OT Introduction

Sabbath Exercise

Sabbath
A transliteration of the Hebrew word šabbāt which means “cease, desist, rest.”
In context, it refers to the seventh day of the week
(Friday eve to Saturday eve, according to Jewish reckoning)
during which one was to cease from work and rest.

KEY TEXTS

1) Read Exodus 20.8-11. (see below)

What is the reason given here for remembering the Sabbath day?

2) Read another version of this commandment in Deuteronomy 5.12-15.

What is the reason given here for remembering the Sabbath day?

Exodus 20.8-11

Deuteronomy 5.12-15

^{8 "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
⁹"Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD
your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your
daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner
who stays with you.
¹¹"For in six days the LORD made the heavens and
the 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.}

^{12 'Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the
LORD your God commanded you.
¹³'Six days you shall labor and do all your
work,
¹⁴but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD
your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your
daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your
donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that
your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
¹⁵'You shall remember that you were a slave in
the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a
mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God
commanded you to observe the sabbath day.}

3) Read Exodus 16.11-30.

Verses 16-21: How much was each person to gather each day? How much were they able to gather and keep?
Verses 22-30: What happened on the seventh day?

4) Read Amos 8.4-6.

For whom is the Sabbath a burden?

5) Read Mark 2.23-3.5

In what ways does Jesus appear to be breaking Sabbath law? In what ways is he upholding it?

Why is it that people want to spend an eternity in heaven doing
what they can barely stand to do for an hour in church on Sunday?

Mark Twain

KEY QUESTIONS

Why did God choose or need to rest? What does this fact imply about us humans?
What are some common themes regarding the Sabbath that underlie all of them?
Why does God command us to take a Sabbath rest? Who is benefited by a Sabbath observance?

RESPONSE

With the information you have gathered from the preceding texts and with the preceding questions in mind,
compose a one or two sentence response indicating why you believe God commanded a Sabbath observance.

Sabbath is an invitation to imagine our life differently.

Walter Brueggeman, Finally Comes the Poet, 97