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 1
COMMENTARY
IS YOUR JOB REQUIRESSABBATH
 WORK?
 
See page at See page at See page at See page at page  page  page  page 10 10 10 10 
Vol. 2 No.2
February 2009
 
Kee Kee Kee Keeping  ping  ping  ping  God's God's God's God's  
HOLY TIME!
 
Are you sometimes GLAD when the Sabbath isover? Does time hang heavy on the Sabbath? Doyou "force" yourself to be in a good attitudeabout the Sabbath? Read this article and findout how to avoid these troublesomepitfalls!
o you keep God's Sabbath
holy
? Do you findthe Sabbath a real delight and joy? Or is it aday of "bondage" or question to you?‘How often have you wondered if you have broken the Sabbath by a particular act or thought? How many timeshave you felt condemned about the Sabbath? Should youattend a funeral, a wedding, a movie on the Sabbath? Howdo you take care of unconverted relatives who drop inunexpectedly on the Sabbath? Is it okay to have a familyouting on the Sabbath? How many dishes should youwash? This is just a sampling of some of the manyquestions asked regularly about the Sabbath.Since God's Sabbath is
 special 
HOLY time set aside byGod, you need to understand it, know its purpose andmeaning to you as a true Christian. Too often, (See next page…)
When Does Your Sabbath Begin? I II I 
have been car pooling to work each day. A fellow worker and I take turns driving towork. Late last fall, I needed to tell him about the Sabbath. On Fridays I would have toget to work by 7:00 AM and leave at 4:00 PM, so we would have to drive separately onFridays.My friend is a zealous Protestant. Several days later he wanted to know why I keep theSabbath, so I gave him an article to read on the subject. Later he began discussing the Sabbath issue. As an "honest"student of the Bible, he admitted that Sunday is not the Bible Sabbath. The first issue he was concerned with wasexactly WHEN the Sabbath begins. "When does your Sabbath begin?" I replied that the Bible indicates that Fridaysunset is the beginning of the Sabbath. He said, "do you mean that at the exact split second of sundown, the Sabbathbegins, and that if you are working
after 
this time, it is sin, but if you are working
before
the exact moment of sundown,it is
not 
sin?"
Continued on page 6…
 
D
 
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the tendency is to the two extremes — either treating theSabbath too lightly as the world does, or becomingcompletely Pharisaical — afraid to move on the Sabbath.
Petty Arguments
Because of the many supposed complications in keepingthe Sabbath, men have excused themselves from keeping it — saying it is too difficult. Of course, these are only their  puny excuses to keep from obeying God, but many of thequestions which come up are derived from these pettyarguments. You need to understand them. Once they arecleared up completely in your mind, you will be ready tounderstand how to keep the Sabbath
as God intended!
 Fire on the Sabbath
 They say you cannot build a fire on the Sabbath accordingto Exodus 35:2. Then what about people who live in coldclimates? Won't they freeze to death? If this is true, thenGod made the Sabbath too harsh, and it should not be kept — according to the rebellious, carnal mind! Notice Exodus 35:2 with the context around it. Verse threesays, "Ye shall
kindle no fire
throughout your habitationson the Sabbath day." From the original Hebrew, this word,"kindle," means a
consuming 
flame, a flame that would
devour — 
that is, a great, roaring fire! The question is whywould you need such a fire on the Sabbath? Read the rest of Chapter 35 and you will see. They were building thetabernacle and needed a fire large enough to work metal!Haven't you ever looked out on the Sabbath day andnoticed some trimming you would like to get done on your lawn, or have a job you would like to get finished — andcatch yourself wanting to get it done in spite of theSabbath? This is exactly what the Israelites were doing.They were so zealous for the tabernacle that Moses evenhad to tell them to stop bringing materials. God knew that if He did not stop them, they would work right through theSabbath on the Tabernacle.This was not a cooking or household heating fire! It was anindustrial fire. The same principle holds true today. Thereshould be no industrial fires kindled on the Sabbath. On theother hand, fires of the proper type were commanded byGod to be kept burning! Notice Leviticus 6:13: "The fireshall be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out." 
 Hence a
 sacrificial 
fire (from which the Israelites
cooked 
their meat and grain) remained burning on the Sabbath!God was not even discussing a cooking, sacrificial or  personal heating fire — but a fire which is used for work that should be done only on one of the other six days provided for that purpose.
Sabbath Day's Journey
 The Sabbath day's journey question seems to stipulate thata true believer should travel no more than the distance fromthe Mount of Olives to Jerusalem (Acts 1:12) about 2,000cubits or approximately seven-eighths of a mile. Almost allthe brethren who attend church around the world travelmany times that distance each Sabbath! Does this meanalmost all our people are breaking the Sabbath each week  by attending church?If you will check carefully, you will find that this referenceis the
only
place in the entire Bible a "Sabbath day's journey" is mentioned. This was a common expression of the Jews at that time, but was never employed by Christand his disciples. It was derived as a custom by thelegalistic Jews from Exodus 16:29: "...let no man go out of his place on the seventh day."The explanation of this is found in
 Peloubet's Bible Dictionary,
page 573, under "Sabbath day's journey": Acts1:12. The law as regards travel on the Sabbath is found inEx. 16:29. As some departure from a man's own place wasunavoidable, it was thought necessary to determine theallowable amount, which was fixed at 2,000 cubits or about1,000 yards, from the wall of the city. The permitteddistance seems to have been grounded on the space to bekept between the ark and the people, Joshua 3:4, in thewilderness, which tradition said was that between the ark and the tents. We find the same distance given as thecircumference outside the walls of the Levitical cities to becounted as their suburbs. Num. 35:5. The
terminus a quo
 was thus not a man's own house, but the wall of the citywhere he dwelt. Notice it is not a law of God, but simply a
tradition of 
theJews! Since God required attendance at Sabbath services,they had to leave their homes or tents and travel to the tentof meeting. It just happened that the distance from thefringe tents to the center of the encampment where the tentof meeting was, measured about 2,000 cubits. Rather thanstrive to understand and obey the principle of the Sabbath,they punctiliously set about
on their own
to draw updefinite physical limits for Sabbath observance.God has never set on his people a "Sabbath day's journey"!
Ox in the Ditch
 Christ said, "Which of you shall have an ass or an ox falleninto a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on theSabbath day?" (Luke 14:5.) From this, many have arguedthat their job was an ox in the ditch because it requiresthem to work, or they work at a job which has "regular emergencies" requiring work on the Sabbath.They reason that God surely would not want the men tolose their jobs which provides for their families and alsoenables them to continue to give offerings to God's Work.Some have gone so far as to work on the Sabbath, then give
 
