Understanding the Sabbath Commandment

—Few Sabbatarians Completely Do!

Article Preview: This article elaborates on this destiny changing issue with a depth that almost no one has considered. While this was originally written to instruct long time “Church of God” Sabbatarians, as the opening statements indicate, anyone wanting to obey the Ten Commandments would benefit from this.

The Fourth Commandment

REMEMBER the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8)

God instructs us “TO BRING TO MIND” the day of “stopping certain activities”. This is an obvious reference back to Genesis 2:2-3, where God had stopped from doing His work of re-creation. So first and foremost the commandment focuses our attention back to what GOD had done in Genesis 2:2-3. And, as we have seen, there God had “stopped working”. At that point, in Genesis 2, God had not yet mentioned anything about “resting”.

God had intentionally set this seventh day apart from the other six days of the week by not doing the things He had been doing on the six preceding days. For those six days God had been involved in the work of re-creating life on this earth to make this earth suitable for human habitation.

The commandment continues:

Six days SHALT THOU LABOUR, and DO all thy work: (Exodus 20:9)

This verse sums up all the activities we may typically be involved with in the course of our everyday lives. The emphasis in this verse is on doing things, on being active. The expression “all your work” refers to “all our business” and shows that the focus of all the activities being spoken about here is our work and our typical responsibilities and duties and our preferred activities (including sports, hobbies, academic pursuits, entertainment, etc.).

The next verse introduces a contrast:

But the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] THOU SHALT NOT DO ANY WORK, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: (Exodus 20:10)

This defines the Sabbath day to be the seventh day of the week. This verse also tells us what we are to “stop doing”! This verse shows that God equates the word “Sabbath” with: don’t do any “work”!

The word “work” (Hebrew “malakah”) means our “work” in a more general sense, including basically all our activities and endeavors. That is also conveyed by the added word “any” (Hebrew “kol”) in the expression “you shall not do ANY work”; and this instruction applies to everyone we are responsible for.

However, God did NOT choose to here define exactly what constitutes “work”. The Hebrew word for “work” (“malakah”) comes from the same root as the Hebrew word for “angel” and “messenger” (i.e. “malak”), showing that angels and messengers are “workers” as far as God is concerned. Messengers don’t necessarily expend a great deal of energy, though they sometimes could be doing that as well. So “work” also includes activities that require hardly any expenditure of energy at all. For some people “work” might be “sitting on a chair all day and talking to a few people”, while other people might perform very heavy physical labour. Both are “work”.

But here is the point we need to understand!

God intentionally did not spell out in any detail exactly what constitutes “WORK”, as He has used the word “work” here. Where the Jewish teachings about the Sabbath focused on avoiding 39 specific “labors” (i.e. the Talmud teaches that-“the primary labors are forty less one”), GOD Himself did not spell out any kind of list of “labors to avoid” at all! God simply stated the principle in Exodus 20:10.

Why did God do it this way? It would have been far, far easier for us human beings if God had spelled out in a list, perhaps somewhat similar to the way the Pharisees did but in a more balanced way, the things we are to avoid doing on the Sabbath and the activities we may in good conscience engage in on the Sabbath. But God didn’t give us any kind of “lists”. Why didn’t He?

Let’s understand this clearly.

The Sabbath is a “test” command in more ways than one. First of all, once we become aware of God’s instruction for us to observe His Sabbath days, it tests us as to whether or not we will OBEY God in this regard. So in the first instance the Sabbath is a test of obedience to God.

But it goes much further than that.

By only giving us the instructions for observing the seventh day in the form of a principle, God ALSO tests our hearts and our attitudes! God in effect says: “I have told you clearly which day of the week you are to observe, and I have told you in principle the things I want you to ‘cease doing’. Now I want to see how YOU will apply the principle I have given you because THAT will show Me ‘the thoughts and intentions of YOUR heart’ “.

