogue or temple.  God did not go to church on Saturday, He rested.  He stopped His work of creation.

So the Sabbath is to be a day of rest.  I will admit that we do not honor that.  I could go along with the idea that we do no work on Saturday.  Maybe that is where the church has missed it.  We have taken Saturday to be the day we catch up on chores and called Sunday a day of rest.  Then on Sunday we wear ourselves out doing church stuff.  In the process we don’t have a day of rest.  Now that I am retired I could easily avoid any work on Saturday and still go to church on Sunday.  That would leave me five days to get everything done on the “honey-do” list.  If you are working you don’t have that luxury. 

Modern appointment calendars may solve the problem for me.  If you have bought one you have noticed that they are now making Monday the first day of the week and putting Sunday at the end.  They do it because it saves space on the format that puts a week on two pages.  Personally I think it is also done to kick the Lord’s Day off the beginning of the week.  It will be interesting to see if it ever spreads to the monthly calendars people have on their walls.

I see the Sabbath as Friday sundown to Saturday sundown.  I see Sunday as the Lord’s Day.  One should be for rest and the other for worship.

Until I work that out, just call me “inconsistent”. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-261: Because, Gorges, Part 1 of 2

Recently Gorges of Gorges Grouse got a bit upset with me and my inconsistency.  He stopped short of the word “hypocrisy” but you could see it wanting to jump out between the lines.  In case you don’t bother with reading comments, here is what he had to say,

“So why do you deny the TRUE Sabbath, but then stick the commandments for it on the FIRST day of the week? And please don't use the silly argument that man can choose any day he wants for “‘the Sabbath.’”

He has a point.  This is what the Bible has to say.

(Exodus 20:8-11 KJV)  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.

That seems pretty straight forward. 

Of course we also need to point out some conflicts that Jesus had about the Sabbath.  One is found in Mark 2:23-28. 

(Mark 2:23-4 KJV)  And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.  And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?

The law allowed people to take enough grain from a field to deal with their hunger so we are not looking at theft or trespass.  What the Pharisees got upset about was that plucking grain was work and that meant that they were working on the Sabbath.  If you understand the passage in Exodus rigidly, then Jesus was breaking the Law.  Yet He answers them to point out an understanding that I am not sure we get yet.

(Mark 2:27 KJV)  And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

The Sabbath rest was not a burden that God put on His people.  It was a protection that He demanded for their lives.  They were not to work themselves into the ground.  Notice that it applied even to the cattle.  If it were written today it might apply to our automobiles.  God knew about type A people who never rest.  He knew that such behavior was bad for us.  To He called a Sabbath rest.

Like all Biblical laws, there is a good reason for them.

To be continued...

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Opus 2012-268, Sabbath Observations: Suicide, Murder or Accidental Death?

I was listening to a sermon by Alistair Begg.  Nothing new about that.  I would recommend it.  As he was preaching, he mentioned it was an evening sermon.  It wasn’t a major point, just mentioned in passing.  It occurred to me that, except when he mentions it, I can’t tell the difference between his morning and evening preaching.  What that tells me is that he is just as serious about his evening sermons as he is about his morning sermons.  Possibly he is more serious.

That is not the pattern in America’s churches.   Usually you could tell within the first few minutes if you were listening to a morning sermon or an evening sermon.  I noticed this years ago when I was still pastoring and would have a Sunday off.  I would visit other churches and find that serious preaching in the evening was hard to find. 

You may have noticed that the evening worship service is a vanishing breed.  Most churches have cancelled them.  Some never had them.  The pastors will say that it is because of lack of interest, no one would come.  I say it is because the pastors have stopped putting in serious preparation time.  The pastors of America have killed off the evening service because they have not wanted to put in the time to prepare a message that was worth coming to hear.

Yes, I know that evening services have always been less attended than morning worship.  I know that people have busy lives.  I know that today more wives are working outside the home.  I know all that but it doesn’t keep Alistair Begg from preaching.  He has stated that his church is the only one in Cleveland with an evening service.  I am sure it is smaller in attendance but it is still alive and well.

