The Sabbath – Freedom or Bondage

Exodus 20:8 (ESV) “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

Our ever busy modern lives and the societies in which they take place seem to have a negative view on the Fourth Commandment, the sabbath; or see it as a Jewish only affair. Right in Genesis 2 we read that the sabbath is written into creation; it is a matter right from the beginning.

Genesis 2:2-3 (ESV) “(2) And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. (3) So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

Since Israel had come into bondage of Egyptian slavery, it never had to the chance to stop working, nor would the people have dared to do so. When God leads the Israelites out of Egypt, freeing them from slavery, He gives them a gift - to cease from work 1 day per week. Only free people can stop working. Slaves work all the time - but free people have the liberty of rest. The sabbath is a sign of grace from God to His people who are free.

If we continue to clutter the sabbath with work, we are rejecting God’s gift to free people. We are returning to Egypt voluntarily, saying that we want to be a slave. We are choosing bondage over freedom.

We are also saying that we don’t trust God to provide and that all depends on our efforts. We are having faith in ourselves, but not in God. And now, being a voluntary slave who relies on his/her own efforts, we are too showing a lack of compassion, because people around us (family, friends, co-workers, employees) will not enjoy rest either.

Hard, diligent and disciplined work honors God. Relentless work or working at the expense of family shows a lack of trust in God’s ability to provide for one’s needs. The sabbath is a gift to enable God’s people to live by faith, requiring them not to work all the time, as they trust Him for their future well-being.

Matthew 6:25-33 (ESV) “(25) “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (26) Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (27) And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? (28) And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, (29) yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (30) But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (31) Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (32) For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (33) But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”