One of the distinctive doctrines of the United Church of God is our belief in the necessity of obeying God’s command concerning the seventh-day Sabbath. For many people, this belief has had a profound impact on their lives. Some have lost desirable jobs or been forced to change careers because their occupation did not allow Sabbath observance. Many have sacrificed in order to obey God’s instruction, and in many cases, God has blessed those who chose to put Him and His instructions first.

When we first learn about the Sabbath, much of our focus is upon the 24-hour period between sunset on Friday evening and sunset on Saturday evening. The questions we ask and the concerns we have are about which activities are acceptable on the Sabbath and which are not. We learn that we are not to work on the Sabbath day, and we naturally ask questions about what constitutes "work." We ask questions about recreational activities and what is appropriate for ourselves and our children to do on the Sabbath.

We soon learn that attending weekly Sabbath services is not an optional activity but an integral part of Sabbath observance. We learn that failing to attend services when we have the ability to do so is a form of Sabbath breaking. In the past we may have decided to "go to church" based upon how interesting or effective the minister was or how friendly the congregation seemed. Now we learn that those points are irrelevant because God has commanded us to assemble before Him.

In the process of learning, most of us have probably made mistakes by going too far in one direction or another. Perhaps we were too strict in some areas and too lax in others. As time has gone by, and God’s Spirit has worked within us, and God’s Church has instructed us, we have gradually come to a more balanced way of keeping God’s Sabbath holy.

All of these concerns are natural and right. By learning these principles we are able to begin using the Sabbath in the way God intends and to reap the rewards that come as a result of Sabbath observance. But did God actually give us a commandment that only applies to one day each week? Most of the principles of Sabbath observance would apply to the annual Holy Days as well, but what about the rest of the time? We can easily see that the other nine commandments are applicable all of the time, but what about the Sabbath commandment? Is it possible to avoid doing anything sinful on the Sabbath day and still fail to fulfill the Sabbath commandment?

Looking More Closely

Let’s look a little more closely at the commandment and see what we might be overlooking.

Exodus 20:8-11 says: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

The obvious focus of this passage is upon the Sabbath day and maintaining its holiness. Man does not have the power to make anything holy, but God has clearly hallowed—made holy—this time, and it is our duty to see that this God-given holiness is not defiled. This passage clearly shows us that doing our "work" on God’s Sabbath day would defile or "profane" its holiness.

It is important to understand this concept of "holy" versus "profane." Everything that is not specifically labeled as "holy" is automatically "profane" in this sense. When we use the word profane today, we are referring to something that is irreverent, blasphemous or lacking appropriate respect.

The biblical usage does not necessarily include that same negative emphasis. One Hebrew word translated profane, chol (Strong’s H2455), had an underlying meaning of "exposed." The root word from the Greek, bebelos (Strong’s G952), originally referred to the threshold of a doorway, and refers to something that may be casually and without consideration, stepped upon.

By extension, the concept refers to something that is accessible. Something that is profane is accessible to man and man may determine how he wishes to use it. Something that is holy can be used legitimately only in the way God designates. In this sense, six days each week are "profane," while only one is "holy." Scripture further reveals that when the religious leaders failed to differentiate between the holy and profane and failed to teach the people that difference, the people fell into sin by carelessly misusing what God said was holy (Ezekiel 22:26; 44:23).

However, we should also note that the passage in Exodus does not begin by defining what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath day. It begins by telling us what we should do the rest of the week in order to be prepared to maintain the holiness of the Sabbath when it arrives.

Remember

We are first instructed to "remember the Sabbath day." The word remember can have different meanings. In this passage it does not refer to "remembering" as opposed to "forgetting." It refers to having a daily awareness that the Sabbath is coming so that work can be planned out and accomplished in such a way that we have completed our necessary work before the Sabbath arrives. This could involve such things as lawn care, housecleaning, preparing and cleaning our vehicles and our clothing, preparing special meals, etc. If we properly "remember the Sabbath day," we can plan and schedule these activities throughout the week in such a way that we are properly prepared before the Sabbath arrives.

The Jewish Soncino commentary makes an interesting observation about the instruction to remember the Sabbath day: "The verb is infinitive and so is not limited in time. Always keep the Sabbath in mind during the week, so that if, for example, you come across a special article of food, set it aside for the honoring of the Sabbath... A person should so order his affairs during the week that his mind is completely free of them on the Sabbath" (The Soncino Chumash, page 460).