The evening service has not died because it was useless, it is dying from neglect.

Was it murder, suicide or accident?

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-165, Sabbath Observations: Roots of the Weekend, Part 5, Keeping the Blessing

Do you enjoy having a day off?  Do you use it to cruise the mall?  Then you are contributing to losing the day of rest that God has prescribed.  Most kids starting out must take jobs at minimum wage and those jobs are often tied to a requirement to work weekends.  It forces young people to choose between working or going to church.  Is this the direction we want things to go?

I don’t think we need a return to the “blue laws” of the past.  This is not something that we need the government to get involved in.  All we would need to do to protect young believers from being pulled out of church on Sunday is to stop shopping on Sunday.  How many restaurants do their biggest business on Sunday because the church crowd wants to go out to eat?  If Christians would extend hospitality and eat at home then many of these restaurants would close up on Sunday because they could not make any money. 

This is not a new problem.  Saint Augustine preached about a similar issue back in the fourth century.  The issue was the negative contribution of the theaters to the culture.  Many felt like the theaters were destroying the moral fiber of society.  Does that sound familiar?  Listen to what Augustine had to say:

“Ah! indeed, if Christians went not to the theaters, there would be so few people there that they would go away for very shame.”

What is he saying?  If the people complaining would change their behavior they could change the culture.  He was talking to his congregation.  He is talking to us today.

So enjoy your weekend.  Thank God for it.  Live in such a way that you do not contribute to the destruction of the blessing He has given us.

Augustine.  “The Recovery of Sight by the Blind.”  The World’s Great Sermons, Volume 01
   /Basil to Calvin.  Gutenberg Project, Kindle Highlight Loc. 650-51.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-164, Sabbath Observations: Roots of the Weekend, Part 4, Don’t Thank the Teamsters

Our idea of a weekend and day off comes from the Sabbath.  It was not something instituted by organized labor and the progressive movement.  All they did was take the idea God gave and try to get credit for it.

Enjoy your weekend.  It is a gift from God. 

But beware of losing the blessing.  You may not have noticed but more and more businesses are staying open on Sunday.  When I was a kid you could not go shopping on Sunday.  I remember when Sears started staying open a half-day on Sunday.  It was a scandal to some and an opportunity to others.  Now most major stores are open on Sunday.  Most major food chains stay open on Sunday.  Some people think it is a civil right to be able to shop on Sunday.

One major fast food chain keeps locked up on Sunday:  Chick Fil A.  The owners make no bones about it.  They are Christians and they want their employees to be able to worship if they chose.  All of their stores are closed on Sunday.  They have run into legal problems over it.

If you are a business owner you need to think about this.  You may feel that you need to be open on Sunday.  Maybe, maybe not.  That is not for me to judge.  Do you really think that people need to be able to buy new shoes on Sunday?  Is ice cream seven days a week a proof of election?  Even more important, what about your health?  Are you making it a challenge for God to keep you healthy.  And what about your employees?

If you are an employee you need to think about this.  This is harder to deal with but not impossible.  Early in our marriage my wife needed to work.  She could not find anything in the area of her training so she worked as a waitress at a seven day restaurant.  People told her that she could not be a waitress and not work on Sundays.  She did work as a waitress and she did not work on Sundays.  She was not a brain-dead legalist about it.  One Sunday her manager called because he needed some extra help.  She told them to check around and if they really had an “ox in the ditch” she would come in.  He never called back. 

(James 4:2 KJV)  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

To be continued

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Opus 2012-162, Sabbath Observations: Roots of the Weekend, Part 3, Jesus Reminds Us of the Purpose of the Sabbath

As in many areas of life, Jesus ran head-on into the Control Freaks of the Elites of His day.  At one point they tried to nail him for healing on the Sabbath.  At another place they were upset that the disciples had picked a few pieces of wheat to munch on as a little snack.  Nag, nag, nag.

