Tuesday March 17, 2015

Weekly Challenge:

Try to so organise the next 4 Sondays to have a genuine Sabbath rest on them. After you have rested, share with your cell, family etc how you found the Sabbath type rest.

Read Exodus 20:1-17

 The Ten Commandments are perhaps the best known part of the Bible in the world today. Even non believers and pagans recognise these Ten Commandments. They are so common and so well known that several groups, including atheists, computer programmers, new agers and even the mafia have their own ten commandments, probably to offset and soothe their burning consciences.

As you read through the Ten Commandments you notice very quickly that they are moral commands that apply to a wide range of situations and circumstances. In fact, many commentators have argued that what follows in Exodus after the Ten Commandments is a much like a commentary or expansion of what each Commandment really means and implies.

And if the Ten Commandments are moral commandments then keeping the Sabbath has a moral dimension to it. If 9 out of 10 Commandments have a moral quality to them then Sabbath resting is more than just the people talking a break from work and trade and daily routine. The Sabbath is more than just a break from the routine of the week. If the Ten Commandments have an intrinsic moral quality to them, then keeping or breaking the Sabbath also has a moral quality to it. It would be very strange, almost impossible, to think that Sabbath keeping is the exception in the Ten Commandments.

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day understood the moral quality and sought to regulate every facet of life to hedge the law and so to stop it being broken. In terms of the Sabbath, Jews today speak of 39 activities that are prohibited on the Sabbath. This probably dates right back to the days of the Pharisees! But whether they were right or wrong, their desire was to protect the Sabbath and to keep it holy. To put it another way, they also realised that the Sabbath day had a moral quality to it.

The Christian today, unfortunately, is barraged with a series of opinions and thoughts about Sabbath keeping. Opinions range from a legalistic keeping of the Sabbath on the literal Sabbath (Saturday) to the Old Testament being largely irrelevant for New Testament believers because it’s all fulfilled in Christ to keeping the Sabbath as the Christian “Sabbath” albeit on the Lord’s Day (which is Sonday).

Unfortunately each case could be argued from Scripture to form, at the very least, an apparently cohesive argument. Each side could probably shoot holes in the others’ arguments and points. But rather than debate each case, each believer needs to come to grips with the reality of the Sabbath and with the fact that the day was made holy and blessed by the Lord. Each believer needs to realise that keeping or not keeping the Sabbath has a moral quality to it that goes beyond the bounds of the original Ten Commandments, just like the 9 other Commandments.

What is your opinion about the Sabbath? Do you feel compelled to keep the Sabbath? Do you think it’s ok to work 7 days a week? Do you think that 1 hour each Sonday at church is ok for God and that He’s happy with that? Is it ok to leave church behind for sport, for family and for other recreational activities?

What do you really believe about the Sabbath?

Prayer:

Based on today’s reading passage and notes jot down your own prayer points.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

· Ask the Lord to bless your Committee of Management with wisdom, insight and a kingdom perspective. Pray that the members are all diligent in the work they are called to do and that together they would seek to grow and advance the Kingdom of God in this world.

· Pray for the Session (elders in the church) as they lead and guide your church. Pray that they would be men of respect, men of the Word who walk in diligent obedience and who apply the Word firstly to themselves. Pray that God would give them deep wisdom to shepherd your church.

 Discussion & Reflection

1. Discuss your thoughts on the Sabbath.

2. Does the moral quality of any of the Ten Commandments , apart from the Sabbath, change with the coming of Christ Jesus?

3. How does this affect the Sabbath principle?