Lessons from the Sabbath

By:  Dale Weckbacher

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.

NKJV

In last Wednesday’s posting, we looked at what the Bible has to say about foreigners entering the land or Israel.  We learned that the Israelites were to treat foreigners in their land humanely but that there were also five requirements these foreigners were to follow.  Over the next five Wednesdays we will be looking at each of these requirements and see how they apply to our society today.  The first of these is the requirement to observe the Sabbath or Shabbat as it is called in Hebrew. 

The Sabbath is an important part of Jewish tradition.  Its observance is so important that everyone in the family, the servants, the animals, and even strangers living in the city are forbidden from doing any work.  This is a principle going back to the creation where God rested from His work on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2).  So let us take a moment to look at why the Sabbath is so important in Jewish law and tradition and what that means for our nation today. 

God understood the need to take one day in the week and rest.  Not that God needs to rest for he is, God, but God understood man and woman would need a day of rest each week in order to maintain their physical, mental, and spiritual health.  He also knew that His people would face numerous challenges as they entered the Promised Land and needed to be strong and healthy. 

However, perhaps the main reason for the Sabbath is that it demonstrates obedience to God.  It would be tempting to believe that the extra day of work each week would mean they could make more income or have larger crops.  Honoring the Sabbath is a way of saying “I am going to sacrifice any extra income I could produce by working on the Sabbath and trust God to take care of me.” 

The reason foreigners and strangers were required to honor the Sabbath is to demonstrate obedience to the God of the Israelites.  Failure of a requirement for strangers to observe the Sabbath would have tempted the Israelites to begin working on the Sabbath believing the foreigners might gain an economic advantage.  This would have led to disobedience of other parts of God’s law and eventually to the breakdown of Jewish society, something that actually did occur as Israel began worshiping the gods of their neighbors. 

In Israel, they still observe the Sabbath today.  I remember the first Sabbath on our visit to Israel in 2008.  We were driving through Nazareth at sundown on Friday evening and observed that all the businesses in town were closing.  This is because the Sabbath goes from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.  In the Hotel they had one elevator that was designated the Shabbat elevator.  This elevator stopped at every floor so you would not have to press the button for your floor as orthodox Jews consider that work. 

Christians today are not under a legal requirement to observe the Sabbath for Christians find their rest in the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work on the Cross.  However, there are still benefits to taking one day each week to rest and recharge.  Even though we are not under any legal requirement to observe the Sabbath, the Sabbath still provides lessons that can help preserve our society today. 

The Sabbath demonstrated obedience to God, which was, and still is, critical to the preservation of the Jewish society.  Likewise, the United States has a rule of law outlined in the Constitution and statutes passed by Congress throughout the history of our nation.  This rule of law has allowed the United States to maintain a civil and prosperous society throughout its history.  Adherence to the Constitution and rule of law are critical to the future preservation and prosperity of our society. 

However, our open southern border currently threatens our rule of law for it is allowing people to break our immigration laws, illegally entering our country.  Since we do not bother to check the background or health of these people, we cannot insure the security of our nation and we may be allowing felons, people with deadly contagious diseases, and even terrorists into our nation.  We are leaving ourselves open to lawlessness, terrorism, or some deadly disease outbreak if we continue to leave our border open. 

Just as Israel was required to observe the Sabbath to demonstrate obedience to God and preservation of their society, we too must return to our constitutional principles and rule of law.  We must secure the border and only allow people to enter our nation that choose to obey our immigration laws.  Failure to do so will result in a spike in criminal activity, acts of terrorism, or even some deadly pandemic in our nation, endangering the citizens of our nation. 

Our Constitution and rule of law are our nation’s version of the Sabbath and it is critical for everyone in our nation to observe them.  Just as Israel began to slip from its adherence to God’s laws leading to the exile of its people in Babylon, our nation risks losing its civility if it throws out its rule of law.  Our nation may not physically go into exile as Israel did, but we risk losing our position of power and prosperity in the world.  I for one am not willing to surrender our nations position of leadership and economic strength in the world and thus, am going to fight for border security in order to preserve our nation.  The question is how many of you are with me in this belief.