A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE SABBATH
After an absence from Bible Fellowship of two weeks, I was very pleased upon my return to see the group engage the subject of Shabbat. The practice of 7th-day observance of the Sabbath is virtually non-existent today among the vast majority of Christians. These same Christians concurrently claim the Hebrew Scriptures as their canon, and in those Scriptures, the oracles of God specifically command its observance:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 For six days you shall labor (abad) and do all your work (melachah), 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work (melachah), you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your cattle, or your (resident who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested (nuach) on the seventh day; for that reason the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
“For six days you are to do your work (ma’aseh), but on the seventh day you shall cease (shabbat) from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest (nuach), and the son of your female slave, as well as the stranger residing with you, may refresh themselves.” (Exodus 23:12)
2 Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 13 “Now as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You must keep My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 14 Therefore you are to keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it must be put to death; for whoever does any work (melachah) on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 15 For six days work (melachah) may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath (shabbat) of complete rest (shabbaton) holy to the Lord; whoever does any work (melachah) on the Sabbath day must be put to death. 16 So the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a permanent covenant.’ 17 It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased (shabbat) from labor, and was refreshed.” (Exodus 31:12-17)
“You shall work (abad) six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest (shabbat); even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest (shabbat).” (Exodus 34:21)
“For six days (melachah) work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest (shabbaton) to the Lord; whoever does any work (melachah) on it shall be put to death. 3 You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”” (Exodus 35:2-3)
“For six days work (melachah) may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest (shabbaton) a holy convocation. You shall not do any work (melachah); it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.” (Leviticus 23:3)
“Keep the Sabbath day to treat it as holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 For six days you shall labor (abad) and do all your work (melachah), 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work (melachah) that day, you or your son or your daughter, or your male slave or your female slave, or your ox, your donkey, or any of your cattle, or your resident who stays with you, so that your male slave and your female slave may rest (nuach) as well as you. 15 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to celebrate the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)
The purpose of bringing forth the above Scriptures is to remind us of the emphasis with which the LORD advanced the observance of the 7th-day Sabbath. More often than not, the 7th -day Sabbath is dismissed by Christians as something satisfied by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, or something that is practiced on Sundays, or something that can be practiced on any day one chooses to practice it, or something meant for Jews only. Far be it from this teaching to lurch into the “rabbit hole” of Sabbath controversies dating back to the 2nd Century.
The centuries-old debate over the 7th-day Sabbath, and the prevailing view that the Sabbath is either not to be observed on the 7th day or not at all, has made it irrelevant to modern Christians. It is regarded as an outdated religious obligation, a stricture upon the Christian’s relationship with his Maker. In each of the Synoptic Gospels, a controversy arises between Jesus and a group of Pharisees over the disciples plucking heads of grain on the Sabbath. In the Mark version of this encounter, Jesus remarked that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) This strongly implies that the Sabbath has a value for mankind.
Years ago, I read a treatise by Pastor Ray Stedman who made the observation that in the Genesis 1 creation narrative, the account of each of the first six days is concluded with the words “And there was evening and there was morning.” (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31) There is no such attribution to the 7th day. That “day” takes on the character of timelessness.
Inasmuch as we understand the LORD to be the creator of all things, He also is the creator of time itself. Therefore, the eternal LORD of creation exists outside of time. When we observe the Sabbath, we, in effect, enter a timeless sphere in which, however briefly, we seek contact with the eternal, timeless God of all creation.
Of all the days, only the seventh day is sanctified¸ that is, made holy by the LORD. When looked upon as a “day”, it is “sanctified time”. It is set apart by the LORD for a special purpose, something no other day in Scripture can claim.
A 20th-century rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel, said of the Sabbath: “Unless one learns how to relish the taste of Sabbath. . .one will be unable to enjoy the taste of eternity in the world to come.” According to Heschel, it is through observance of Sabbath that we get a small “taste” of eternity. Is experiencing the eternal something desired by every Christian? I think it is. Therefore, for the believer, the Sabbath—an entry into the sphere of the eternal—may have an unexpected relevancy for today’s Christian.
