COME AS A CHILD LESSON 144 - SIX DAYS SHALT THOU LABOR AND DO ALL YOUR WORK

THE OTHER SIDE OF KEEPING SABBATH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Moses is still up on the mountain getting the ten commandments directly from God.  He has heard, and we have discussed the fifth commandment that states we should observe the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. 

There is, however; another part of that commandment that many people never seem to hear or pay attention to.  They forget about verse nine of Exodus 20 that proclaims “six days shall you labor and do your work.”    That part of the equation is equally important.  If we are going to set aside one day to rest; then we are to be keeping the six other days of the week by working.  That was God’s own pattern; and that is the pattern he set for our time.

Remember what extra emphasis God put on this particular commandment?  It would be careless to observe and keep a portion of it and leave the other portion out as if it were not necessary at all.

We are made to work.  God created us to be that way.  God wants us to be useful in tending to the earth and taking care of those that we love and those who need our help.  God wants our actions to be self-sustaining, in that we are constantly providing for our needs by the labor of our hands, minds and hearts.  Because we can work and provide for ourselves and our families, we are very blessed! 

God gave this commandment to ALL of us; not just part of us.  We ALL have something useful and good that we can be doing to make a contribution to the betterment of the society as a whole.  We are all to be active and doing some form of work.   If we do not work as best we can and are able; we break one of God’s commandments and we live in sin. 

This doesn’t mean that someone who doesn’t get paid for the worthwhile things that they do are living in sin.  

A housewife works just as long and hard, if not harder than a person with a professional career.   A mother tending to a child works harder than anyone I know.  

A senior citizen may not be able to do a lot of physically demanding things any more, but they can mentor and advise people with the wisdom they have gained through a well-lived life.  

A person who is not able to find employment can offer their services in other ways until they do find employment.  This is often the first step to finding fulfilling employment.  

If you can’t think of anything more worthwhile to do; try smiling at someone or making someone laugh.  We all have SOME type of worthwhile work that we can do on this earth.  God meant for all of us to be using the capabilities and gifts He has given us for good in sustaining life on this earth.  He COMMANDED us to be about our work for six days of the week when he gave the fourth commandment. 

The two sides of this fourth commandment balance out our lives.  We work and we rest, and we work and we rest.  That is the rhythm that Heaven has composed and life is the dance; staying in sync with God’s patterns makes for a much happier life.  

We soon find out that in regards to work and rest, it takes doing one thing to be able to fully appreciate the other thing.  These are the laws that God put into motion on the earth that help us to realize that work is best for us in every way.  Keeping this commandment of work and rest in balance gives balance to our daily lives.  Keeping Sabbath makes our work a pleasure.  Keeping work makes our Sabbath a joy!

All of the rest of the scriptures support the fact that men were created to work for six days and rest for one day out of every week.  This is the pattern of time that God created for us and set into motion.  We are MADE for this pattern of time. 

This concept is totally lost in our society today, and I find it a very sad fact.  When you leave God out of every equation of your life, the first thing to go in most cases is the work ethic of the people. They begin to make government their god and they stand there with their hands out and their minds empty. There is more time for anger and resentment and hate.  People who work are too busy to hate.  They don't have time to feel sorry for themselves!  They are all about loving those that they labor for and helping those who have no means of helping themselves.  Keeping the work six/rest one pattern that God gave turns the worldly chaos of too much time into peaceful moments and happy memories.   

There was once a time, not so very long ago, when blessed and free people earnestly followed scripture and tried to do what they thought pleased God because of what they learned from studying the Word of God.  Work was seen as good, honest, moral behavior.  People worked in order to be accountable to God.  They had reverence for biblical authority, and they had a healthy fear of God.  They KNEW if they did not work and do their part to maintain the world that they lived within; that they were breaking God’s fourth commandment. 

Then society evolved to a place where many began to say “God doesn’t really matter, as long as I’m “good” I can pretty much do as I please.”  After that new concept they made their own definition of “good” which included neither work or a Sabbath rest.    In this type of fearless immorality the work ethic has changed.  Many do not feel they need to be making a contribution; they feel they automatically deserve to be happy and cared for simply because they exist.  They are very pleased to be their own bosses and answer to no one except themselves.  They try to re-make the world and change the basic rules of the universe that God set into motion when He began creation.  They tend to believe all of that talk about work is just an old worn out fairy tale; so they quit having a work ethic, and they quit worrying about things that other people decided were moral.  Now they make their own rules; without thinking about the fact that they set themselves up as their own little gods.  As long as it makes them happy; they believe they are entitled.  They answer to no one. 

These people tend to see work as a punishment instead of the blessing that God intended it to be.  Then they wonder why they can’t find happiness.  Out of their own selfish reasoning, they miss out on something very crucial to human happiness.  