The statement “don’t do any work” is a far, far more effective test of our integrity and character than saying “here are 39 (or 50 or 200?) activities that you are to avoid on the Sabbath”. The formation of right character can only take place when we use OUR MINDS! Rote compliance with avoiding a list of 39 (or 50 or 200?) activities does not really involve us using our minds and making decisions-and such rote compliance will not result in godly character being formed in us-otherwise the Pharisees should also have had godly character. But when we are given the instruction “don’t do any work”, then we have to use our minds in applying that statement to every situation and activity that may arise on the Sabbath-and how we apply our minds and the decisions we reach and implement will reveal our integrity and our character to God. And THAT is what God wants to learn about us-what sort of character do we REALLY have?

And towards that end the Sabbath commandment is a far greater tool than any of the other nine commandments. The other nine commandments provide far more readily discernible limits (e.g. don’t kill or steal or lie or commit adultery, etc.) and also the average human mind will generally acknowledge the validity of these commandments (e.g. Paul said: “the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law”, Romans 2:14) far more readily than it will acknowledge the Sabbath commandment (e.g. it will argue: what difference does it make which day we keep as long as it is one day in seven?).

So the Sabbath is most assuredly not an end in itself! And there will be no Sabbath-keeping once there are no more physical human beings around. The Sabbath was made for mortal man, see Mark 2:27. But the Sabbath is a very powerful tool in testing our conversion and our commitment to God in TWO ways:

1) It tests whether or not we are willing to obey God.

2) It tests our attitude and our desire to think like God by how we interpret and then apply the statement of principle that God has given us in “don’t do any work”. It tests our desire for wanting to please God (see John 3:22)-or alternatively a desire to interpret this principle in our favor to enable us to get away with doing as many of the things we would really like to do.

We need to recognize that of all the people in this world who “keep” a Saturday-Sabbath very many never progress beyond the first of these two points! There is no desire to seek out the mind of God and to come to a constantly clearer and fuller understanding and application of this principle in Exodus 20:10. The mind- set of such people is really not very much different from very many people in this world who keep Sunday as their day, except for keeping a different day.

Now please understand this!

What God is REALLY looking for in you and in me is how we apply the second of the above two points!

People who only get as far as applying the first of the above two points are NOT necessarily on the road to salvation! The Pharisees got as far as the first point-and Jesus Christ called them “the children of gehenna” in Matthew 23:15. They were certainly not on the road to salvation, even though they kept the Sabbath as far as the first of the above two points is concerned. And likewise, many Sabbath-keepers in this world today are as yet NOT on the road to salvation, even though they are applying the first point.

You see, applying only the first of the above two points may in fact not really be “obedience” to God! It is only when we apply the second of the above two points that we are really obeying God!

Let me make this really plain:

It is quite possible for people in this world to meet the first of the above two points (i.e. to keep a Saturday- Sabbath) and STILL have a mind that is carnal and hostile to God! Romans 8:7 ALSO applies to many Sabbath-keepers who never progress beyond the first of these two points. This was certainly true for the Pharisees. Simply keeping the Sabbath is no proof of whole- hearted submission to God at all-if that Sabbath-keeping never progresses beyond the first of the above two points. It is exactly the same as many people who never kill or commit adultery still having minds that are carnal and hostile to God.

Put another way: there are Sabbath-keepers and there are Sabbath- keepers; one group has willingly and eagerly submitted their minds to God and is constantly seeking to understand God’s mind and God’s intentions more fully (i.e. seeking to grow in grace and in knowledge, 2 Peter 3:18), while the other group is still totally carnal and unconverted.

We need to understand that there are some Sabbath- keepers who have NOT submitted their lives to God! And such people are NOT on the road to salvation. God is not looking for people who keep a particular day; God is really looking for people who have submitted their minds unconditionally to His will, who have the faith that His will is the best course of action in every possible circumstance-and their observance of the Sabbath and their desire to keep the Sabbath as God would like us to keep it is only one of many outward manifestations that they have submitted their lives to Him.

