Remember the Sabbath
So as I was waiting for my dinner to finish in the oven, I was reading Numbers and I came to a part that was titled in my NIV bible as "The Sabbath-Breaker Put to Death". To sum it up, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath and this was deemed to be in violation of fourth commandment of the ten commandments given to Moses: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. The Lord judged that he should die and the entire assembly took him outside camp and stoned him to death.
It's Sunday evening, I'm making dinner, I plan to get a few solid hours of studying in before I go to bed, and I'm blogging. All of those include doing work on the "sabbath" and it got me thinking. What is the purpose of this commandment? Is what I'm doing wrong?
The sabbath question has come up many times before. I have a few close friends who do not study on Sunday. They purposely leave Sunday free to relax and, most importantly, to spend quality time with God. But I usually don't take the entire Sunday off. During most of my undergrad years, Sunday mornings were reserved for going to church that was followed by a family lunch and then, quite often, a nap in the afternoon. I used to volunteer at the hospital fortnightly at around 1700 and after that was finished, I'd do some studying before going to bed.
The Pharisees were always looking for something wrong with Jesus and His disciples and on one Sabbath day, they observed the disciples picking heads of grain from a field and eating them because they were hungry. When they tried to point this out as violating the law, Jesus responded by saying "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." To emphasize his point, he goes to a man with a shriveled hand and heals him on the Sabbath saying, "Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
The law was not there so that God's people would be subject to a bunch of legalistic rulings. It was supposed to help the Israelites to spend one day of the week to refresh and spend focused in communion with the Lord. Of course, we can apply this to our lives today as Christians but Jesus has since come and reformed the laws of the Old Testament and basically stated that we aren't supposed to stop doing even good things like eating or helping someone in need on the Sabbath.
I guess when I evaluate how I treat my Sabbath, it would be really awesome to take an entire day off to just spend with God. Close the textbooks and reflect on my week and just spend some extra quiet time to listen for God's voice. Other things that I'll do on Sunday like cooking and getting groceries are definitely okay. But I guess the studying is a bit gray. Part of me feels that I by doing a bit of school work I'm being wise with my time. As long as I do take some time to spend with God, it's fine right? I've never felt convicted by the Holy Spirit about doing school-work on a Sunday. But if I was really wise with my time, could I spend the other six days studying and leave all of Sunday off just for God?
It's Sunday evening, I'm making dinner, I plan to get a few solid hours of studying in before I go to bed, and I'm blogging. All of those include doing work on the "sabbath" and it got me thinking. What is the purpose of this commandment? Is what I'm doing wrong?
The sabbath question has come up many times before. I have a few close friends who do not study on Sunday. They purposely leave Sunday free to relax and, most importantly, to spend quality time with God. But I usually don't take the entire Sunday off. During most of my undergrad years, Sunday mornings were reserved for going to church that was followed by a family lunch and then, quite often, a nap in the afternoon. I used to volunteer at the hospital fortnightly at around 1700 and after that was finished, I'd do some studying before going to bed.
The Pharisees were always looking for something wrong with Jesus and His disciples and on one Sabbath day, they observed the disciples picking heads of grain from a field and eating them because they were hungry. When they tried to point this out as violating the law, Jesus responded by saying "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." To emphasize his point, he goes to a man with a shriveled hand and heals him on the Sabbath saying, "Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
The law was not there so that God's people would be subject to a bunch of legalistic rulings. It was supposed to help the Israelites to spend one day of the week to refresh and spend focused in communion with the Lord. Of course, we can apply this to our lives today as Christians but Jesus has since come and reformed the laws of the Old Testament and basically stated that we aren't supposed to stop doing even good things like eating or helping someone in need on the Sabbath.
I guess when I evaluate how I treat my Sabbath, it would be really awesome to take an entire day off to just spend with God. Close the textbooks and reflect on my week and just spend some extra quiet time to listen for God's voice. Other things that I'll do on Sunday like cooking and getting groceries are definitely okay. But I guess the studying is a bit gray. Part of me feels that I by doing a bit of school work I'm being wise with my time. As long as I do take some time to spend with God, it's fine right? I've never felt convicted by the Holy Spirit about doing school-work on a Sunday. But if I was really wise with my time, could I spend the other six days studying and leave all of Sunday off just for God?
Labels: God Thoughts, Personal Reflection
posted by Matt at 5:33 AM
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