One of the big 10 commandments that most Christians know of is Exodus 20:8 “Remember The Sabbath, to keep it holy.” The Sabbath day is very important to The Most High God because he established it as holy since the dawn of mankind. Genesis 2:2-3 KJV. This is a day of rest that the heavenly father established even as his own personal Sabbath. It was thousands of years later that he chose a group of people that were worthy enough to join him in his special and holy rest day. The well known Israelites were the first to be given the luxury and opportunity to rest with The Most High God. However this luxury came with a price in which they, or anyone else, had to keep the Sabbath holy. Rules were attached to this holy day.
The 7 Sabbath Rules
1.Remember the Sabbath.
2. Abstain From creation..
3. No cooking.
4. No Traveling.
5. No kindling a fire.
6. No working for wages.
7. No waging war.
For clarity purposes I will only cover the first four in this post simply because the information is quite extensive.
Rule 1: Remember The Sabbath.
The first rule of keeping the Sabbath is just simply to remember that there is a Sabbath, a biblical holy rest day to admire and adhere to. The Biblical days are different from modern days. As stated in Genesis 1:5 “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” This means that at night fall, twilight hour or at sundown is the beginning of a new day according to the Bible. Modern society argues that a new day should start in the middle of the night or 6 hours after sundown.
Time as we know it today evolved from an ancient Egyptian study of astronomy, from water clocks, sundials and obelisks. Ever since Galileo created the grandfather clock, time was never the same. For more information about the origins of clocks and timekeeping check out Down to the Hour: Short Time in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East Author: Sarah L. Symons
Ancient Egyptian Science, A Source Book, By Marshall Clagett Volume 2.
Brief History of Time.
Clocks and advanced time keeping wasn’t popular to the ancient Israelites, therefore sundown and daybreak was the practical time. Therefore the traditional belief that Sunday starts the first day of the week and Saturday is the seventh day of the week is partly inaccurate. According to the Biblical day the seventh day would start on Friday at sundown or twilight hour and ends Saturday sundown or Twilight hour. This is how one who bases their life on the Biblical way would recognize their days. This concept is especially important during the fall and winter months when the days are shorter. Sundown begins earlier, around 6pm rather than 9pm like spring and Summer. We have to make a conscious effort to base our Sabbath rest during these simple daily observations of the sun. This is how one remembers the Sabbath..
Rule 2: Abstain From Creation
The Second rule of keeping the Sabbath is to abstain from creating anything, living and nonliving. This rule was first introduced in Genesis 2:2-3 KJV. At the opening of the Bible we see how The Most High God had established the Sabbath and that he rested from one particular activity which is creation. We humans mimic this act by our need to make things with our hands or come up with ideas in our minds. That is where all of this technology comes from. In this case on the Sabbath we should rest our inventive thoughts as to create something that would cause growth or motion. This is not including your usual necessary walking or breathing, but rather exhaustive cooking, long unnecessary walks, working out, or movement that would normally cause you to sweat.
One of these creation acts would also include sexual intercourse, because sex naturally causes creation of miniature humans to occur. Using various birth control methods is not a legitimate excuse to have sex on the Sabbath. Isaiah 58:13. As disappointing as that may be to some people, the Sabbath is only in effect for one day. I hope that many of you have the ability to withhold your passions for at least a day. If you cannot do this you may want to practice moments of abstinence if keeping the Sabbath becomes important to you.
Rule 3: No Cooking on The Sabbath
The Third rule to keeping the Sabbath holy is no cooking. It seems shocking but it’s similar to a type of creation. The Israelites, in the wilderness, were given orders to practice keeping the Sabbath. During this time they were hungry and had no way to get food. The Most High God provided manna from birds every 6th day of the week. The Israelites were to gather as much as they could, eat a portion of it on the sixth day and save another portion for the seventh day of rest. In doing so, they were able to rest from gathering food and preparing it.
In today’s time we can do the same, we can buy ready to eat food like crackers, oatmeal bars, fruits, chips, cookies etc. There are exceptions to this rule, and technically according to the New Testament it’s ok to cook, it’s more about doing unnecessary and exhaustive cooking on purpose, but I’ll get into that in another post.
Exodus 16:23-31 KJV
Exodus 16:23-31 KJV “
23 And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to day ye shall not find it in the field.
26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
28 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
29 See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
Rule 4: No Traveling Long Distances.
As it is written in Exodus 16:29 we are required to stay home for the most part. If there is no real necessary reason to leave your home, you shouldn’t go anywhere on the Sabbath. Acceptable reasons would be to go to church (an holy convocation), check on a family member in need, or if you’re running for your life. If it’s not for those reasons then it shouldn’t be done on the Sabbath according to scripture.
That sums up the first four rules for keeping the Biblical Sabbath holy. I hope that you have enjoyed this information because it is crucial for fully obtaining the holy covenant. There are modern issues against people who prefer to keep the Biblical Sabbath holy. Many jobs require their employees to have full availability and other jobs always have work on Saturday. Before making your decision on whether or not you would be interested in keeping the Sabbath, know that it will be difficult to implement in a world that does not care about the Sabbath, nonetheless it is possible.