For example:

Earlier I mentioned that the expression “in it you shall not do any work” includes “our preferred activities including sports, hobbies, academic pursuits and entertainment”. This is an example of how I have used my mind to reach this conclusion. And that conclusion is not negotiable-I have used my mind to determine that God does not really want me to be involved in sports or hobbies or academic pursuits or entertainment on His Sabbath days. Now some people may disagree with my conclusions here, and therefore they may at times engage in things like sports or hobbies or academic pursuits or entertainment on the Sabbath days, while they reason: “the Bible says we are not to work and these things I am doing are not really ‘work,’ so I don’t see why I can’t do them”.

If they use their minds to reason in that manner, then that is their problem and not mine. And God in heaven will see who is using his mind to seek God’s mind and God’s will, and who is using his mind to justify selfish conduct. And the way in which God has stated this commandment to us results unavoidably in exposing the thoughts and intents of our hearts to God.

We need to also recognize one other thing:

BECAUSE Sabbath-keeping requires us to use our minds to make decisions based on the principle God has given us, THEREFORE it is inevitable that sooner or later all of us will make some mistakes! None of us are always going to make the right decisions in this regard. That’s part of the learning process. And God knew that all of us would make some wrong decisions about “Sabbath activities”. And it is very easy to know when we have made a wrong decision, isn’t it?

After we have decided to do something on a Sabbath day (whatever it may be), when we in retrospect decide that in future we are NOT going to do that thing again on a Sabbath day, because of the lesson we learned from the way things turned out, THEN we are acknowledging that what we did or the way we did something was not really the best thing for the Sabbath-and we have learned something and we will have grown in understanding!

Consider the following situation:

You go to your minister and say: “My brother or uncle or niece or close friend is getting married on the Sabbath and the wedding arrangements and the plans for the reception are as follows-(or there is a funeral for...) so can I attend or not? What should I do?” Your minister then responds with a “yea” or a “nay”, and you abide by what he told you. What has happened in this instance? The very fact that you went to your minister with this question in most cases shows that you yourself had at least some reservations about attending this activity, yet you avoided making that decision yourself. Instead you looked to someone else to make that decision for you. (A variation of this scenario is that you slant the information you give your minister in such a way that his approval is almost assured, and in this way you are able to suppress your own reservations by reasoning: “Well, the minister said it is okay”.) So you yourself developed no character at all in the whole process because you did not use your own mind to reach a conclusion and then to act on it. And because you didn’t build any character and you didn’t use the opportunity to form your own convictions, therefore the chances are that next time you will again look to your minister to make a decision for you. And you will not have “grown” in the process.

[Comment: In all fairness, here a lot of the blame in this matter lies with us, the ministry, because we taught people to look to us for almost every decision in their lives. It is no wonder people were afraid to make any decisions on their own. That was a terrible mistake we made, because the people who came to us for making the decisions in their lives were deprived of, collectively, countless opportunities to develop some godly character by using their own minds to “rightly divide the word of truth”; see 2 Timothy 2:15. Perhaps this lack in not having made their own decisions for so long is at the root of so many people in recent years making many really BAD decisions regarding the Sabbath specifically and regarding obedience to God in general?]

Now perhaps your minister in the above scenario was wise and he turned your question right back to you by saying: “Well, what do YOU think you should do?” And if you tried to avoid committing yourself by saying something like: “Oh, I just want to obey God”, perhaps he finally said: “Well, do you yourself have ANY opinion at all, because if you yourself really have no opinion of any kind at all, THEN you should probably NOT get involved in the activity! You see, you should NEVER engage in any activity on the Sabbath which you yourself don’t fully believe is appropriate for the Sabbath-that’s the principle of Romans 14:23. It is NOT a matter that any activity that is not directly legislated against is okay; it should really be the opposite-that only those activities we feel totally comfortable with doing on the Sabbath are okay. Unless we ourselves are 100% comfortable with doing something on the Sabbath, we should NEVER get involved with it, except for perhaps ‘ox in the ditch’ situations”.

