Introduction: I love the Sabbath! My life is a series of deadlines.
When I’m home, I have work to do on the house and the lawn. I’ll bet
you know what I’m talking about. When I was a young man, the pressure
cooker of law school brought the blessing of the Sabbath into clear
focus. While other students were studying, I was able to have a
guilt-free time to go to church, eat with friends, and read and
relax. Let’s plunge into our Bibles and see what other blessings we
can find in the Sabbath!
- Manna Plan
- Read Exodus 16:14-16 and Exodus 16:21. When it came to
being fed, what responsibility did the people have? (They
had to get out of bed and collect the food. If they did
not, it would melt.) - Read Exodus 16:17-18. Why did everyone have just the right
amount? (God told them how much to gather, they obeyed,
and everyone had what they needed.) - The Bible Knowledge Commentary states that an omer is
about two quarts. What about hearty eaters? Those
who need more calories? (These verses talk about how
much everyone needed. I think the point of how it all
worked out is that God supplied what was needed for
each person.) - Does this teach us anything about economics today? (I
suspect that however much you have, you always need
more than you have!) - Read Exodus 16:19-20. Why would a person try to keep more?
(They did not trust God. It made no sense to try to store
it up if you received fresh supplies each morning.) - Read Exodus 16:22-25. What does this teach us about the
Sabbath? (God intended us to rest. No need to go out early
and gather food.) - What is the practical lesson for us today? (We will
not miss out by resting on the Sabbath. This was a
lesson I learned early on. Those fellow law students
who studied diligently on Sabbath did not receive
better grades than mine.) - What does this teach us about putting God’s interests
first? (I’m reminded of the days when we were
building our church. I had just bought a used
Mercedes Benz and I was excited about changing its
oil. Instead, I put God first and worked on our new
church. When I got home I immediately started working
on the Benz, and found that it had an unusual oil
drain plug. It required a huge allen wrench. None of
mine would fit it, and I doubted any were sold
locally. Then I noticed that the leather nail apron
that I used at church had a nail puller with a handle
shaped like a huge allen wrench. It fit perfectly!
Had I not put God’s business first, I would have
wasted my time working on the church by looking for
the right wrench!) - Sabbath Rest
- Read Exodus 20:8. What is God asking us to do when He says
“remember?” (He could be telling us to “keep it in mind,”
but it is more likely that God is telling us to remember
Genesis 2:2-3.) - Read Genesis 2:2-3. What does this tell us about the
Sabbath and rest? (The history of the Sabbath is that our
Creator God made everything in six days and memorialized
His work by a Sabbath rest.) - How would you rate the world in remembering our
Creator God? (Instead of being reminded every Sabbath
that God is our Creator, the popular culture tells us
that God had nothing to do with the creation. It came
about by chance and competition.) - Read Exodus 20:9-10. What is the main point of the
Sabbath? (The debate is between “rest” and “remembering
God.” I think both are important.) - Why do you think that servants, animals and
foreigners were also to rest? (This shows the
importance of the rest component of the Sabbath –
everyone and every animal was entitled to rest.) - Over the years, I’ve contemplated what is appropriate
on Sabbath. I recall that once my church decided that
on Sabbath they would do some good by helping some
poor member by moving their belongings out of their
house. After all, Jesus says we can wrestle an ox out
of a well on Sabbath! See Luke 14:5. I’m rather sure
I helped! What do you say about this? (I think this
ignores the rest component of the Sabbath. It is
hardly rest to move furniture. Unlike the ox, this is
not a situation in which the furniture was in
distress.) - Read Exodus 23:12. I read an article about a farmer who
did not use his automatic irrigation equipment on Sabbath.
He reported that it lasted much longer than the equipment
of his competitors. What do you think about that? (A pump
is not like a human, an ox, or a donkey. However, Exodus
23:10-11 says that we should not farm the land on the
seventh year.) - Read Luke 13:10-11. Was this an emergency situation? Was
it like an ox falling down a well? (No. It had been going
on for 18 years.) - Read Luke 13:12-14. Healing is part of Jesus’ normal work.
Why is this appropriate on the Sabbath? - Read Luke 13:15-16. The issue with the ox or donkey is
giving it something to drink, not untying it! Can you
defend Jesus’ logic? (I would have responded that this was
not work. Following the logic Jesus used, the lady was set
free on the Sabbath.) - Read Mark 2:23-27. Jesus’ says that King David set an
example of violating the law. David also committed
adultery and murder! Is that also acceptable? Are David’s
unlawful actions a reasonable defense? (I don’t think
Jesus is telling us to act like King David. Rather, He is
making a more sophisticated argument. He points to a
balance between human needs and the Sabbath. The “Sabbath
was made for man,” meaning that it was made to improve our
life. There is a hierarchy, and curing personal hunger is
more important than the Sabbath.) - What if the disciples started working in a soup
kitchen on Sabbath? - What if the disciples started working in a restaurant
on the Sabbath? - Read Mark 2:28. What is Jesus’ point here? (That He gets
to say what is appropriate on Sabbath!) - Matthew records more of this conversation. Read Matthew
12:5-6. My regular job is to teach and try to persuade.
I’m teaching nearly every Sabbath and I preach sometimes.
I have often taught and then preached that same Sabbath –
which is a lot like my regular work. Jesus says that I’m
“innocent” of Sabbath-breaking. Why? - Is it because I don’t charge? Paid clergy charge.
(Think back to my soup kitchen/restaurant question.) - Is it because of the subject matter? I teach at a
religious school and often litigate religious liberty
cases. - What does Jesus mean by “something greater than the
temple is here?” (He is referring to Himself.) - What is Jesus stating? (That the disciples are
attending Him, and therefore their work is like
that of the priests in the temple.) - The disciples were just with Jesus, they
were not collecting grain for Him to eat.
What other activities could the disciples
engage in the presence of Jesus on Sabbath
and still be innocent? - Read Matthew 12:7. I’ve asked a series of questions that
show the difficulty of drawing lines. Some may say that
drawing lines is “legalism,” but Jesus never said, “forget
the lines.” Rather, He seems to say that the Jewish
leaders were drawing the line in the wrong place. This
text provides a standard for line-drawing. How would you
explain this standard? (Here is a non-traditional
explanation: to make the disciples go hungry would be a
sacrifice on their part. Jesus says that showing mercy on
the hungry disciples is more important than the sacrifice
of making them go hungry. Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6, in which
the context is different. There, God says that He prefers
to have us obey, rather than offer a sacrifice for our
disobedience. That context is difficult to explain here,
which I why I suggest a new explanation.) - Friend, the Sabbath is important for both our physical and
spiritual health. When you decide what is consistent with
the Sabbath, will you remember that Jesus says it was made
for our benefit? Ask the Holy Spirit for God’s insight! - Next week: Mercy and Justice in Psalms and Proverbs.
