Leviticus 23:3 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.
In my last post, I went a bit into the "Sabbath" and what that means to us today in light of the New Testament. One thing that we don't seem to focus on very much is that Biblically "6 days of work" is the expectation, not 5. They are currently talking about shortening the regular school week to just 4 days. I think this is antithetical to God's instruction to Israel that "six days work shall be done". Just because we are starting to condition kids to only be able to handle 4 days of getting up and going to school. Granted, most workplaces have 5 scheduled work days unless you are a grocery store produce manager like I was for a year and had to work 6 days. One thing that a lot of us will do is work around the house or take care of errands that need to get done on our free days. I also can't find anywhere in scripture where the religious leaders were petitioning for 6 full days of work when Jesus arrived. I can't even find a section where the definition of what "did NOT constitute work" on any of the given "work" days was discussed.
Anyway, I just found that interesting. What we can say is that it's totally fine to work on Sunday so that you can get a full 6 days work week in if you want? It's also smart to at least do something on Sunday that moves your life forward and in the process serve God. It should be noted that I mentioned it was "smart". Working 6 days is not a commandment from God to us. It was specifically given to the ancient Israelites at that time. However, we are instructed most definitely to keep Saturday (the Sabbath) holy. Matthew 19:16-17. 16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? ”So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” It should be noted that work was given to the human race in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:15 "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it." "Tend" in this verse has the idea of "work". Work is one of the ways humans bear the image of God. Work itself is not a curse on the human race. Instead, it remained even after the Fall.
When we talk about "solemn rest", "solemn" isn't clearly defined in this verse because it doesn't appear in some translations, but it was likely in the same wheelhouse meaning-wise as we see its occurrence in Lam 2:22. an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; conventionally a year; by implication, an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose). The word we do find in all translations is "rest". Shabbathown or rest here has the idea of a sabbatism or special holiday:--rest, sabbath. Convocation in Hebrew is miqra' and it means something called out, i.e. a public meeting (the act, the persons, or the place); also a rehearsal:--assembly, calling, convocation, reading.
Saying "in all your dwellings" highlights the global or universal instruction regarding the sabbath. It didn't just mean to observe the sabbath in the sanctuary, but rather in every household.
To go back over what I said in the last post, the application here would be to walk in Christ daily, but do not disregard the Sabbath and embrace your Father in heaven's instructions to keep the day Holy.
Question: Are we keeping the sabbath holy?
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