When we have to use our own minds to correctly apply the principle of Exodus 20:10, then there is no easy way out-there is no “written in stone” list of things we may or may not do on the Sabbath (apart from the obvious things like not working at our jobs, etc.). What God really expects from us is that we ourselves make such lists for ourselves (mentally, without necessarily ever writing them down), based on how we understand the mind of God and based on things we have learned from some wrong decisions we have made in the past. Earlier I mentioned the example where I myself understand quite clearly that things like sports and hobbies and entertainment, etc. are ALSO things we need to “cease from doing” on the Sabbath. That forms a part of my interpretation and application of God’s commandment in Exodus 20:10. I expect that most of you probably agree with me on these particular points?

Now in addition to the commandment in Exodus 20, God has also given us additional guidance by recording examples of Sabbath-keeping and by additional statements about Sabbath-keeping. Putting all of these things found throughout the Bible together gives us considerable guidance in establishing God’s purposes and intentions for Sabbath-keeping. We’ll look at some of those things shortly.

Let’s continue with the commandment in Exodus 20.

For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:11 AV)

Note carefully:

In Exodus 20:9-10 God instructed us in what we are to do (we are not to do any “work” on the Sabbath, such “work” is to be restricted to the other six days). And now in verse 11 God tells us the reason for this instruction. Verse 11 is not a direct instruction to us from God-that instruction for us is contained in verses 9-10. Here in verse 11 we now see the reason for WHY God instructs us “not to do any work”.

God is by profession THE CREATOR. Creating is the “work” God does. And that is what God had done for the first six days of that week-He had created things!

And then God introduces a totally new concept! God then says that He “RESTED” on the Sabbath, and the Hebrew verb here used is “nuwach” which clearly means “TO REST”. Nowhere in the Bible before this verse is this verb “to rest” ever applied to God or to the Sabbath day. It is a new concept that is introduced-even though almost all translators have incorrectly inferred this concept of “resting” back into Genesis 2:2-3. Simply because God now, in Exodus 20:11, tells us that He “rested” on the Sabbath, this does NOT justify reading the meaning of the Hebrew verb “nuwach” into the Hebrew verb “shabath” that is used in Genesis 2:2-3.

So here in Exodus 20:11 God introduces the concept that a part of what we should do on the Sabbath is “to rest”. But “resting” is by no means the only thing we are to do on the Sabbath. But it should certainly be “a part” of our Sabbath days.

God also placed a special blessing on the Sabbath day and He “hallowed it”, meaning that God set it apart from the other days of the week. God set it apart for a specific use so that it would fulfill a specific purpose. That “use” certainly includes “resting” but it also goes above and beyond mere “resting”.

Let’s now look at other Scriptures that shed more light on what God expects from us for the Sabbath days.

The Sabbath in the Bible

Let’s notice the time when Israel left Egypt-

And in the first day [there shall be] an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save [that] which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And ye shall observe [the feast of] unleavened bread; for in this selfsameday have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. (Exodus 12:16-17AV)

The point to notice here is this: The 15th day of the 1st month was to be a Holy Day, an annual Sabbath. They were not to do any “work” on that day. Yet God instructed them to walk many miles on that very day. The long walk which Israel started on that annual Sabbath day was hardly something that could be called “RESTING”.

Now notice what happened at Jericho-

And ye shall compass the city, all [ye] men of war, [and] go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. (Joshua 6:3-4 AV)

For seven consecutive days all the soldiers were to march around the entire town of Jericho, and on the 7th day they were to do this seven times. It doesn’t make a difference here which of those seven days was a weekly Sabbath and whether or not the 7th day was an annual Holy Day (the 7th Day of Unleavened Bread). The point is that once again God instructed Israel (in this case the soldiers and the priests) to walk several miles on a Sabbath day. And some of the priests had to carry the ark for several miles on that Sabbath. Again, this is hardly something we could call “resting”.

Notice what Jesus Christ did-

At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. (Matthew 12:1 AV)

The corn (i.e. wheat) fields were outside of the city of Jerusalem. The fact that Jesus Christ was walking through some wheat fields shows that He and His disciples must have walked a considerable distance, certainly more than “the Sabbath day’s journey” which the Pharisees had devised. Very likely Jesus Christ and His disciples had spent the night at some place outside of Jerusalem and on their way to the Temple on that Sabbath morning they walked through the wheat fields, and not having eaten any breakfast yet the disciples were hungry. Again, the “walking” did not in any way conflict with what GOD intended for the Sabbath, otherwise Jesus Christ would assuredly not have been walking at some distance outside of the city of Jerusalem on the Sabbath.