In the lessons I missed at ODMLV, the meaning of the word Shabbat was studied. Though it is more likely than not to be translated as “rest”, the meaning in Hebrew is “to cease”. Cease what? An explanation was offered that one is instructed “to cease whatever one is doing”. This is imprecise. The first use of the word, shabbat, in Scripture is found in Genesis 2:2:
“By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested (shabbat) on the seventh day from all His work (melachah) which He had done.” (Genesis 2:2)
Specifically, God rested, or rather, ceased, His work on the 7th day. In English, we have one word, work, spanning many sub-categories of the same. Mowing a lawn is work. Constructing a building is work. Teaching a class is work. And so on and so forth. Hebrew, unlike English, has three words for work, each with a different meaning.
Ma’aseh, the root of which is asah, means to do or make. This can pertain to the production or making of something. We find asah seven times in the creation narrative (Genesis 1:7, 11, 12, 16, 25, 26, 31). In Exodus 23:12, this type of work is mentioned as something to be done for six days, then ceased from on the seventh. In none of the Sabbath instructions is ma’aseh mentioned explicitly as prohibited work with punishment for those doing it on the 7th day.
Avodah, from the root abad, means to labor or to serve. The labor or service here is “ordinary” in the sense of “lift that barge, tote that bail” or simply work absent any nuance of creativity. The noun related to this word is ebed, meaning servant. Eliezer, for instance, was the ebed of Abraham, his master (adon). The first use of abad is found in Genesis 2:5 in which the text states that “there was no man to work (abad) the ground.” Shortly thereafter in the same narrative, we read “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden to tend and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15) The word translated as “tend” comes from the Hebrew root word, abad. Adam was placed in the garden to service it, not to create it. This type of work is mentioned as permitted for six days in Exodus 20:8 and Deuteronomy 5:12 but is not explicitly mentioned as the type of work prohibited on the 7th day.
Melachah refers to “creative” work. What is meant by creative? A way to conceptualize it would be to consider a chair. Moving a chair around a table would be abodah; assembling pieces of wood or metal together to create a chair would be melachah.
At the conclusion of the Genesis creation narrative in verses 2:2,3, the text states twice that “God rested from all His work.” The word translated as work in these two verses is melachah, a specific reference to God’s creative work in bringing the heavens and earth into existence.
Melachah is derived from the same root word as malak, the Hebrew for angel or messenger. Since melachah first appears at the end of the creation narrative, and because from its common root is derived a word referencing a form of divine being, it is immediately associated with divine craftsmanship. However, man, created in the image of God to carry out God’s mission on Earth, also has the God-given capacity to do creative work, that is, melachah, though obviously not on the scale of creating the heavens and the earth. The Genesis creation narrative explains that God made man to rule over other living, created things. (Genesis 1:26,28) As God is the “master of the universe”, melachah are the ways in which man exercises mastery over both living and non-living things in nature, if not nature itself.
In the Book of Exodus, Moses received instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle, God’s intended residence among His people. This is documented beginning in Chapter 25 and ending in Chapter 31:11. In verse 31:2, we read that the person of Bezalel has been “filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in craftsmanship.” The word translated as craftsmanship is melachah. God told Moses that Bezalel, along with a person named Oholiab, plus others, in whose “hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill that they may make all that I have commanded you.” (Exodus 31:11)
It is immediately after these six-plus chapters of Tabernacle instructions that God reiterated, if not expanded upon, the commandment to observe the Sabbath in verses 12-17. This matter of the Sabbath had not been mentioned in the text since its mention in Exodus 23:12. Why here?
