- 7/7/2025
The weekly Sabbath is a day of rest, mercy, and healing, not just for you, but for your family, your employees, your neighbors...for everyone!
Part 1: What is the Sabbath?
Part 2: Why does the Sabbath matter?
Part 3: Who is the Sabbath for?
Part 4: When is the Sabbath?
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Send me a friend request on The Torah Network: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Part 1: What is the Sabbath?
Part 2: Why does the Sabbath matter?
Part 3: Who is the Sabbath for?
Part 4: When is the Sabbath?
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Send me a friend request on The Torah Network: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
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LearningTranscript
00:00Jay Carper here again, and I'm continuing to talk about what is the Sabbath.
00:06Because, as I said before, you can't really talk about something in a meaningful way unless you know what that something is.
00:14Another reminder, all of the scriptures I'm going to quote are either directly from or adapted from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.
00:23In previous installments, we talked about how the Sabbath is a time set apart for God, and also a statement of faith on behalf of God's people.
00:35In this installment, we're going to talk about how the Sabbath is a day of rest, mercy, and healing.
00:42And this is probably what most people think about when they think about the Sabbath, a day of rest.
00:48These other two aspects, mercy and healing, might not be obvious, but they are an extension of the idea of rest, and they are built into the commandment.
00:58They're just not something that most people think about.
01:01Let me read from Genesis 2-3.
01:05God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
01:13God rested on the seventh day to show us what to do.
01:16God's pattern and desire is to teach us through stories and examples.
01:21But because we couldn't follow his example, and we couldn't follow the stories that he gave us, he had to give us specific commandments.
01:30This is what Galatians 3-19 means when it says,
01:34Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions.
01:37This means that God gives us specific commandments because we don't understand or can't follow his instructions that he gives us through his examples.
01:48He tried to write his law on the hearts of his people at the foot of Sinai, and they couldn't take it directly, and they asked Moses to go up and get it for them instead.
01:57So, God gave Moses very specific instructions.
02:03One of these instructions is the Sabbath day.
02:05But as you can see from Genesis 2-3, the Sabbath day goes all the way back to creation.
02:12And God's ideal for man is to rest just like he did.
02:16So, the Sabbath day is a day of rest for God's favorite creation, mankind.
02:22This is from Deuteronomy 5-14.
02:25You 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 livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
02:37I want to emphasize here, you shall not do any work.
02:42The reason that God resting on the seventh day of creation is important for you is because you bear the image of God.
02:49He was showing you how he wants you to live.
02:52So, if you want to live according to the pattern that God has set for you, you rest on the seventh day.
02:58The seventh day is like an appointment with God.
03:01It's a time that he set apart that you can spend with him, and that he can spend with you.
03:07Now, of course, God is around us all the time, just like he was around when Adam and Eve walked in the garden.
03:13But even so, that seventh day was a special time that God could spend with them, without them worrying about tending the garden or tending to the animals.
03:22The Sabbath is a special day that God wants you to spend with him, instead of worrying about all of the other responsibilities that you have in the world.
03:32Those responsibilities aren't bad things, necessarily.
03:35They could be good.
03:37They might even be given to you by God.
03:40But God wants you to take this one day off, just to spend it with him, and to rest, to take some time off from those other missions, those other responsibilities in your life.
03:50And you will be blessed by honoring God in this.
03:55You get to take a day off.
03:57A day that you don't have to worry about anything, because God has provided everything you need.
04:03Continuing in that same passage, Deuteronomy 5, 14-15,
04:07That your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
04:12You shall remember that you are a slave.
04:15Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
04:18It's not just you who bears the image of God.
04:22Every person does.
04:24No matter how good or bad they are.
04:26No matter how powerful or weak.
04:29No matter how smart or even how stupid.
04:32They still bear the image of God.
04:35And if you should rest because you bear the image of God, that means they should rest too.
04:41And if those people are under your authority, you are responsible for giving them that time.
04:46This isn't just a day of rest for you.
04:49It's a day of rest for everybody.
04:51That means all the people who work for you, all the people who serve you, who are under your authority.
04:56In your house, in your business, in your church, wherever it is.
05:02Just like Adam in the garden, God has put things under your authority.
05:06And if God gives you authority, God also gives you responsibility to take care of those things.
05:13Nothing God has given you really belongs to you.
05:16Everything belongs to God.
05:18You're just a steward.
05:21If you're a Spider-Man fan, you'll remember what Uncle Ben said.
05:25With great power comes great responsibility.
05:27You also need to remember that nobody is above the law's requirements or below the law's protection.
05:35God commands masters to ensure that their servants get a day off.
05:40Not just any day off, but the seventh day, the Sabbath day.
05:44Partly, this is to make sure that you aren't tempted to make people work in your stead.
05:49So that you can have a day off, you make other people work.