Notice what Nehemiah did-

And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath: AND [SOME] OF MY SERVANTS SET I AT THE GATES, [that] there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day” (Nehemiah 13:19 AV)

Here Nehemiah placed some of his soldiers at the city gates for the duration of the whole Sabbath. While the physical presence of these soldiers was enough to ensure that no merchants entered the city on the Sabbath, these soldiers were nevertheless obviously ready for action, had any merchant attempted to go against Nehemiah’s instructions. And Nehemiah intended for them to be “ready for action” if need be. There is no indication that God viewed the placing of these guards as in any way violating the Sabbath. After all, the very purpose for which Nehemiah placed these guards there was to ensure that the whole city could have peace and rest from the merchants for the whole Sabbath day. It is not unlike God commanding all the soldiers to march around the city of Jericho on a weekly Sabbath as well as on the six other days of the week.

God required the priests to bring sacrifices every day of the year. Notice-

Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his meat offering, AND THE DAILY BURNT OFFERING, and his meat offering, and their drink offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD. (Numbers 29:6 AV)

A “burnt offering” involved a considerable amount of hard work from the officiating priest. And these offerings were to be brought “daily”, including on the Sabbath. Yet God required this work to be done on the Sabbath and the priests were “blameless” in this matter.

When Jesus Christ healed sick people on the Sabbath days, He did so by speaking (e.g. rise up and walk, be you made whole, etc.). And on one occasion He spat on the ground and made a very small quantity of mud which He then rubbed onto the eyes of a blind man and then He spoke to the blind man (John 9:6-7). None of these healings had anything to do with “the work” that GOD was speaking about in Exodus 20:10, when God had said: “in it you shall not do any work”. Those healings were no more “work” in the eyes of God than it is “work” when you write down some notes during a church service.

Let’s now look at the well-known statement in Isaiah 58.

If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, [from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking [thine own] words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it]. (Isaiah 58:13-14 AV)

This is probably the clearest exposition in the Bible of the principles that apply to the Sabbath. So let’s notice the following things:

1) Wrong conduct is a way of trampling on God’s Sabbath with our feet.

2) God wants us, voluntarily, to see the Sabbath as “a delight” and as honorable.

3) We are not to do our own ways. In the Hebrew this refers to us not going on our own roads, in our own direction, seeking the things we prefer to spend our time with.

4) We are not to find our own pleasure, meaning the things that we get excited about. For me this very clearly includes sports and hobbies and entertainment.

5) We are not to speak our own words. This refers to not speaking about our own business affairs and things pertaining to our own occupation and our own interests.

6) We are to delight ourselves in God, focusing our minds on God’s instructions and intentions and God’s Word.

7) If we follow these instructions in our Sabbath- observance, then God in turn will bless us and take care of us.

In these two verses God has expounded and expanded on the instruction of Exodus 20:10, that we are not to do any work. Isaiah 58:13-14 makes quite clear that God’s intent with the Sabbath commandment is that we exercise some control over our minds, as well as over our actions and conduct. The expression “any work” has been expanded to include: our ways and our pleasures and our words. And that is why people who only go as far as the first of the two points I mentioned earlier (i.e. they only go as far as keeping the right day) are still not really obeying God. They may be obeying the letter of the law, but they still fall short of obeying God’s intent for this law.

It is only when we consciously and earnestly apply our minds to examining our own “ways and pleasures and words” that we are really obeying the Sabbath command. Only then are we applying the second of the two points I mentioned earlier. It is with our minds that we need to examine our conduct on the Sabbath; and when we do that we’ll every now and then find that something didn’t work out the way we thought it would work out, and therefore we resolve to in future handle that type of situation in a different way.