There is a pattern in the text connecting Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 with Exodus 25:1 through 31:17. It looks like this:
A—Melachah of the creation of heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1-2:1)
B—God rested (Genesis 2:2-3)
A—Melachah of the construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:1-31:11)
B—Man must rest (Exodus 31:12-17)
In both cases, divine or divinely-inspired creative acts, melachah, are followed by divinely-required rest, without melachah.
How then do we know what is melachah and what is not? The rabbis of antiquity, seizing upon the proximity of the Sabbath requirements to the instructions for building the Tabernacle, deduced that there were various types of created materials used to construct the Tabernacle, which in turn, corresponded to specific categories of creative work on those materials, that is, melachah. From this, they came up with 39 categories of melachah that were prohibited to be done during the Sabbath.
- Carrying
Burning
3. Extinguishing
4. Finishing
5. Writing
6. Erasing
7. Cooking
8. Washing
9. Sewing
10. Tearing
11. Knotting
12. Untying
13. Shaping
14. Plowing
15. Planting
16. Reaping
17. Harvesting
18. Threshing
19. Winnowing
20. Selecting
21. Sifting
22. Grinding
23. Kneading
24. Combing
25. Spinning
26. Dyeing
27. Chain-stitching
28. Warping
29. Weaving
30. Unraveling
31. Building
32. Demolishing
33. Trapping
34. Shearing
35. Slaughtering
36. Skinning
37. Tanning
38. Smoothing
39. Marking
This matter of how to observe the Sabbath, or rather, how to abstain from doing melachah, is, in the hands of the rabbis, already presenting as a burdensome task. But, on top of the 39 categories, the ancient rabbis, intellectual descendants of the Pharisees, piled on an almost endless set of instructions in the effort to fine tune Sabbath obedience to the minutest detail.
Alfred Edersheim was a 19th century Biblical scholar and a Jew who converted to the Christian faith. In his most quoted work, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, he states:
“Let us see how Rabbinism taught Israel to observe its Sabbath. In not less than 24 chapters [In the Jerusalem Talmud[1] a Gemara[2] is attached to the first 20 of the Mishnaic tractate Shabbat; in the Babylon Talmud to all 24 chapters.] matters are seriously discussed as of vital religious importance which one would scarcely imagine a sane intellect would seriously entertain. Through 64.5 folio columns in the Jerusalem, and 156 double pages of folio in the Babylon Talmud does the enumeration and discussion of possible cases, drag on. . .The Talmud itself bears witness to this, when it speaks of a certain Rabbi who had spent no less that 2 ½ years in the study of only one of these 24 chapters!”
Edersheim then launched into a study of Pharisaic minutiae regarding Sabbath regulations. There are far too many stipulations to cover in this article; it would likely require weeks or even months of study. To give a small inkling of the overwhelming detail involved, I will provide several examples of one category of melachah: carrying.
- Carrying the weight of anything heavier than a fig was considered a “burden” and was labeled melachah.
- If carrying an object in front which then slipped to the back, one was guilty of labor considered melachah.
- If an object were thrown into the air by the left hand and caught by the right, this was considered sinful. However, if caught by the mouth and eaten, then there was no sin.
- Any object, regardless of size, was not permitted to be transported from a public to a private place, or vice versa. Public places were considered to be “open” whereas private places were “enclosed”. A person was not allowed to carry an object as tiny as a key from their homes into a public space. Rabbis resorted to wearing keys on chains around their necks so that it would be akin to an article of clothing and hence not be considered sinful melachah. On the other hand, lifting heavy items such as furniture inside within one’s house was not considered melachah.
This is a mere smattering of regulations imposed by the rabbis, and it’s a fraction of just one of 39 categories of melachah. Imagine studying all of it!
Edersheim went on to say this: “Rabbinism enlarged the simple Sabbath law as expressed in the Bible, [Ex. 20:8-11; 23:12-17; 34:1-3; Deut. 5:12-15] and, in its anxiety to ensure its most exact observance, changed the spiritual import of its rest into a complicated code of external and burdensome circumstances.”
