SABBATH-FEST (holy day or holiday) 

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8 (NKJV)

So, getting back to “Pathway To Freedom” book I’ve been reading by Alistair Begg (and apparently an email from those guys at The Berean Call). Yeah, this may mean turning into my Bible and stare at Exodus 20:8-11 and see if there is a clause that contains the word “football”. So far, all I got are, labor 6 take 1 off (do-able), the kids (they both moved out), servants (I’ll have to ask the wife about this one, I can’t seem to find ours), cattle (burgers gotta come from somewhere), and strangers (why would strangers be ‘round my parts?) Anyway…

I just don’t see where YHVH woulda given me lead way when it came to being excused from observing the Sabbath when I got tickets to got to go watch the Philadelphia Eagles Professional Football Team at THE MIGHTY TEMPLE OF LINCOLN FINANCIAL FIELD!! (…okay, little over the top there, sorry) Nope, and I bet there ain’t nothing in the Red Letters either. “And He was saying to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Consequently, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28), yeah, like I thought, no football exception, dare. Well, I’m still a filthy sinner and they still beat The Giants that day so??? (worth it, but still pray for me please).

Begg share’s that way back in 2000, a guy named Adam Wolfson, within his written review of a book by Alexis McCrossen, made this statement in the Wall Street Journal. “The polling data tell us that Americans are religious people, the large majority of whom attend church, believe in God and pray daily. But you wouldn’t know it from a typical Sunday, where the malls are hopping, the movie theaters packed, and the roads clogged with cars and bikers. Though we might possibly still remember the Sabbath day, in the land of perpetual fun we surely don’t keep it holy.” Can a Spirit-filled believer give a brother an “OUCH”?

Breaking the Sabbath is tantamount to idolatry, and yet keeping the Sabbath is treated as one of the least of the commandments. I’m old enough to remember things that were just closed on a Sunday, and now, kinda seems like the diners are full by 12 noon, ready to serve those folks who just got their A.M. dose of Sabbath Rest done and over with. Gotta confess this, I’m kinda guilty of this little indiscretion myself as well, (but isn’t this sin littler than a full-blown Game Day, hmm).

Maybe one of the things we don’t realize is that Adam was created last and on the sixth day. Because of this Adam has very little to do with the heavy lifting during the first six days of creation but we are told that when God, when finished, He blessed, sanctified, and rested on the seventh day. So, it would seem that Sabbath rest would be important to us considering God worked six days and then enjoyed His Sabbath rest while Adam begins his life with the Sabbath.

Watchman Nee says, “for God works before He rests, while man must first enter into God’s rest, and then alone can he work. Moreover, it was because God’s work of creation was truly complete that Adam’s life could begin with rest.” So long story short it would seem that the Sabbath is a memorial of creation, a time where not working becomes secondary to fellowship with God and is associated with liberty and redemption. Sounds like a day to be revered but…there’s this game on TV golly gee.

I still have a little more to say about Sabbath-Fest but as I close for today ponder if you would with me on how the 10 commandments work as a scaffolding. For Jewish folks, the Sabbath being set within a framework that is distinctly Jewish. For them it was about a remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt, and their Sabbath celebrations were signs of their unique relationship with YHVH.

The believing Gentile, even though he saved by the punishable by death rule still cannot just discard the Sabbath. If he were then he sidesteps the rule that whatever the Bible does not repeal remans in full effect. So it is probably a good thing to be mindful that we gotta enter into a Sabbath rest just like God prescribes. Why?

The most basic answer is because all of us are gonna need to rest, we’re only human. Also, God has a specific purpose that He is working out. We so bound up in a physical world that we need to stop and be reminded of God’s spiritual creation. We need the time to fellowship with God and escape the social inequities of this world. Man, I hope God loves football. Amen?

Written by Chris Hughes: Chris is a husband, a father, has an education in Biblical doctrine and is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy. He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008. You can e-mail at cphughes515@verizon.net.