And Sabbath-keeping will become a growth process -a growth in discernment and understanding and a growth in character.

So in practical terms, what should our Sabbath- keeping look like?

Practical Sabbath-Keeping

Here is a summary of the main points about the Sabbath:

1) The first and foremost point is that we stop doing the things we do on the other six days, both professionally and in our leisure pursuits (unless you are a full-time minister and your “leisure pursuits” revolve around a study of the Word of God).

2) We should plan to have some time available for “resting”. That need not be (in fact, should not be) the full 24 hours of the Sabbath, but there should be time for SOME rest.

3) We should also set aside some extra time for personal prayer and Bible study.

4) If we are in a position to meet with brethren for church services, then that should always be a fixed part of our Sabbath observance. Towards this end the Apostle Paul wrote that we are “not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25). Obviously, if we live far from any location where a group of God’s people meets or if we are temporarily traveling in an area where there are no congregations of God’s people, then that is a limiting factor in this regard.

5) We also need to exercise some control over our minds, examining what constitutes “our own ways and pleasures and words”. This is really tantamount to building a measure of restraint regarding the things we might “naturally” be inclined to do if it were our own free time. We might not have thought of it this way, but Sabbath-keeping requires us to apply 2 Corinthians 10:5 very specifically-

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and BRINGING INTO CAPTIVITY EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of Christ; (2 Corinthians 10:5 AV)

Sabbath-keeping, as the teaching and training tool that God intended it to be, requires us to examine our own thoughts and words and deeds-and to bring into captivity those that are not appropriate for the Sabbath.

6) And we should specifically focus on trying to understand God and His mind and His ways more fully. As we read in the Book of Jeremiah-

But let him that glorieth GLORY IN THIS, THAT HE UNDERSTANDETH AND KNOWETH ME, that I [am] the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these [things] I delight, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:24 AV)

The Sabbath is a great tool for coming to understand God more fully. We can learn a great deal about God by comparing His ways with our ways, His thoughts with our thoughts, His pleasures with our pleasures.

7) When we understand that God designed the Sabbath to be a delight for us, we should immediately recognize that there is an enormous difference between “thoughts and words and deeds” that are not appropriate for the Sabbath on the one hand, and “picky human rules designed to limit or contain our actions (while totally ignoring our thoughts!)” on the other hand. There is not even the slightest similarity between the pharisaical rules about the Sabbath and God’s instructions and intentions for the Sabbath. In fact, the pharisaical Sabbath rules totally ruin and destroy what intended the Sabbath to be!

It is not the action, but the reason and the motivation for the action that is really important before God! Thus: the Sabbath is not the time for you to go and slaughter your cow, but a Levitical priest at the Temple in Old Testament times could certainly have done that; the Sabbath is not the time for you to move all your excess clothing and furniture into your garage, BUT if your house was on fire, then you could most certainly move as many of your belongings as possible out of your house to a safe area; the Sabbath is not the time to work on your car, BUT if on the way to church services you have a flat tire, then it is perfectly acceptable for you to immediately change the flat tire; the Sabbath is not the time to work on the plumbing of your house, BUT if a washer in one of the taps in your house suddenly bursts on a Saturday morning (as has happened to me one time), then it is perfectly acceptable to take the 5 minutes or so to replace the faulty washer; the Sabbath is not the time to do your weekly grocery shopping, BUT if on the way to services you run out of petrol (i.e. gas), then by all means purchase some petrol so you can get to services and not spend the rest of the Sabbath stranded on some highway; etc.

And in the process of making such decisions we’ll probably make some that we later regret. If we learn from that experience and avoid making the same mistake again, then we are growing.

8) 8) Regarding food for the Sabbath: If there are some things we can prepare before the Sabbath, then we should certainly do that. The motivation is to as far as possible minimize the efforts in food preparation that will be required on the Sabbath. It is not that there is no food preparation of any kind on the Sabbath; it is that we have as far as possible minimized such activity. So as far as food items that require an elaborate preparation are concerned: we either prepare such elaborate items before the Sabbath or we restrict ourselves to items that are simpler to prepare and we forego having such elaborate items on the Sabbath. How we plan ahead for the Sabbath reveals our attitude towards the Sabbath and its observance.