Is it any wonder that Jesus opposed the Pharisees insofar as Sabbath regulations were concerned?
Another word intimately associated with the Sabbath is rest. Whereas in English we use the one word, rest, the key Scriptures regarding the Sabbath actually have two different Hebrew words for rest. The first word, shabbat, meaning “to cease”, already been touched upon. One ceases one’s work, melachah, on the 7th day. God ceased (shabbat) His creative work (melachah) in Genesis 2:2. Israel was commanded to rest in the form of ceasing melachah on the 7th day in Exodus 31:14, 34:21, 35:2; and Leviticus 23:2.
The other word translated “rest” is nuach. We find this word used as “rest” in Exodus 20:11 and Deuteronomy 5:14. This word is little mentioned in churches. I have neither seen nor heard it mentioned in any Bible Studies. So, what exactly does it mean?
Nuach is the root word for two other words that appear in Genesis 5:29. One is the Hebrew name of the patriarch Noah, pronounced in Hebrew as Noach. The second is nacham. The verse itself, announcing the birth of Noah, reads:
“Now he called his name Noah (Noach), saying ‘This one will give us rest (nacham) from our work (ma’aseh) and from the toil of our hands from the ground that the LORD has cursed.’”
In Hebrew, names mean things and can reveal the God-given purpose of a human being. Noah’s purpose, embedded in his name, was to give nacham to his people. Nacham, based on its root, nuach, has the physical appearance of strong breathing, but in a more abstract sense, the strong breathing, depending on context, is an outward expression of comforting or consoling oneself. We find this word in Psalm 23:4: “Your rod and your staff, they comfort (nacham) me.”
When we rest in the sense of nuach we “take comfort” from our labor. How then would this apply to God, of Whom it was written in Exodus 20:11 that He took nuach on the 7th day? Did God need comfort? Consolation? Or perhaps an alternative meaning of nuach such as regret or repentance?
Any of the above might apply to a human being, but none of the above seem suitable insofar as God is concerned. There remains another possible meaning of nuach, having to do with placing or “putting aside” something. The first use of nuach in Scripture is found in a verse we previously looked at for a different reason, Genesis 2:15.
“Then the LORD God took the man and put (nuach) him into the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
On the occasion of gathering and keeping the manna on the 6th day, Moses told the leaders of the people:
“Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside (nuach) to be kept until morning.” (Exodus 16:23)
There is a parallelism in the above verse. The sabbath is holy, that is, something to be set apart. This corresponds to the unused manna which is to be set aside.
In Exodus 20:11, the text states: “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested (nuach) on the seventh day; therefore, the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
Here, again, there is an apparent parallelism. In reverse, God set apart the Sabbath day which corresponds to His nuach, the setting aside of the melachah that established His creation. Thereby, through the act of setting aside (nuach), He rested.
Israel was commanded to do the same, setting aside their work (melachah) for one day, in order that they might remember and reflect on the mighty works of God, His act of creation (Exodus 20:11) and the release of Israel from bondage in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 5:15).
Christians share the creation narrative with their Jewish brothers. On behalf of this, there is cause for both groups to set aside their work and to set apart a space in time to reflect upon the glory of the One who created the heavens and the earth. The Christian has the additional opportunity to set aside his work and sanctify the time to remember Jesus, who on the day before the Sabbath went to the cross and on the day after the Sabbath rose from the dead.
END NOTES
[1] The Talmud derives from the word, lamad, meaning instruction. It is the main corpus of the Oral Torah, considered by the Pharisees, and later the rabbis, to have been communicated to Moses by God, concurrently with the written Torah. It is then postulated that it was handed down orally throughout the generations until the 2nd century C.E. when it began to be codified into writing. There are two versions of Talmud, the Jerusalem and the Babylonian.
[2] A rabbinical commentary.
I copied the list of 39 categories from the website, ou.org.
Many thanks are due to Pastor Terry Austin who set a beautiful foundation in place for the continuing study of the Sabbath.
