God's Gifts Are Good For Us
Just as you would expect...
This is part 3 of Chapter 6 of Friends With God: The Gifts Of God. In this chapter we are exploring the blessings that God wants to give to those who delight in his way of life. One of the first gifts that God gave mankind was a day off work, known as the “Sabbath”, which simply means rest. In this post we will be looking at the attitude God wants us to have when keeping his day of rest.
God’s Gift Is Not A Trial Or Test
God wants people who genuinely love him and his way of life to be his friends, anything less he can see through.
Some people call the Sabbath the “test commandment”, as if keeping it is a burden, or it’s difficult to keep, which in some circumstances it certainly can be.
But it was never meant to be a test, it was meant to be a blessing of great benefit.
The attitude of calling the Sabbath a test can cause it to be seen as a burden. Those who keep it with this attitude can also become self-righteous, believing that they are somehow doing something difficult just to please God.
Yet tell me, please, when God says “have a rest” and you say “ok”, and put your feet up - why should you feel proud about that!?
There is simply nothing to get self-righteous about when keeping the Sabbath. It was made for you to enjoy. If you keep it properly you get the benefit of enjoying it. If, however you become self-righteous in keeping it, then God knows that you look at his day of rest as a burden, and not really as a delight, and therefore he will not bless you with more gifts.
God is not fooled by those who do what he says to do, but don’t really enjoy doing it. You may as well not keep the Sabbath, if you don’t want to, as God is not pleased by your hypocrisy.
The Sign Of The Sabbath Day
The gift of the Sabbath is very important to God, and he made special mention of it to Moses:
And the Lord said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, (both the weekly and annual Sabbaths) for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.
God is saying that by keeping God’s appointed days of rest, you will be set apart, so that you will be holy.
You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.
Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever (an everlasting covenant). It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. (Exo 31:12-17)
The seriousness of keeping the Sabbath could not be stated more strongly!
As we have seen in Chapter 5, the kingdom of God was taken from Israel, and given to the Church of Jesus Christ, which is Spiritual Israel. (Matt 21:33-46) This occurred so that gentiles are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints (of Israel), and (members) of the household of God. (Eph 2:19)
The importance of the Sabbath is carried over to the New Covenant, and, as explained in the previous post, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. Therefore, the Sabbath sign is not for Israelites only, but is also a sign between Christians and God that we respect his holy day, and obey his command to rest on it.
The Sabbath identifies God as the creator, and that we should worship him on his day of rest.
The church is now Spiritual Israel, and represents the Kingdom of God on Earth today. With this role, comes the great responsibility of keeping the eternal covenant of God’s Sabbath Day, and being a light to the world through doing so and also teaching about it.
God’s Mercy In Giving Us The Sabbath
God takes the Sabbath very seriously, and expects us to do the same. He bluntly warned those in Israel who broke the Sabbath that they would be put to death!
From the perspective of Christians as Spiritual Israel, we see that if we don’t keep the intent and purpose of the Sabbath, then we won’t receive the gift of eternal life.
The intent and purpose of this dire warning is that we must remember that keeping the Sabbath holy also requires the important human quality of mercy, as we saw in this previous post.
What has mercy to do with the Sabbath? Simply put, if we are not merciful to others regarding how they keep the Sabbath, then God won’t be merciful to us:
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Matt 5:7
This issue of mercy is explained in more detail by Christ when he said:
But if you had known what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned the guiltless.
For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.
(Matt 12:7-8)
Jesus said this after his disciples picked some grain on the Sabbath, which the Pharisees said was work:
At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the (fields of) wheat; and his disciples were hungry, and began to pluck the ears of wheat, and to eat. (Matt 12:1)
The word “hungry” in the original Greek, does not mean that the disciples were just a bit peckish, or felt like a treat, but actually because they were extremely hungry. For the word “hungry” is the same word for when Christ was hungry after 40 days of fasting. (Matt 4:2) It is also the same word used in the example of David, when he had not eaten in 3 days. (1Sam 21:1-6) It’s also the same word for when we are to hunger and thirst after righteousness. (Matt 5:6)
While the disciples were not in the same dire state as Christ after 40 days of fasting, nor even as hungry as David, they nevertheless needed food. When David ate the shewbread, even though it was not lawful for him to eat it, due to mercy he was counted guiltless. Jesus was saying that the disciples should have been forgiven as they were hungry, as in the case of David.
He was telling the religious leaders that their definition of what constituted “unacceptable work on the Sabbath” was incorrect, because it was lacking in compassion for people’s needs.
Note, however, that Jesus did not actually say that what the disciples did was ok within the letter of the law. But rather because of mercy, due to their hunger, they, too, should have been considered guiltless by the Pharisees.
The Intent Of The Sabbath
So, what the Pharisees said was ‘not lawful’, was actually acceptable within the intent of the law when mercy (due to the disciples’ hunger) was taken into account.
Therefore, we should allow people to satisfy their hunger on the Sabbath Day, even if it means breaking the letter of the law.
The reason for this is that the Sabbath was made as a blessing for us, rather than a burden. This is the clear intent of the Sabbath.
The Pharisees’ strict interpretation of the edict to not do any work on the Sabbath, was never intended in the law. Mercy is an important determinant of how we should keep the Sabbath. Indeed mercy is one of the weighty matters of the Law of God, along with Justice and Faith. (Matt 23:23)
The Sabbath command, and all God’s law, were always to be tempered with a reasonable approach as to what was necessary and what was good. The Pharisees, however, could never see past the strict letter of the law, and grasp its intent and purpose.
Do we really need to ask simple questions like:
Do we cut up some food for a child?
Do we wash an apple?
Do we pluck some fruit from a tree to eat?
There are no specific statements in the scriptures that doing any of these things constitutes work or not. Where is the boundary between work and not work? The reality is that there is no clear boundary, for the law of God is spiritual. (Rom 7:14)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb 4:12)
In order to understand the law, we therefore need to include the essential spiritual guideline of mercy.
From the parable of the Good Samaritan, discussed in Chapter 1, we can see that mercy is not a difficult concept to understand, it’s very similar to being nice to your friends.
Jesus asked the Lawyer at the end of the parable of the Good Samaritan:
Then which of these three, do you think, was neighbour (friend) to him who fell among the robbers? And he said, The one doing the deed of mercy to him.
And Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise. (Luke 10:36-37)
Scripture is full of these simple and profound summations of what it means to be merciful- and that is how God wants you to be in order to inherit eternal life.
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go you and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Matt 9:12-13)
And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. (Matt 20:30-34)
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. (James 3:17-18)
In the next post in this series, we will delve more into the Spiritual aspect of understanding and implementing the command to keep holy the Sabbath Day.
What has the Holy Spirit got to do with the Sabbath Day?
Simply without the Holy Spirit we can’t keep the Sabbath Day holy!