Simple, and perhaps even an obvious question

[barnz]

What is the Sabbath really??? Is it just a day of rest? Is it simply a day where we shouldn't do any work? Why do we worship on the Sabbath? How do we really keep the Sabbath? (I would love biblical evidence).

[phkrause]

What is the Sabbath really??? Is it just a day of rest? Is it simply a day where we shouldn't do any work? Why do we worship on the Sabbath? How do we really keep the Sabbath? (I would love biblical evidence).

I believe if you read the 4th C you'll see what the Sabbath is all about. It commemorates the Creation of the earth, it says that we believe and accept that God is the ruler of the Universe. As far as keeping the Sabbath, to me is spending time with him on the day that he made for man. Does that mean we "have" to go to church? I couldn't say. We have to allow our hearts and the HS to lead us as to what God wants from us.

[ClubV12]

I see it as a day set aside for the Lord to especially bless us, if we will let Him. It's something He loves to do for His children, would like to do more and He especially enjoys the Sabbath in that regard.

[miz3]

What is the Sabbath really??? Is it just a day of rest? Is it simply a day where we shouldn't do any work? Why do we worship on the Sabbath? How do we really keep the Sabbath? (I would love biblical evidence).

Wow! Great question alexamasan.

[miz3]

If the truth be known SDA don't really have a specific handle on this.

SDA can only speak in general terms. As to specifics the "Pharisees have within the history of the SDA Church called the shots as to how the Day should be lived. However there is actually no real Biblical evidence for such Pharisaical thinking and concepts that have dominated SDA Sabbath Keeping. Some of these Pharisaical practices came out 19th Century Protestantism and some out the Jewish experience in the wilderness.

This is probably why you might some vague answers like the two already submitted.

[ClubV12]

SDA's don't have a "specific handle" on how to apply many aspects of an individuals religious practice. Nothing new there, it is as God intended. Spirituality, in what ever form by what ever church, is an individual matter between you and the Lord. Certain fundamental ground rules apply to all of us in society or in any group of which we are a member, but beyond that.... Whats "wrong" for me is entirely "right" for someone else. You cannot legislate morality by increasing the number of "rules", at some point, society, members of a group and/or church members just have to figure it out for themselves.

There is no question about the Sabbath being made for man, it is meant to be a blessing from the Lord to us. If you see it as a "bunch of rules" you have totally missed the concept. How ever you "remember" and "keep it holy" becomes irrelevant, if it's not done with a spirit of love.

God has layed out the fundamentals of the Sabbath quite clearly in the fourth commandment. There is no mystery here in that regard.

[12tribes]

How would have Adam & Eve have spent the first sabbath? They were not tired, how they kept it is how it is meant to be kept. I think they would have learn't about creation and their creator.

[ClubV12]

"They were not tired." A point worthy of consideration 12tribes.

Personally I don't see the Sabbath as a time to literally "rest", or take an afternoon nap or whatever. Myself, it's a day I plan for by being rested before it comes around to prevent that! I like to stay active on Sabbath, nap on Sunday. :)

[Gerr]

What is the Sabbath really??? Is it just a day of rest? Is it simply a day where we shouldn't do any work? Why do we worship on the Sabbath? How do we really keep the Sabbath? (I would love biblical evidence).

ESV | ‎Ex 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying,

ESV | ‎Ex 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ‎9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ‎10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ‎11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

ESV | ‎Ge 2:2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ‎3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

ESV | ‎Re 14:6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. ‎7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

ESV | ‎Mk 2:27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

NIV84 | ‎Is 58:13 “If you °keep your °feet from breaking the Sabbath °and from doing °as you please on my holy day, °if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day °honorable°, and if you honor it °by not going your own °way and not doing as you please or °speaking idle words,°

ESV | ‎Ex 31:13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.

[Gail]

I like the verse in Isaiah about "turning your foot" and "not doing your own pleasure" on the Sabbath.

When you read what God did in Genesis 2:3, He blessed it and sanctified it. IOW, he set it aside for holy purposes.

Keeping that as the spirit of the commandment, you can see the blessing in it. When kept as prescribed Scripturally, it really is a blessing!

More than being just a memorial to creation, it is a memorial to the Creator. That is the reason given in the list of Ex.20. The wording is similar to the injunction in Revelation 14:7, where worship of God because He is the Creator factors in last day events. It's almost like another, "Remember" that we find in Ex.20:8-11

[Gerr]

That phrase "not doing your own pleasure" arouses too much negativity. Since it's a pleasure for me to go to church and worship, have fellowship with friends and fellow believers, therefore it's a no no? The Sabbath is supposed to be a joy, yet we shouldn't do anything pleasurable? I like the way the NIV puts it, or the NLT:

13 “Keep the Sabbath day holy.

Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,

but enjoy the Sabbath

and speak of it with delight as the LORD’s holy day.

Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,

and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.

14 Then the LORD will be your delight.

I will give you great honor

and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob.

I, the LORD, have spoken!”

Tyndale House Publishers. (2007). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. (3rd ed.) (Is 58:13–14). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

[Robert]

What is the Sabbath really??? Is it just a day of rest? Is it simply a day where we shouldn't do any work? Why do we worship on the Sabbath? How do we really keep the Sabbath? (I would love biblical evidence).

Read

[phkrause]

That phrase "not doing your own pleasure" arouses too much negativity. Since it's a pleasure for me to go to church and worship, have fellowship with friends and fellow believers, therefore it's a no no? The Sabbath is supposed to be a joy, yet we shouldn't do anything pleasurable? I like the way the NIV puts it, or the NLT:

13 “Keep the Sabbath day holy.

Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,

but enjoy the Sabbath

and speak of it with delight as the LORD’s holy day.

Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,

and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.

14 Then the LORD will be your delight.

I will give you great honor

and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob.

I, the LORD, have spoken!”

Tyndale House Publishers. (2007). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. (3rd ed.) (Is 58:13–14). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.