Jesus points out their mistake by clarifying the target of the Sabbath. 

(Mark 2:27 KJV)  And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

God made us.  He knew that we needed rest so He built it into creation and took time off Himself.  I am sure that almighty God could have kept working but He had a point to make.  He had to get it across with power.  So He took a break.

The point is, we are not designed to go 24/7.  Sure, we can do it for a time.  Some do it for years but the stress levels begin to build.  There is a reason why we sleep.  There is also a reason why we need to take a break from labor.

The Jews observe the Sabbath on Saturday.  It is the seventh day.  They are right in that.  The Seventh Day Adventist have a point in worshiping on Sunday.  The reason that most Christians don’t worship on Saturday is that Sunday is considered the Lord’s Day, not the Sabbath.  It is the day that Jesus rose from the grave so it was more important than any other day of the week. 

Originally the church met every day. 

(Acts 2:46 KJV)  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

They were mainly slaves and working class people so they did not have much control over their schedule.  They met when they could but the celebration of the resurrection became the central moment of the week.  Many Protestants are not aware that the Catholic church has worship every day, not just on Sunday.  That is a continuation of the original pattern of the church.

We go to church.  It is supposed to be a time of renewal and refreshing.  Often it is not, but that is not the problem with the model as much as the people who get distracted.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-160, Sabbath Observations: Roots of the Weekend, Part 2, The Elites Take Charge

Of course the religious authorities got legalistic about it.  They set up all kinds of limitations, such as how many steps you could take away from home.  Then in legalistic fashion they decided that if you buried bits of dirt from your yard around town you could walk everywhere and not be breaking the law.  You have to give them points on creativity.  And what is the meaning of “work”? 

One website labeled “Basic Sabbath Rules” tells us “the Sages specified 39 categories of endeavor which are not allowed on the Sabbath...”  Some of these might be clearly given in scripture but most are extensions thought up by people who were overly enthusiastic about regulating others.  This is similar to what you find in modern government regulatory agencies.  They don’t know when to stop.  When in doubt, make up a new rule.

Some of you may be old enough and well traveled enough to know about the modern Blue Laws.  I ran into them in the Mid-West.  Certain items, such as beer, could not be bought on Sunday.  In some areas car dealers are still forced to close on Sunday.  In England, in the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I,  you could be fined and put in jail for not being in church on Sunday.

My family had restrictions on activities we could do on Sunday.  We took a Sunday paper but were not allowed to look at it until after church.  My father used to tell about how, as a child, he was not allowed to run or play at all on Sunday.

What did Jesus have to say about this?

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-159, Sabbath Observations: Roots of the Weekend, Part 1, A Day for Renewal

I cannot picture what is was like being a slave, let alone a slave in a pagan culture.  How do you deal with being on call 24/7 at someone else’s whim?  What is it like to never be sure of a time of rest. 

From the Old Testament we get the idea of a Sabbath.  The concept was established at creation and is tied in with the seven days. 

(Exodus 20:8-11 KJV)  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.

What was the purpose of the Sabbath?  It was to be holy.  That means set aside for special use.  It was to be a day of no work.  The word Sabbath means “to cease, desist, rest.”

This is elaborated more a little further into Exodus.

(Exodus 23:12 KJV)  Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

The purpose of the Sabbath was to refresh us.  It was for renewal.  It was a time to recharge our batteries.

Notice that it was to be for everyone, not just the ruling class.  The “handmaid” of the KJV is “female slave” in the NASB.  So many of the Bible’s teachings are like this.  You don’t rest by having someone else do the work.  Rest if for everyone.

To be continued...

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Opus 2012-153, A Sabbath for Machines

When I was in seminary I worked a lot of different jobs to pay the bills.  I scrubbed toilets, mowed lawns and worked Christmas at Macy’s.  For a time I worked with another seminary student who supported his family as a painter while he went to school.  He was an interesting type of guy that is getting more rare in our culture.  He was a simple, country boy at heart yet he was also a well read intellectual.  Today we are tending toward isolating the two but in our past the combination was not unusual.

