Honor The Sabbath

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” 

The next commandment God gave the Israelites was to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy. Just as the Israelites were commanded to be holy, set apart (Deuteronomy 7:6), they were to set apart, consecrate, the seventh day as a holy day. The Sabbath is holy in that it was set apart, different from the rest of the week. The rest of the week they were to work but on the Sabbath, they were to rest.

The word, Sabbath, comes from the ‘shabath’ (shaw-bath’), which means repose, rest, or intermission. The Sabbath was a day of rest or intermission in the week. The Israelites were not to do any work on the Sabbath. This did not mean that they were not to labor but that they were not to work for profit. After Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath, the Pharisees accused Him of breaking the Law. As Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees that if their donkey had fallen into a ditch on the Sabbath they would have gotten it out; yet they accuse Him of sinning because He healed someone. He didn’t seem to suggest that saving the animal was a sin but was pointing out the fact that they valued their property more than they valued people.

Jesus told the Pharisees that the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. God made the Sabbath as a day of rest for mankind. The Pharisees saw the Sabbath as a day to do no work. They legalistically said what could and what could not be done on the Sabbath thus Jesus’ previously-mentioned encounter with them.

They were not only commanded to honor the Sabbath but they were commanded to remember the Sabbath. Remembering the Sabbath means that they were to keep it before them. They were to calendar it. They were not to forget it. He knew that people’s drive for money, power, and success would cause them to work constantly without rest and the body was not designed to work for long periods at that level. The body needs to rest and be free from stress. Even steel will break under constant stress.

What does this mean for us today? Many businesses are open seven days a week. Some people work two jobs. Should we go back to the days when everything was closed on Sunday? Christians are still called to honor the spirit of the Law if not the letter. The spirit is that we are to take a day off from work to rest. It is also that we are to set aside time for the worship of God and communion with Him. Since we are the church, we no longer have to go to a building to worship Him; we can worship Him anytime, anywhere. In that vein, everyday is a Sabbath Day. But we are not to ignore God’s command to rest. He even used Himself as the example. Six days He created the heavens and the earth and everything in it in six days. On the seventh day, the Lord rested (Genesis 2:2).

Where Your Heart Is...

Luke 9:62; 17:31-32

But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

“In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. ³² Remember Lot’s wife.

Our past is important to us. It informs us who we are and from where we came. It is from the past that we learn how to behave in the future. There’s a lot of useful information in the past. We are to cherish our past whether it be personal or cultural, but we are not to cleave to it. In these passages, Jesus discusses the importance of letting go of your past in order to embrace your future.

            In the Luke 9 passage, two men profess that they want to follow Jesus; however, they had to fulfill certain obligations first. One had to go bury his father and another had to go say good-bye to his family. Jesus told them that anyone having once put his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.

            Why does Jesus say this? Does He not want us to grieve and bury our dead? Does He not want us to say good-bye to our families but just disappear? No, that is not what He was saying. Jesus was addressing the heart of the issue. He wasn’t so much as addressing the men as He was addressing the excuses. If their intentions to serve were real, they would not have put stipulations on them. Jesus is to be first; all else is to be last. What was Jesus really saying? I believe we will find our answer in the next passage.

            The Pharisees asked Jesus about when the Kingdom of God would come (vs. 20). Jesus explained to them that they would not “see” the Kingdom for it is within; rather, it would start out an internal (spiritual) Kingdom not an external Kingdom. He goes on to talk about the arrival of the external Kingdom—when He would return to rule and reign in Person. He describes    athe panic and chaos of that day as people flee their home and work (possibly from His presence). He says that they are not to turn back for their things. He then tells them to “Remember Lot’s wife.”

            Lot’s wife died because she disobeyed and looked back at the destruction of Sodom. When the angels prophesied the demise of Sodom, they told Lot and his family to leave and to not look back. However, on her way out of the city, Lot’s wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. Why did she look back? She looked back because her heart was in that city. Sodom was her home. It was where she grew up. Her friends and family were there. She looked back with longing like any of us would if our home was being destroyed. Whether it was because of curiosity or remorse is unknown. The fact that she looked back and the consequences of looking back are known.

            I believe this is what Jesus was saying to the two men. They wanted to return home because that is where their hearts were. They wanted to follow Jesus but, like the rich young ruler, they couldn’t separate themselves from what meant more to them, in this case, their past.  Jesus knew that they might have went home to do the things they intended but then never left because something else would have come up—another emergency, parents begged them to stay, etc.

            Ask any farmer and he will tell you that you cannot plow a straight line looking backwards. Instead, you have to fix your focus on a mark in front and aim for that mark while plowing. Likewise, if we are going to follow Christ and stay on the straight and narrow row, then we cannot spend our time looking back. We can’t focus on past mistakes. We can’t focus on missed opportunities. We can’t focus on family. We can’t focus on friends. We can’t focus on careers. We can’t focus on hobbies. We can’t focus on anything that takes our minds off Jesus and His purpose for our lives. We must focus our attention on the mark and keep moving forward. These are the words of Paul in Philippians 3:13-14: “…forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

            Where is your heart? It is with that that you treasure most. What do you treasure most?  Jesus said where your treasure is is where your heart will be. Lot’s wife’s heart was in Sodom. Those men’s hearts were at home. Today, many people’s hearts are with their families, their careers, their sports teams, but not with Christ. They may be religious but religion saves no one. Jesus wants a relationship. Jesus wants our hearts.

            I don’t know about you but my heart is in Heaven.