Observing the Sabbath

John Hatcher is pastor of Outreach International Center, 1091 South Jeff Davis Drive, Fayetteville, Georgia 30215. 770-719-0303

By JOHN HATCHER
Contributing Writer

When I was a small boy, it was difficult to find a store that sold groceries open on a given Sunday. Perhaps one or two were open in a radius of several miles. It just didn’t happen. In no way would a Sears or a J.C. Penney open on Sunday. Now, you can just get anything you want on Sunday except a six pack of cold beer.

Sunday “blue laws” still have their influence here in Georgia. The fact that you cannot buy a cold six pack is proof. For that matter, you can’t buy a bottle of Jim Beam on Sunday. Now, if you are really hurting, you can always go to a number of restaurants and order up a tall cool one or a shot of Jim or Jack. Even today, certain “blue laws” keep us from getting out of hand on the Lord’s Day.

By definition a Blue Law is a law restricting activities or sales of goods on Sunday, to accommodate Christian Sunday worship. Some say that they were called “blue” because of the blue paper they were written upon. Others contend they were called “blue” because of the association of the color blue with a more aristocratic, rigid form of life. Regardless, blue laws were put on the books to help keep the Sabbath holy.

Keeping the Sabbath holy was the thrust of the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).

Before we proceed, a little housekeeping: the Sabbath occurs technically from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. That’s the day on which the fourth commandment focuses. With the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and with Easter happening on the first day of the week (Sunday) and with Pentecost happening the first day of the week (Sunday), the early church moved its worship observances to Sunday rather than Saturday. So, for Christians, when we talk about the Sabbath we refer to the Lord’s Day, that being Sunday.

Consequently, an up-to-date version of the fourth commandment (in light of the resurrection) would be, “Remember the Lord’s Day, to keep it holy.”

The Bible gives at least three big ways to observe the Lord’s Day. As can be read from Exodus, the people of God were to cease regular activities on the Lord’s Day because God himself rested on the seventh day. So, the Lords Day should be a day of rest.

Now, what’s rest for one person is not for the next. A hard working yard man would find little rest in digging in the dirt again. Yet, an office worker might find significant refreshment by working in the yard. Whatever is recreational is what should be done on the Lord’s Day.

However, when the fourth commandment is spoken a second time in Deuteronomy 5, it instructs the community of faith to remember their deliverance from Egyptian slavery as they observe the Lord’s Day. To wit, the Lord’s Day becomes a day of worship and praise for all the Lord has done for his people.

Attending worship to express our thanksgiving and praise for what the Lord has done for us is very appropriate on the Lord’s Day.

When Jesus came preaching, he knitted another facet to the Lord’s Day: he heals a man’s crippled hand on the Sabbath prompting the scorn of the religious Pharisees. Healing was a violation of the commandment to cease from work activity. Jesus asked in response, was it bad to do good on the Sabbath? So, Jesus firmly established that the Lord’s Day was a day for doing good: visiting the sick and shut-ins, caring for the lonely, and meeting a vast array of human need.

It was Jesus who finally put everything into perspective in regard to the Sabbath. He said that God made the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath. Meaning, we are free to observe the Lord’s Day in ways that promote wellness, gratitude, and kindness: wellness for our own selves, gratitude to God for his deliverance, and kindness to our friends, family, and strangers.