One time he was sharing some of his reading about how machines worked better and lasted longer if they were given a Sabbath.  He wasn’t trying to make any big point, he was just passing on something he had read.  He said that farm machines that were left idle a day a week tended to break down less often.  He also said it was possible to let cows go unmilked on a Sabbath.  His information was that they then produced more milk than a seven day milking.  That went against everything I had ever heard about cows but he was the farm boy, not me.

But I wonder about machines.  God laid down the principle of the Sabbath.

(Exodus 20:10 KJV)  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:

Now I want you to notice that God extended this day of rest to the servants and the animals.  It was all inclusive.  It would not take much stretch of the imagination to extend this to the machines that we work with.

This got my mind to wandering.  Have you ever noticed that things borrowed seem to break more often than they do for the owner?  Sometimes it is because the borrower does not practice the same care as the owner.  Sometimes it may be a lack of skill resulting in misuse.  But I ask myself, “Do machine parts develop stress patterns?  Do they develop a memory of response and when someone uses them a little differently, do they fail because it is a different pattern?”

Think about your body.  When you use muscles that have been idle you know it the next day.  Too long of exercise can deplete stored reserves of minerals.  Do machines with wood, metal and plastic parts have parallel qualities?  It could just be wear patterns.

One reason to give your machines a Sabbath is that it may require you to get some rest also. 

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Opus 2011-255, Sabbath Observations: Good Morning Lord!

When I emerged from sleep this morning my first thought was, “No alarm clock.  It is the Sabbath.  Thank you, Jesus.”  Really.

What a blessing to live in a culture influenced by Bible teaching.  It is fading as we turn away from the Word but for centuries we have been guaranteed that at least one day a week our employer would not call on us.  Even in the slave culture of the American South the day of rest was assumed.

Yes, I am aware of the difference between the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day.  Yes, I am aware that most people use them interchangeably.  I had a chance to discuss the idea of the Lord’s Day with the kids at school this week.  I was discussing the meanings of B.C. and A.D. and trying to give them an understanding of why A.D. is Anno Domini, not After Death.  In trying to get at the meaning of “domini” I asked what the Spanish word for Sunday is.  Domingo.  I asked what it meant.  They said “Sunday.”  I said no.  We finally worked out it meant “Lord’s Day.”  That meant we could touch on the resurrection.  I digress.

Today I am not responsible to my employer.  A change of routine and demands makes it a day of rest.  My wife is out of town.  That makes it a real day of rest.  Tomorrow I will be going to church.  I will be celebrating the resurrection in my weekly Easter.  That will be a time of renewal but not a day of rest.  For today I bask in the physical, cultural and spiritual blessing of the Sabbath.

Salud.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-245, Sabbath Observations: The Family of God

One of the traditions at my church is having a member of the congregation pray before we receive the Lord’s tithe and our offerings.  Today’s prayer touched me.  It included the following:

“Thank you for being able to have a family reunion every Sunday.”

She meant that the church was her family and each time we gathered was special to her.

It would be a blessing if we all could give that as a testimony.  Let it start with you.  Be part of the family.

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Opus 2011-202, Sabbath Observations: Sunday in the Store

I was reading one of my favorite humor sites Not Always Right and had to wince in pain.  The site is not exactly pro-Christian but neither is the world.  I can deal with that.  Sometimes they see our hypocrisy very clearly.  The offering they gave is called "Casting the First Stone."  It points out that if we were serious about observing a day of rest and expecting people to come to church, maybe we should stop shopping on Sunday.  I have said this often about going out to eat on Sunday. 

I have run into this with people who say they are required to work on Sunday.  I can understand it if you are a policeman or a pharmacist.  Many jobs though would not require you to work on Sunday if the church goer's would simply stop shopping on Sunday.

I note that this is an observation of a pagan, not my being judgmental.

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