I was watching 'Noah-The Last Days' series on Amazon and am worried about my working on the Sabbath day. After watching part 2
which talks about the covenant God made with Noah, his people entered into the Arc which is symbolized as the covenant. Part of the covenant was to keep the Sabbath holy, or sanctify, that day with rest and not to work. I work nights Sundays through Wednesdays and am worried after
watching this video. It stresses not working on Sundays.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!
No doubt an ages old debate on any Christian forum.
Sabbath per the Bible beings at sunset on Friday unto sunset on Saturday.
Below is excerpted in parts from this link. I think if you read its information you'll have a pretty clear picture as to the importance of not just the Sabbath to the Christian today but, have an answer for what often comes in a topic like this, that argument that God's law does not apply to today's Christian.
I rather enjoyed reading it.
http://www.giveshare.org/HolyDay/sabbegin.html
Isaiah 58:13-14,
"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth . . . ."
A Lesson in Bible Time
If Sabbath breaking is a sin, punishable by eternal death as Garner Ted Armstrong says, then certainly in the Bible we ought to be able to find when the Sabbath begins.
Exodus 31:12-18 shows that the death penalty was administered to Israelites who broke the Sabbath. They didn't have electronic watches nor computerized sunset tables. They had the sun to go by. Would it make sense to administer the death penalty for a nebulous law? It wouldn't be possible for anyone to tell who was breaking the Sabbath according to Mr. Burke, because for him the Sabbath is "an undefinable period of time."
Genesis 1:3-5, 14-18 says that the Eternal uses the sun and moon to
divide day and night, light from darkness. Does it usually begin to get dark at 3:00 PM in the afternoon? No. The "evening and the morning" differentiate each day.
When the sun went down, it was dark, Genesis 15:17. This began a new day, verse 18. Jacob stayed for the night at a place, because the sun was set, and he lay down to sleep, Genesis 28:11. A priest who became unclean by touching a creeping thing was "unclean until even." He was to wash himself "and when the sun is down, he shall be clean, and shall afterward eat of the holy things," Leviticus 22:5-7. An unclean person had to stay out of the camp, wash himself when evening comes on, and when the sun was down he could come into the camp again, Deuteronomy 23:11. Time and again, when the sun is down (sunset) is a distinct Biblical demarcation of time.
A hanged dead body was to be buried as soon as the sun was down, Joshua 8:29. Samson gave his thirty wedding guests seven days to guess his riddle. On the seventh and last day the men came to him "before the sun went down" with the answer to the riddle that they had gotten from his wife, Judges 14:12-18. At the news of Abner's death at the hands of Joab, David fasted until sundown, II Samuel 3:35. He fasted for dead Saul and Jonathan until evening, II Samuel 1:12.
The morning is when the sun is up, Judges 9:33. In darkness the young lions stalk and at sunrise, they go to their dens while man gets up and goes to his labor until evening, Psalms 104:19-23. Thus, man is designed to work by day.
During Jesus' day, many Jews thought it was wrong for Him to heal on the Sabbath. They came to Him just after sunset Saturday night to be healed, Mark 1:32, Luke 4:31,40. We are not to hold grudges, or let our anger build up to the explosion point. This is expressed in the verse "let not the sun go down on your wrath," Ephesians 4:26-27. Don't let the day pass without getting rid of your anger. We are to use the lights God created to divide time, to differentiate between day and night. In the New Heavens and New Earth, there will be no need for the sun and moon, Revelation 21:23, 22:5.
Based on the above scriptures, it is evident that according to the Bible, sunset divides one day from another. Far from being a Pharisaical Satanic lie, the Sabbath does begin on Friday sunset and ends on Saturday sunset.
Did Jesus Relax The Sabbath?
Matthew 5, 6, and 7 gives the account of the so-called Sermon on the Mount. Jesus made the laws of the Old Testament much more binding and expanded the law to its full spiritual intent. Jesus said even to look lustfully at a woman is adultery, 5:27-28. Rather than relax or water down the laws, He made them stricter. Those who "break [Greek
luo, relax or loosen] one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven," 5:19. Unless our righteousness exceeds -- goes far beyond -- that of the Pharisees, we will not be in the Kingdom of Heaven, verse 20.
Does it sound like Jesus relaxed the Sabbath? NO! The Pharisees had added false traditions to the Sabbath, such as the prohibition of healing on the Sabbath. The Bible tells when the Sabbath begins: on sunset of the end of sixth day. The Savior went
beyond this to the spiritual intent of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, He demonstrated by His own actions that we must not just rest physically on the Sabbath,
but we must also perform spiritual work of helping others. Yes at times even attending to human needs. Yet to Mr. Burke, we can now "relax" and not worry about working past sundown on the Sabbath. He has totally and completely missed the intent of the Sabbath.