 3
that whole day's pay as an offering, to avoid losing their  jobs. But these persons have not known that God says,"Hath the Eternal as great delight in burnt offerings andsacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Eternal? Behold,to
obey
is
better 
than
 sacrifice..." 
(I Sam. 15:22).God is not interested in sacrifices or offerings at theexpense of disobedience to His laws!But what about the ox or ass in the ditch? How often shouldyou expect it to happen, and what does it really mean andhow does it apply today to people who don't own oxen andasses?First, you need to understand literally what an "ox in theditch" means. Since the ox and the ass are rather sure-footed creatures, the odds against them regularly beingstuck in a ditch are quite high. When you add the fact thatthe Sabbath is only one day out of a total of seven, the oddsgo even higher. Normally, in order to have an ox in theditch, you have to have the following factors: It must beSabbath, you must have some kind of severely inclementweather (snowstorm, rainstorm, etc.), and you need aclumsy ox!Rest assured that if the ox is in the ditch on the Sabbath,Christ makes it very clear you should pull it out. But an oxin the ditch
on the Sabbath
is a very rare occurrence — thatis, a genuine emergency. Normally, a farmer can gothrough a whole lifetime and be able to count on one handthe number of oxen (cattle) or asses he has pulled out of a bog or ditch — and the odds are seven to one against it being on the Sabbath.The principle of the ox in the ditch obviously includes suchgenuine emergencies as personal injuries, burning houses, power failures, accidents and other occurrences whichwould entail injury, loss of life or personal property.The principle does
not 
include, however, the person who"pushes his own ox into the ditch" by acquiring or keepinga job where he knows he will be required to work on theSabbath each week, or by "putting off" work which shouldhave been done during the week. Nor does it includeharvesting or plowing on the Sabbath — even if there has been bad weather or machinery breakdowns during theweek. God says, "Six days thou shalt work, but on theseventh day thou shalt rest: in earing [better translated,"plowing" — see
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
#2758}time and in harvest thou shalt rest" (Exodus 34:21).
Jewish Ritualism — Pagan Permissiveness
 By their strict adherence to certain physical limitations they(not God) placed on the law, the Jews consistently brokethe
 spirit 
of the law. One story is told of how the Pharisees,to prohibit a profit from milking on the Sabbath, decreedthat the cows should be milked on a rock so the milk wouldnot be gathered in a bucket and sold. This apparentlyworked fine until one enterprising person began milking hiscow on a rock — which had been placed in the bottom of a bucket!Christ scorched them with the truth, "For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men'sshoulders; but they themselves will not move them withone of their fingers" (Mat. 23:4). They were totally carnaland could not see nor understand the
 principles
behind thelaw.On the other hand, the pagans have rejected completelyGod's laws, thinking they could make up for it with self-flagellation, pilgrimages, enforced fasts, assuming that iswhat God wants. They have completely forgotten what Godis like.Our so-called "Judeo-Christian" society has inherited astrange mixture of this ill-conceived "marriage." This iswhat the people of God must come out of! We have grownup being too lax in some things — thinking we had to be punished for nonsensical things — and too strict andlegalistic in others. We must come out of this and strive tolearn the right balance of living and keeping the Sabbathfrom God!
From the Beginning
 God ordered the Israelites at Mount Sinai to remember theSabbath day to
keep it holy!
(Ex. 20:8.) They were toremember how the Sabbath began and what it was all aboutfrom the beginning. Genesis 2 describes the Sabbath as theday God
hallowed 
by resting. He
rested 
the seventh dayafter working six — thereby setting the perfect example.It was done
 for 
man — for his well-being and benefit. It isnot nearly as complicated as some think! "The Sabbathwas made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," statesChrist (Mark 2:27). It was created
after 
man for his goodand physical and spiritual health — not
before
man with along list of stringent requirements and harsh bondage!
FIRST a Day of 
 Rest 
and a SIGN!
 It is a day of rest for God
and 
man! God set us a positiveexample by taking extra pains to set aside this
 special 
spaceof time — holy to Him — as
 His
time, belonging to Him, Itwas so important to Him that He set it up as a
 special 
signto man, to be observed throughout his generations. Notice Exodus 31:12-17: "... Verily my Sabbaths ye
 shall keep:
for it is a sign between Me and you
throughout 
your generations.... Ye shall keep the Sabbath...for it is holy untoyou... It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel
of 00

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