Question regarding the Sabbath - RevelationWithDaniel

Hello,

Thank you for writing. You wrote:
“I saw your video, & I believe it. I also know Jesus did not rebuke the disciples for picking on the Sabbath, corn, I think. The reason for this question is I went to my work & I asked if I could have every Saturday off. I felt I could not go into detail, but did enough for her to know why. She is a Christian, & I asked her did she want to know facts. She did not. I have one Saturday off a month, so she gave me 3 choices, neither would work. My question is, if we do worship, can we also work, or is working out. I know God rested, sanctified it Hallowed it, &I blessed it. Why did Jesus heal, & not rebuke the disciples? What do I do?”

To be sure, God wants you to be faithful, and He knows your situation–finances and all. Also, He does not lead us out into the wilderness to kill us, but if we walk contrary to His will, we die. Please do what you know to be best in His Word and God will bless you abundantly.

Regarding Matthew 12 when Christ did not rebuke the disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath: they were not working, mind you, they were just eating because it says, “His disciples were an hungred.’ Had they been fishing for pay, harvesting corn as a job, or selling what they had harvested, Jesus would most certainly have rebuked them.

In fact, after Christ died, He left such an example in His life regarding Sabbath keeping that His disciples would not break it. Notice Luke 23:54-24:1:

“54 And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. 55 And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid. 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. 24:1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. ”

Have you noticed Nehemiah 13:15-18? (I chose the ESV here):

“15 In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. 16 Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! 17 Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.””

The Commandment itself, found in Exodus 20:8-11, states clearly how we should regard work:

“8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

There are more references about work on the Sabbath, but you’ve gotten the picture.

Did you know that you would be able to get a letter from a Sabbath keeping pastor, as long as you are a member of that church, and he could write that, due to your religious convictions, you are requesting every Sabbath day off from Friday night sundown til Saturday night sundown? It would also have legal authority, as a letter from the pastor and regarding religious convictions. Could you still loose your job? Yes, but would God bless your faithfulness or your unfaithfulness?

Regarding the last part of your question, ‘Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath?’ Christ didn’t get paid for healing, it wasn’t regular, carnal work. He was doing ministry, bringing people to a better understanding of His and His Father’s love. He made it clear that we can do good with and for others on the Sabbath days: Luke 14:1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him. 2 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? 4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; 5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? 6 And they could not answer him again to these things.” Jesus was showing that the Sabbath was and is a blessing to people, not a day to treat as the others of the week. Christ made that clear by example.

Another thing to consider is Daniel 5:1-4: “Belshazzar the king [of Babylon] made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine [ever heard of the wine of Babylon before?] before the thousand. 2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. 3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. 4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone…” It was directly after this that God send and clear cut judgment upon Belshazzar and the kingdom of Babylon. The king dies that night and the nation fell to the Medes and Persians.
Here’s what Belshazzar’s tragic end can tell us in principle: don’t treat God’s holy things as though they are common.