Obviously, there is nothing wrong with doing a portion of our preparation for the weekly Sabbath on a Friday, but if that is the only time we prepare, we are misunderstanding the scriptural instruction. If we neglect preparing for the Sabbath until Friday, we will probably be exhausted by the time the Sabbath arrives. For many people, the Sabbath has become not a "rest" day, but a "crash" day—a time when they are so worn out that they are unable to do much more than eat and sleep. Is that really what God intended His holy Sabbath day to be?

While refraining from work is essential to Sabbath observance, we also understand that there is much more to the Sabbath. For example, we are told to "call the Sabbath a delight" (Isaiah 58:13). The Sabbath is not intended to be a day that we endure or simply sleep through, but a day we anticipate as the most delightful time of the week. How can this day truly be a delight if a person has not properly prepared in advance? Will it be a delight simply because it arrives? Most of us can answer that question from our own experience. Those times when we have put forth diligent effort to prepare for the Sabbath, it was truly delightful. On the other hand, those times when we have failed to prepare properly, we may have gone through the motions of keeping the Sabbath, but we could not honestly call it a delight.

It is encouraging to note that God does two special, supernatural things each Sabbath day. Did you notice them in the passage we quoted from Exodus 20? The account of the first Sabbath day in Genesis 2:1-3 shows these same actions. Notice the last phrase in Exodus 20:11: "Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." God says that He both blesses the Sabbath day and sets it aside as holy. Just as no other day of the week is holy, no other day of the week has this special blessing from God. That special blessing is not physical—we cannot sense it with our five senses. It is a spiritual blessing. If we are so exhausted when the Sabbath arrives that we can barely drag ourselves through the day, aren’t we depriving ourselves of God’s blessing?

Summoned to Assemble

Another aspect of the Sabbath commandment that can be affected negatively when we fail to remember the Sabbath and prepare appropriately is the special "holy convocation" God provides for His people. Leviticus 23:3 says, "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings."

A convocation is an assembly called together by authority. It is not like a group get-together, a club meeting or some social event. People are summoned to a convocation much in the way a summons is issued to a court of law. A summons is not an invitation, it is an order from the authorities. The fact that this is a "holy" convocation shows that the authority doing the summoning is God. God would certainly want us to eagerly assemble before Him and with His other children, but whether we’re eager or not, He summons us to appear. Other scriptures show us we should not attend when we are ill with some potentially communicable disease, and acknowledge that once in a great while, there may be an "ox in the ditch" situation that prevents our attendance.

In years past, many made considerable sacrifices to be able to attend Sabbath services regularly. At times we may have been overzealous in our efforts. There may have been times when we could have been more balanced in our approach. But have we now gone to the other extreme where seemingly trivial matters may cause us to ignore God’s summons?

It seems that some routinely skip services because "I worked so hard this week, I was just too tired to come." Other times events make it so it isn’t convenient to come to services. We’re not talking about sudden, unexpected, uncontrollable events or important family occasions beyond our control. However, there are many other matters we could anticipate and plan for or cut short. If we fail to do so, are we really remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy in the way God intended?

There is no substitute for weekly Sabbath services. Listening to a tape on some other day is not the same. God has blessed and hallowed the Sabbath day in a spiritual way, not like any other day. The strength we derive from fellowshipping with God’s people cannot be duplicated by some other activity. God blesses us with that opportunity only once each week. If we fail to anticipate and plan in such a way that we can take advantage of that opportunity when it comes, then we are not remembering the Sabbath day in the way God intends.

Remember the encouragement to gather in worship and fellowship recorded in Hebrews 10:24-25: "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

Perhaps we could share one more point from a minister’s perspective. When we give sermons, we usually have some idea about how effective the messages have been. Sometimes we feel a message has been helpful and worthwhile, and sometimes, we feel the message wasn’t very good at all. (I’ve given some that made me glad I didn’t have to sit in the audience and listen to me.) We sometimes ask God’s mercy and forgiveness when we feel we haven’t provided a very good "meal" for God’s people.

It’s surprising how often someone will come up after one of those substandard messages and thank us for something we said. It drives home the point that God’s blessing is upon His Sabbath day and His holy convocation, and He can produce good results even when we humans come disappointingly short.

The Sabbath commandment is not a one-day-a-week commandment. If we fail to "remember the Sabbath day" and plan accordingly on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, we are failing to fulfill the commandment. Unusual circumstances beyond our control will arise, but we can profoundly affect the impact of the Sabbath upon ourselves and our families by properly remembering and preparing each week to make God’s Holy Day a delight. UN