Mike Novotny - Am I Allowed to Work on Sundays?
In Numbers 15, God ordered a man to be stoned to death for gathering wood on the Sabbath. That's true. What exactly does keeping the Sabbath Day holy mean for me? I don't do chores on Sunday but my husband does; it's an ongoing debate in our family. What should you do to your husband? Stone him. Next? All right, the Sabbath Day. All right, here's my crash course teaching on the Sabbath. God created this world and the Bible says in Genesis 2:1, 2:2, "On the seventh day, he rested."
Then if you read into the second book of the Bible, God's children end up as slaves in Egypt where they cannot rest. Pharaoh and their slave owners whip their backs and say, "You don't get a day off. You're our slaves; we'll work you until you're dead," and they did but God saved them. And after he saved them, he brought them to Mount Sinai and he gave the Ten Commandments and on the list of Ten Commandments was, "Remember the Sabbath Day," remember the day of rest. And if you'd read Exodus 20 and I think Deuteronomy 5, you would find God giving two reasons for that. He says, "I want you to rest. I don't want you to go to work because I want you to remember that I made you and that I saved you. You have a Creator and you have a Savior."
And so, that story in the Old Testament, you read it, it's terrifying; like some guy's literally going to do some more work, picking up sticks, boom, and they kill him because he's broken the Sabbath Day. Really what's happening, if you know the storyline of the Bible, is that he is saying, "God didn't make me, God didn't save me, I'm going to do my thing," which was the worst thing in the world that you could say to the God who made you and saved you. So what does that mean for you today? Should we find all of our coworkers who are working on... Saturday, by the way, is the Sabbath, not Sunday; seventh day of the week. Should we hurt them? Stone them? Chastise them?
The answer is no and here's why: Colossians 2:16 says, "We shouldn't judge each other by what we eat or drink or in regards to a Sabbath Day." So the New Testament, just like it says, we don't have to worry about like the rules for food in the Old Testament or animal sacrifices or we all don't have to travel to Jerusalem a couple of times a year to worship at the temple. Like, there were some Old Testament things that were just for the Old Testament because Jesus is the better picture.
So do you have to take Saturday off to rest? The Bible's answer is no. But you can find all the rest your soul needs in Jesus Christ. You don't have to work, you don't have to earn, you don't have to strive; he is your rest. The book of Hebrews 3 and 4 talk about the true Sabbath rest for our soul. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest."
So if your husband's doing chores on Sunday, that's not even the Sabbath Day so he's good. And if he starts mowing the lawn on Saturday, that's okay. Colossians 2, don't judge anyone by that. Find your rest in Jesus. Is there wisdom in us not working 80 hours a week to remember that God made us and we just need, you know, downtime, relaxation, friendships, relationships, time in church? For sure. But that's a wisdom; it's not a commanded issue most of the time.