9) Regarding shopping for food on the Sabbath: If we respect the Sabbath enough to think ahead for all our possible needs, then we should never be caught without any food item in the house that we feel we absolutely need. In most cases if we find we lack some item, we should just plan the rest of our meals without that item being needed. I believe it is a lack of respect for God if we run to the shops for every little item (e.g. milk or sugar or coffee or eggs or bread, etc.) that we suddenly find we are short of. I also don’t believe it is appropriate to shop for a newspaper or magazine on the Sabbath, with the reasoning: “well, we are told to keep up with what’s happening in the world”—when 95% of that newspaper or magazine is advertising and entertainment and gossip and business matters and sensationalism. Such Mickey- Mouse items (sugar, coffee, bread, milk, cream, a newspaper, etc.) are far from being something we really “need” on the Sabbath, and we are not about to suffer in any way because we didn’t get that item. On the other hand, if you find you absolutely need something for an infant or for a sick member of the family, even if this need arose through a lack of planning ahead, then go ahead and get this item —but learn the lesson! In the future be prepared. THINK on a Friday about what items you might absolutely NEED to have in the house on the following day, and then get them on the Friday.

10) Regarding eating-out on the Sabbath: People are often divided into two camps on this question—those who are against any eating out on the Sabbath and those who approve of eating out.

[I have edited out this one segment on restaurants. The complete article can be seen at the link on the bottom of the page. In it’s place is this link to a paper by my daughter that addresses the question: Should Believers eat at restaurants on the Sabbath? , it is actually entitled Do WE Have the Mind of God?—Lon]

Now let’s examine what Paul wrote in Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews Chapter 4

Let’s briefly recall something I mentioned earlier:

1) The Greek verb “pauo” means: to cease, to leave off, to stop, etc.. It is the root from which our English verb “to pause” has been formed.

2) The Greek prepositions “ana” and “kata” are opposites, with “ana” meaning “up” and “kata” meaning “down”. It follows that when these prepositions are used to form nouns, the noun with the prefix “ana” must have a different meaning from the noun with the prefix “kata”.

3) When these prefixes are used with the verb “pauo” to form nouns, then these nouns have the following meanings, as defined in “The Oxford Dictionary Of Modern Greek”:

•ANAPAUSIS = rest, repose, comfort

•KATAPAUSIS = cessation, ending

4) Because of their prejudices, as explained earlier, Bible translators, and therefore also subsequently the authors of Biblical Greek Dictionaries, have treated these two nouns as if their meanings are identical, as if they are interchangeable. But that is simply not correct. Recall that Jerome in his Latin Vulgate translation assigned two different meanings to the one Hebrew verb “shabath” within the space of two verses. There was no justification of any kind for Jerome to do this, yet almost all subsequent translators and also authors of Biblical Greek Dictionaries, have perpetuated Jerome’s error. So they treat the Greek nouns “anapausis” and “katapausis” as if they are identical.

5) But they are NOT identical. “Katapausis” refers to something coming to an end, but it does NOT necessarily imply that therefore “REST” must follow. “Anapausis”, on the other hand, refers to an uplifting result that follows something coming to an end, namely “REST”.

Even without any knowledge of the Greek language, with just our knowledge of how these prefixes “ana” and “kata” are used even in the English language, if we can just divorce ourselves from our own preconceived ideas, we should be able to see that these two Greek words “anapausis” and “katapausis” surely must have SOME differences in meaning, and that the word with the prefix “ana” must have the more positive meaning than the word with the prefix “kata”.

6) The Greek noun “ANAPAUSIS” is used 5 times in the New Testament and it clearly and unmistakably refers to “REST”! Here are these 5 verses with the translation of “anapausis” rendered in capital letters:

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find REST unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29 AV).

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking REST, and findeth none” (Matthew 12:43 AV).

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking REST; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out” (Luke 11:24 AV).

