It is a great experience to visit Mount Sania in the vast Sanai desert.
Of what does this mountain reminds you?
We don’t know exactly where Moses wrote the masterpiece of the book of Genesis.
Nowhere else will you find such a clear, loving personal narrative of a God of love who created us, human beings, to have a personal relationship with us.
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.
Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Genesis 2:3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God
At Sinai where people heard the voice of God and where He wrote the ten beautiful rules for a happy lifestyle, He also wrote them on stone.
Listen to these words from God:
Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exodus 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
Exodus 20:10 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.
Exodus 20:11 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. had created and made.
More than a thousands years later the voice of Sinai is heard again in the barley fields:
Mark 2:27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
What a gracious gift! Is it real? Giving me a whole day in which to turn my thoughts to the One who created me! To turn my thoughts to nature and to those who need special care.
What a gift to place God, nature and the needs of people uppermost in my thoughts and forget about myself.
The Sabbath was designed and ordained by a loving Creator for the welfare of humanity. It is only by the wildest stretch of reasoning that a person could consider the Sabbath “against” man in any respect. He will never withhold a gift like the Sabbath from women and children.
To tamper in any way with the Creator’s specifications as to when and how the day should be observed is tantamount to denying that God knows what is best for the creatures of His hand.
God ordained that the Sabbath should be a blessing, not a burden, and it is to man’s interest and not his injury to observe it. It was designed to increase his happiness, not to work a hardship on him.
We refrain from certain tasks, from certain pursuits, from certain topics of thought and conversation, not because that by so doing we think to win favour with God.
We refrain from these things in order that we may devote our time, our energies, and our thought to other pursuits that will increase our understanding of God.
On the Sabbath we are invited to reflect on His goodness. Reflect on our capacity to cooperate with Him, and our ability to serve Him and our fellow men more effectively.
Sabbathkeeping that consists only, or primarily, in the negative aspect of not doing certain things is not Sabbathkeeping at all. It is only when the positive aspect of Sabbathkeeping is practiced that we may hope to derive from Sabbath observance the benefit ordained by a wise and loving Creator.
Isaiah 58:13,14 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honourable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,
Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
The legion requirements of the rabbis pertaining to the meticulous observance of the Sabbath were based on the concept that the Sabbath was of more importance in the sight of God than man himself.
According to the apparent reasoning of these blind exponents of the divine law, man was made for the Sabbath—made to keep it mechanically. The rabbis reduced the Sabbath to an absurdity by their rigid and meaningless distinction between what might and what might not be done on that day (see on v. 24).
The Saviour Himself has the right to determine what is appropriate to that day; consequently, the Pharisees were exceeding their prerogatives (see v. 24). The church has no right to load the Sabbath with oppressive restrictions—as did the Jews—or to attempt the transfer of its sacredness from one day to another.
And then Jesus also said something so very very very important:
Verse 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE MERCY AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
LET US RECAP THE MESSAGE OF JESUS ON THE SABBATH
Upon one Sabbath day, as the Saviour and His disciples returned from the place of worship, they passed through a field of ripening grain. Jesus had continued His work to a late hour, and while passing through the fields, the disciples began to gather the heads of grain, and to eat the kernels after rubbing them in their
The spies at once complained to Jesus, saying, “Behold, Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day.”
When accused of Sabbathbreaking at Bethesda, Jesus defended Himself by affirming His Sonship to God, and declaring that He worked in harmony with the Father. Now that the disciples are attacked, He cites His accusers to examples from the Old Testament, acts performed on the Sabbath by those who were in the service of God.
If it was right for David to satisfy his hunger by eating of the bread that had been set apart to a holy use, then it was right for the disciples to supply their need by plucking the grain upon the sacred hours of the Sabbath.
Again, the priests in the temple performed greater labor on the Sabbath than upon other days. The same labor in secular business would be sinful; but the work of the priests was in the service of God. They were performing those rites that pointed to the redeeming power of Christ, and their labor was in harmony with the object of the Sabbath.
But now Christ Himself had come. The disciples, in doing the work of Christ, were engaged in God’s service, and that which was necessary for the accomplishment of this work it was right to do on the Sabbath day.
Jesus then crowned His argument by declaring Himself the “Lord of the Sabbath,”—One above all question and above all law. This infinite Judge acquits the disciples of blame, appealing to the very statutes they are accused of violating.
Jesus did not let the matter pass without administering a rebuke to His enemies. He declared that in their blindness they had mistaken the object of the Sabbath. He said, “If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” Matthew 12:7. Their many heartless rites could not supply the lack of that truthful integrity and tender love which will ever characterize the true worshiper of God.
Again Christ reiterated the truth that the sacrifices were in themselves of no value. They were a means, and not an end. Their object was to direct men to the Saviour, and thus to bring them into harmony with God. It is the service of love that God values.
When this is lacking, the mere round of ceremony is an offense to Him. So with the Sabbath. It was designed to bring men into communion with God; but when the mind was absorbed with wearisome rites, the object of the Sabbath was thwarted. Its mere outward observance was a mockery.
If it was right for David to satisfy his hunger by eating of the bread that had been set apart to a holy use, then it was right for the disciples to supply their need by plucking the grain upon the sacred hours of the Sabbath. Again, the priests in the temple performed greater labour on the Sabbath than upon other days.
The same labour in secular business would be sinful; but the work of the priests was in the service of God. They were performing those rites that pointed to the redeeming power of Christ, and their labor was in harmony with the object of the Sabbath. But now Christ Himself had come.
The disciples, in doing the work of Christ, were engaged in God’s service, and that which was necessary for the accomplishment of this work it was right to do on the Sabbath day.
Christ would teach His disciples and His enemies that the service of God is first of all. The object of God’s work in this world is the redemption of man; therefore that which is necessary to be done on the Sabbath in the accomplishment of this work is in accord with the Sabbath law. Jesus then crowned His argument by declaring Himself the “Lord of the Sabbath,”—One above all question and above all law. This infinite Judge acquits the disciples of blame, appealing to the very statutes they are accused of violating.
Jesus did not let the matter pass without administering a rebuke to His enemies. He declared that in their blindness they had mistaken the object of the Sabbath. He said,
“If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” Matthew 12:7.
Their many heartless rites could not supply the lack of that truthful integrity and tender love which will ever characterize the true worshiper of God.
Again Christ reiterated the truth that the sacrifices were in themselves of no value. They were a means, and not an end. Their object was to direct men to the Saviour, and thus to bring them into harmony with God. It is the service of love that God values.
When this is lacking, the mere round of ceremony is an offense to Him. So with the Sabbath. It was designed to bring men into communion with God; but when the mind was absorbed with wearisome rites, the object of the Sabbath was thwarted. Its mere outward observance was a mockery.
AN APPEAL
If you are a Sabbath keeper, please make sure that you look beyond this beautiful symbol, to the eternal Sabbath rest that awaits us in heaven. Do not make the Sabbath a burden but a delight.
If you are not yet enjoying the rest and blessing of the Sabbath, I invite you to start obeying what God want you to do. And please show the true spirit of the Sabbath to people who are lonely and need some human tenderness. As Jesus used the Sabbath to heal people, so He wants you to use this holy day to also heal the broken hearted.
NEXT TIME
Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. How did the Pharisees react?