05:52God says you can't do it that way.
05:54Everybody has to have the same day off, or it's not really the Sabbath.
05:59And he says here, you shall remember that you were a slave.
06:03You need to remember where you came from.
06:06You weren't always in charge.
06:08At one time, somebody was in charge of you.
06:11You were a slave to sin at one time, and God set you free.
06:15Since you are now one of God's people, God wants you to rest.
06:19He wants this to be a blessing for you.
06:20And he has given you the responsibility to make sure that the people who are now under your authority also get that blessing.
06:27This is from Matthew 12, 1-14.
06:31I'm not going to read the whole passage because I don't have enough room on my screen for that, for one thing.
06:37But I'm only going to read the highlights, the most relevant parts.
06:40Please look this up on your own.
06:42I don't want you to think that I'm ever taking anything out of context,
06:45or interpreting a verse that's in a way that's completely foreign to its intended meaning.
06:51So, any passage that I list, you should go look it up yourself to make sure that it really means what I'm saying it means.
06:58And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.
07:06And they asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
07:09He said to them, Which one of you has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?
07:17Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?
07:19So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
07:21Then he said to the man, Stretch out your hand.
07:25And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other.
07:29But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him.
07:34The Sabbath isn't just about rest, and it's not just about letting your servants rest.
07:39It's also about sacrifice and mercy in relationships.
07:43Something that a lot of people miss about the sacrificial system in the Bible is that it's not about appeasing an angry God.
07:50It's not about, God wants blood because somebody has messed up.
07:55No, the sacrifice is there to restore a broken relationship.
08:00The blood of an innocent animal temporarily covers over sin, and it allows that person to approach God's presence, even in a sinful state.
08:11You repent of your sins, and you make this sacrifice, and you can go into God's physical presence.
08:17That sacrifice temporarily restores that broken relationship.
08:22Now, of course, the sacrifice of Jesus restores that relationship permanently.
08:27It permanently removes sin from your life.
08:29But Jesus is saying, in this interaction with the Pharisees, that if they had mercy on people,
08:35they wouldn't have committed the sin that required them to offer the sacrifice in the first place.
08:40Most sin stems from a desire to hurt people, or to take advantage of them somehow.
08:47So, if you have mercy on those people, you wouldn't need the sacrifice.
08:52The scriptures say repeatedly that if you love God, and if you love your neighbor, you are keeping the law.
08:59And that's because every single commandment is about loving your neighbor.
09:03Every commandment is about mercy.
09:06Even those that talk about sacrifices.
09:08So, if you're keeping the Sabbath in a way that isn't showing mercy to other people,
09:13then you're really not keeping it.
09:16Remember that everyone carries the image of God.
09:19And when we're all forgiven, when we've all submitted ourselves to Jesus, we're all peers.
09:25There's no difference between Jew or Gentile, male and female, master and slave,
09:30as far as salvation in Christ goes.
09:32God wants you to show mercy, not just to those people who are below you,
09:37but also those people next to you, who aren't under your authority.
09:41And really, in Christ, everyone is beside you, because everyone carries that image of God.
09:47Showing mercy on the Sabbath really gets to the heart of what the Sabbath is all about.
09:52It's about restoring people, restoring them to a state where they can rest,
09:58and where they can restore their own relationships with God.
10:01And ultimately, it's greater to enable another person's rest than to even take your own.
10:07So, if you have the opportunity to heal someone,
10:11or to do something that will allow someone else to take a real Sabbath,
10:17even if it means you have to put yourself out a little bit,
10:20then go ahead and do that.
10:22A lot of people have jobs where they can't really take a regular Sabbath.
10:26Emergency medical personnel, maybe people who work at a power plant, who keep the lights on.
10:31And that's okay.
10:33Whenever you can, arrange your schedule so that you can take the Sabbath.
10:37But some of those people working on the Sabbath
10:40is allowing many other people to take their Sabbath.
10:44Or they're allowing people to be restored to health.
10:46They're healing injuries.
10:48And these acts of mercy fulfill the spirit of the Sabbath in helping others rest,
10:53even if it means you lose some of your own.
10:56So, what is the Sabbath?
10:58In Part 1a, we talked about how the Sabbath is a time set apart for God.
11:03It's done in His honor, not yours.
11:06In Part 1b, we talked about how the Sabbath is a statement of faith.
11:13If you trust God, if you trust His promises, if you trust Him to take care of you,
11:18you can take that day off to spend that time with Him, even if it doesn't make economic sense.
11:23And in Part 1c, we talked about how the Sabbath is a day of rest, mercy, and healing,
11:30both for you and all the people around you.
11:33In the next segment of A Sabbath to Yahweh,
11:37we're going to talk about why does the Sabbath matter.
11:41This is Jay Carper from American Torah and Common Sense Bible Study.
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