gift > obligation divine commitment > divine commandment

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Page 1: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment
Page 2: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment
Page 3: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment

Gift > obligation Divine commitment > divine

commandment

Page 4: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment

“To the biblical mind, however, labor is the means toward an end, and the Sabbath as a day of rest, as a day of abstaining from toil, is not for the purpose of recovering one’s lost strength and becoming fit for the forthcoming labor. The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (New York Noonday,

1951), 14.

Page 5: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment

Exodus 2:23-25 The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

Page 6: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment

Exodus 3:7-8 Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey….

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Exodus 16:23 "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD; bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.'“

Exodus 16:26 “Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none."

Page 9: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment

Man with a Hoe Jean-François Millet 1860 - 1862

Page 10: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment

Deut 5:13-15 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work-- you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Page 11: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment

“These divine commands are rooted in the prior redemption and grace of God. There is a prior reality and a prior act, and that reality-act is determinative for the divine command.”

“Narrative carries the commandments.” --- Miller, “Divine Command,”

20, 23.

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“One of the primary features of Israelite law, one that appears first in the Ten Commandments, is the presence of motivation clauses that serve as a mode of divine persuasion, on the one hand, and the rationality of the commandments, on the other.” --- Miller, “Divine Command,” 20, 25.

Page 13: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment

Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Deut 5:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Page 14: Gift > obligation  Divine commitment > divine commandment

“The presence of divine persuasion indicates that the commandments cannot be reduced to blind obedience. They are not arbitrary or capricious. Nor does God simply set them out to be obeyed. The one who commands also encourages obedience and seeks to draw forth a positive response from those before whom the commands are set. From the side of God, that is, on God’s part, it is not assumed that the rightness of the command is self-evident or to be imposed from above. The consent of the commanded people is a true consent of the mind and heart.” --- Miller, ”Divine Command,” 25–26.

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“Because it is evident from the Scriptures that on the Lord’s day God rained manna from heaven, and on the Sabbath He rained none down, the Jews may understand that even then our Lord’s day was preferred to the Jewish Sabbath, that even then [it was] shown that on their Sabbath no grace of God would descend from heaven for them, and [that] no heavenly bread, which is the word of God, would come down for them.” - Origen, Homilies on Exodus, Homily VII, Chap. V.

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The point of difference is evident: the other commandments of the Decalogue are precepts of the natural law, obligatory at all times and unalterable, and hence, after the abrogation of the Law of Moses, all the commandments contained in the two tables are observed by Christians, not however because their observance is commanded by Moses, but because they accord with the law of nature and are enforced by its dictate: …we are not instructed by the natural law to worship God on the Sabbath rather than on any other day.

  Catechism of the Council of Trent, 264.

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“Why, then, should a man keep the Sabbath? To the Christian there is only one reason, and no other, but that reason is enough: God has spoken. The Sabbath commandment rests definitely and solely on a “Thus saith the Lord,” and has no ground in nature, as such. It is for this reason that God makes the Sabbath His sign and test.” › M. L. Andreasen, The Sabbath (Takoma Park,

Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1942), 29.

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In an arbitrary manner God appointed that on the seventh day we should come to rest with His creation in a particular way. He filled this day with a content that is “uncontaminated” by anything related to the cyclical changes of nature or the movements of the heavenly bodies. That content is the idea of the absolute sovereignty of God, a sovereignty unqualified even by an indirect cognizance of the natural movements of time and rhythms of life. As the Christian takes heed of the Sabbath day and keeps it holy, he does so purely in answer to God’s command and simply because God is his Creator.

Raol Dederen, “Reflections on a Theology of the Sabbath,” in The Sabbath in Scripture and History, ed. Kenneth A. Strand (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1982), 302.

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In an _______ manner God ______ that on the seventh day we should come to rest with His creation in a particular way. He filled this day with a content that is “uncontaminated” by anything related to the cyclical changes of nature or the movements of the heavenly bodies. That content is the idea of the ______________________of God, a __________ unqualified even by an indirect cognizance of the natural movements of time and rhythms of life. As the Christian takes heed of the Sabbath day and keeps it holy, he does so purely in answer to_____________and simply because God is his Creator.

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Will God be vindicated from the charge that God is arbitrary under a symbol that proves God’s arbitrariness?

If the alleged arbitrariness of the Sabbath is made to be its most fundamental characteristic, the Sabbath offers proof of arbitrariness of God.

Defenders of the Sabbath may be winning the battle for the Sabbath at the tremendous cost of losing the war concerning the character of God.

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In the world plot, the core identity of Sabbath is commitment more than commandment

Whether as gift or command, commitment or commandment, Sabbath belongs to the world plot.

The role of the Sabbath in the world plot hinges on its meaning: Sabbath is not an expression of arbitrary authority.