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KEEPING THE SABBATH (I)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27
Exodus 20:8-11
Mark 2:23-28
 
“Remember the sabbath day,
to keep it holy.”
 
KEEPING THE SABBATH (I)
 
The Sabbath command is a good law that comes from a good God. God requires of man to set aside one day a week for physical respite and spiritual refreshment. When we come to worship the Lord on Sunday, do we not find our bodies and spirits recharged for a new week of physical work and spiritual battle? The Sabbath is not to be a burden but a delight. It is not a holiday but a holy day (Isa 58:13-14).
 
Today, we keep the Sabbath on Sunday, the Lord’s Day (Rev 1:10; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2) commemorating Christ’s resurrection. On this day, we gather for worship, fellowship, Bible study and evangelism.
 
While keeping the Sabbath, we do not keep it with a Pharisaical attitude. In Mark 2:23-24, the Pharisees charged Jesus and His disciples for breaking the sabbath. According to the Pharisees, the sabbath law was broken when the disciples plucked and rubbed the wheat grains in their hands. In their extra-biblical rabbinical laws, they listed the following as work forbidden on the sabbath: “The main classes of work are forty save one: sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing or beating or dyeing it, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying [a knot], loosening [a knot], sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering or flaying or salting it or curing its skin, scraping it or cutting it up, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, lighting a fire, striking with a hammer and taking our aught from one domain into another. These are the main classes of work: forty save one” (Mishnah, Shabbath 7.2). The disciples were considered to have done #3 and #5 of the 39 activities. Jesus was culpable because He did not stop His hungry disciples. Was the Master wrong?
 
Jesus and His disciples did not violate the Sabbath law. What they violated were the extra-biblical, man-made, foolish laws of the Pharisees.
 
THOUGHT: The Lord God is not a slave-driver, but a loving Master.
PRAYER: Lord, I thank Thee for Thy good law of rest on the Sabbath.

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