“And the four beasts had each of them six wings about [him]; and [they were] full of eyes within: and they REST not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8 AV).

“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no REST day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” (Revelation 14:11 AV).

Now let’s look at Hebrews chapter 4.

In the English language KJV the word “rest” appears 8 times in this chapter. In 5 instances it is the Greek noun “KATAPAUSIS”, in 2 instances it is the Greek verb “KATAPAUO” and in one case it is the Greek noun “sabbatismos”, the Greek word for “Sabbath”. Those 8 places are: verses 1, 3, 5, 10 and 11 (katapausis), verses 4 and 8 (katapauo) and verse 9 (Sabbatismos).

Notice that neither the noun “anapausis” nor the verb “anapauo” is ever used in this chapter. Rather, the Apostle Paul, in quoting Genesis 2:2 here in Hebrews 4:4, CORRECTLY translated the Hebrew verb “shabath” with the Greek verb “KATApauo”.

Paul’s point in this chapter is that the weekly Sabbath in a way pictures the coming millennial rule of Jesus Christ. So consider the following: the millennium will be “a cessation”, but it will not really be “a rest”!

Even as God “ceased” doing His work on that original Sabbath, so likewise when we enter into the millennium we will “cease” from doing “our” work! But we will most assuredly not spend the millennium “resting”, as pictured by our resting on the weekly Sabbath.

The millennium is going to be a period of staggering and mind-boggling activity! What do you mean—“rest”?

The surface of this earth is going to be refashioned by God at the start of the millennium. And then there are going to be incredible bumper crops like this earth has never seen before. And people will work flat-out (obviously not on the Sabbaths though!) just to try to keep up with the speed and the volume with which the earth will yield her fruit. What do you mean—“rest”?

People will be busy building cities of unheard-of beauty and splendor. For every year of the entire 1000 years of the millennium people will have to build perhaps around 10,000 new cities—just to prepare for the resurrection to physical life of perhaps 50 BILLION people at the end of that 1000 years. [a teaching of Herbert Armstrong that I reject] What do you mean—“rest”?

Jesus Christ said: “My Father works hitherto and I work” (John 5:17), and Jesus Christ will preside over the greatest period of building and construction and production that this earth has ever seen. What do you mean—“rest”?

The millennium will be “a cessation”, yes, but NOT “a rest”.

Man will totally CEASE from his ways, the ways that will have been used for 6,000 years. Man will STOP rejecting God’s ways. The way of man (i.e. man’s way of doing things and of organizing his societies, etc.) will have come to an end. But that “end” is only going to be “the beginning” of God’s ways being enacted on a worldwide scale.

You know the old saying that “a change is as good as a rest”. The millennium will usher in “a change” but not “a rest”. Yes, people will “rest” every Sabbath. But it is God’s nature to work, to produce and to accomplish—and people will be joyfully and eagerly productive. And, yes, there will also be times “to rest”. The most miserable people on earth today are those who have NOTHING to do, nothing to fill their time, nothing to challenge or to stimulate them, no goals, nothing to accomplish. You can only sit under a vine or a fig tree (Micah 4:4) for so long before you are terribly bored and longing for something to do. Micah 4:4 presents a picture of tranquility and peace, but not of laziness or a lack of exciting challenges. People are going to ENJOY working, even without being paid for their work. The “joy” or “delight” people in the millennium will experience will come from the exciting activities they will be able to participate in (using the 1,000 years to prepare for a physical resurrection of perhaps 50 billion people) and not from the fact that they can “rest”.

To characterize the entire period of Christ’s millennial rule as “a rest” creates an incorrect picture. And that is partly due to the Greek noun “sabbatismos” in Hebrews 4:9 having been mistranslated as “rest”, and partly due to the meaning of “rest” having been erroneously attached to the Hebrew verb “shabath” in the first place.

SHABBATH SHALOM!

For several years I have posted a selection of Frank’s many articles, (naturally, the ones I really liked) which were only available to those on his own email list. Others posted some of his other articles. Now, since I believe early 2005, he has his own website. Here is his link to Understanding the Sabbath Commandment.