They miss out on the fact that our work can bring value and meaning to our days.  They don’t see that work can glorify mankind and make his days much more interesting and rewarding.  Even better the greatest work within all of us can glorify and honor God.   These people, by making up their own laws, miss out on the joy of providing for a family and loved ones, and being able to help another fellow human being who is having a hard time or a bad day.  Everything is simply taken for granted; nothing is special.    

By rejecting God’s ways they miss the dignity that comes from being created in God’s image and the joy that comes from being creative in the purposeful ways that God made each individual person unique and distinct from others.  They miss the blessing of seeing what work can do for civilizations and society as a whole.

Take a survey of the whole world in your mind.  What countries seem to be suffering and in despair?  Are these not mostly countries which have governments in strict control which have failed to implement a work ethic among their people?  There are starving people living in poverty all over the globe; many of these come from countries where their citizens are oppressed and not allowed the freedom to work under free enterprise in order to make their lives better and more abundant.  There is no answer for these people; the cycle of poverty goes on and on because either they are not allowed or they do not share the mind-set to work and improve their situation.  If they share God’s view of work; they cannot implement it because the governments have oppressed people and do not allow them the freedom to live out God’s ways and reap the joy that comes from a continuous pattern of work and rest in their daily lives.  Every day is the same old drag to them.  Nothing ever changes.  Nothing is ever new and fresh.  Nothing they do actually matters.  They lose all motivation to thrive.  

This isn’t ALWAYS the case; but it is true of many such cases where there is poverty around the world.   Well wishers go in hoping to make a positive difference.  They see good changes come about, but when they leave everything regresses back to poverty and want again.  The people have not been taught the pattern of work and rest provided by God.  Poverty and oppression isn’t the way that God wants His people to live.  God wishes for each person to have an abundant joyful life where they can use the gifts He has given them in their daily lives.  God set up the commandments so that we can learn the best ways to live and work.  It is greedy and selfish men who have brought poverty and troubles upon mankind and perverted the natural patterns of God that help a worker to thrive and survive in abundance.  

Then there are those countries that DO have the freedom we speak of; yet the people abuse it and take it for granted.  Perhaps too many generations have had life too easy and have not taught the ethics of work to their children.  So many do not appreciate the right to work and provide for themselves and their families by the fruit of their labor.  Honest work and a decent job seem to be beneath their dignity.  Some just want everything handed to them on a silver platter.  Unfortunately; someone has to do the work that makes those silver platters possible!  

God’s way is one of equality and equal distribution.  There is equal distribution of work and equal distribution of rest for everyone who wants to obey Him and take up His ways.  All who work get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.   

Work is one way that God gave us to help to redeem the curse originally caused by the enemy of God on the earth.  God’s enemy, Satan, used mankind to accomplish this.    The perfect redemption was the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for redemption of our sins; Jesus did the work that repairs our souls.  The work of Christ was the most important work ever done.  

Mere humans cannot repair our own souls; we are too sinful and imperfect. Christ was the only perfect sinless One qualified for that job and He came and He did the work that He set out to do for all of us.  He set the exmple, both in resting and in working.

All we humble humans can do now is try to repair the damage that our sin has wreaked over the earth.  Jesus redeems our souls and we go to work.  We bring about restoration through our work.  Things are in constant decay because of the results of sin; but our combined work with the work Christ has done in our souls helps to temporarily repair the decay until He returns to make all things new.

It is the law of God that keeps and redeems the earth and the creation.  The laws have all been broken over and over again.  They were broken to the point of the ruin of all the souls of mankind; but Jesus came to repair our souls.  Once He repaired our souls, we became able to participate with Him in this holy process by keeping the commandment to do our work which helps to repair the world by restoring what He has designed us to be.   It is a very small way that we can play into the redemption story along side of Christ.  There are so many broken pieces that must come together!  Keeping God’s laws in grace and love are how the brokeness begins to be restored.    

The Jewish people have a saying:  “tikkun olam.”   It is often spoken and taken out of context.  It means “repair the world.”  To repair the world one must begin to reverse the curse of sin.  God gave us His laws to help us with this.  We humans cannot fulfill the law; only Christ could accomplish that; but with His help, we all have a part to play on the stage of the world to restore what is left of what Christ has fulfilled.  Since the world was broken by men disobeying the commandment of God, after Jesus has purified us and through Him working within us, we can begin to make restorations and repairs by obeying God’s law and working.  It is a great mysterious reversal that is in continuous process through the saving of the souls of the earth.    We must all do our part and that part begins with us using our physical bodies, minds, and hearts to do the work that God has given to us.  This counteracts the death and destruction of the earth that was caused by sin. 

If Jesus has made our souls clean, we will have a great desire to do any of the work that is required to bring about the changes that are needed to repair the world.   It all starts with working six days and resting one.

We are to work for six days because it took six days to create the world.    So we work for six days and we rest for one day; and we start all over again.  

The fourth commandment is all about keeping God’s time and His ways in our lives.  It is just as important today as it was in the day of Moses; maybe even more so as time draws to an end and we anxiously await the coming of our Groom; Jesus Christ. 

How long O LORD?

 

 

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