Picture a jet plane landing on an aircraft carrier at sea. An F-18 descends at a steep angle with engines screaming, landing gear extended, flaps down, and a tail-hook trailing behind. Then it slams onto the carrier deck in what aviators call a “controlled crash.” The tail-hook rakes the deck until it snags a cable, and the powerful jet grinds to a halt. Everyone sighs, “He made it!”
Does your Sabbath begin that way—like a carrier landing in rough seas? Is your Friday evening spent scrambling to get ready, feeling guilty about doing so much on the Sabbath? Does the Sabbath sometimes become as stressful as a weekday, because of lack of preparation? Or, rather, when the sun goes down on Friday, does a spirit of peace settle upon your household? Are you able to say, “God’s holy time is certainly a delight!”?
The Bible tells us that the sixth day of the week has a special purpose. Though the day is not set aside as “holy time,” Scripture describes its important role as a day of preparation. Understanding and using the day in the way God intended can help us properly observe the holy time that follows on the Sabbath.
Consider that a delightful Sabbath does not just happen by itself. It must have God’s blessing, and it requires some effort on our part. One valuable tool God has given us to help us in our efforts is the Day of Preparation. The Fourth Commandment states, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…” and keeping the Sabbath holy in spirit often requires some planning.
Four Points About the Sabbath
The Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:8–11) is comprehensive in its scope, telling us four things:
- What we are commanded to do: “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.”
- When we are commanded to do it: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.”
- How we are commanded to do it: “In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.”
- Why we are commanded to do it: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” God was not tired on the seventh day. He rested in the sense that He ceased or came to a stop from His work. It is used here in the same sense that an attorney in court says, “Your Honor, I rest my case.”
As He did with the Fifth Commandment—“Honor your father and your mother”—God chose to state the Fourth Commandment affirmatively, as something we must do: keep it holy. We do so by ceasing from our labors. Bringing our weekly commercial activities into the Sabbath would profane what God has set apart for a divine purpose.
By contrast, other commandments such as “Thou shalt not… kill… steal… commit adultery… bear false witness” are stated prohibitively—as things we must not do. Remembering what the Sabbath commandment actually is, can be very helpful in resolving “Sabbath issues.”
For instance, in deciding whether or not to do something on the Sabbath, people will often ask the question, “Is the activity work?” That may be fine, but often the better question is, “Does the activity profane the Sabbath?” Consider that deacons, elders and pastors are usually very busy people on the Sabbath, but their activities are set apart for God’s Work and are righteous in God’s sight. On the other hand, if people are sitting perfectly still in Church services—but while doing so are making plans for solving problems on the job the following week—they need to repent. The Sabbath is set apart for other things.
Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong was unequivocal when he wrote, “Observe more closely, now, the Sabbath command. ‘remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’ (Exodus 20:8).” He expounded: “Whenever that time comes to us, we are in holy time! It is God’s time, not ours! God made it holy—and in the Ten Commandments, as we shall see in detail a little later, He commanded us to keep it holy! Many do not realize today that it is a sin to profane that which is holy to God!” (Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?, pp. 44, 25).
To disobey any of God’s commandments is sin. God also uses His commandments—especially the Fourth Commandment—to teach and to identify His people. The weekly day of rest follows six days of labor in a world held captive by a profane adversary. But the seventh day of rest pictures the Millennial rest of Christ (Hebrews 4), a picturing that we carry out weekly, to remind and teach us continually about God’s coming Kingdom. The Sabbath is holy because what it pictures—the Kingdom of God—is holy!
The Sabbath Is…
The Sabbath is a lot more than simply not working. It is:
Holy time. We are commanded to keep it holy by ceasing from our labors. If we allow the week’s activities to intrude on our Sabbath, then they will profane something about which God has commanded us, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”
Sanctified and separate. Sabbath time is set apart and different from the rest of the week, just as God’s Holy Kingdom will be different from this profane age that is ruled by the god of this world.
A cessation of our customary weekly activities in favor of spiritual recreation, regeneration, sanctified activity and service. It is time to be refreshed! God said that He was refreshed on the first Sabbath (Exodus 31:17). The age to come is a time of refreshing (Isaiah 28:12; Acts 3:19). We need our Sabbath rest just as this world needs Christ’s Millennial rest.
A feast day that we celebrate. Since it pictures God’s future millennial rest, in an important sense it is like a weekly version of the Feast of Tabernacles.
A day of peace. The Sabbath reminds us that there will be peace in the Kingdom of God, when “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7).
A family day, for both our physical and Church families. The Sabbath reminds us that we will all be together as the glorified God Family in His Kingdom.
The holiness of the Sabbath is a delight and a thing of great value that God made for us as a blessing. “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. (Isaiah 58:13–14; see also Exodus 20:11).
It is no coincidence that God’s holy people keep “the holy day of the Lord” as a sign, and they delight in doing so. Keeping the Sabbath in spirit involves magnifying its sanctity. That is a delightful duty!
Is your Sabbath all of these things? If not, there is a tool that can help you: Preparation.
Preparation Day in the Bible
When God brought Israel out of Egypt and revealed the Sabbath to them, He also gave instructions on how to prepare for it. “And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily…. And so it was on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread…. Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning…. So the people rested on the seventh day” (Exodus 16:5–30).
Preparation for God’s holy time is mentioned in the New Testament as well. “Now when the evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath” (Mark 15:42). It is of such importance that the Bible goes so far as to name this advance time—“the Preparation Day.”
An Era of Preparation
As we go about our weekly preparation for Sabbath, we should remember that we are in an era of preparation for the coming millennial Sabbath. In fact, God Himself is now preparing for that glorious time to come. Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places…I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2, NRSV). We understand this to mean that Christ and the Father are now preparing the future duties, responsibilities and offices that the resurrected saints will be given at Christ’s return. We are also told that God has “prepared a city” for us—i.e. the New Jerusalem (Hebrews 11:16). And who has prepared us for immortality in His Kingdom? We know that “He who has prepared us for this very thing” is God (2 Corinthians 5:5).
While the Almighty prepares for the future, laying some of the groundwork by the working of the Holy Spirit in His begotten children, it is incumbent upon us to prepare for the Kingdom as well. Christ told the disciples the parable of the ten virgins. When the bridegroom came, five were ready and five were not. And only those who were prepared entered into the wedding. The Church is the Bride of Christ, and we must now be preparing for that great time. “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready [She is prepared!]. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints…. Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:7–9).
In this present world, we are nearing the end of our preparation time—with the sun sinking low on the horizon of the sixth millennial day of this profane age. We should be working towards the great seventh millennial day where Christ will rule with perfect justice. We must be ready and prepared when our Lord comes! The day before the weekly Sabbath— the “Preparation Day”—should operate as a weekly reminder of our current work as members of God’s Church, just as the Sabbath is a weekly reminder of the great millennial rest. We should be striving to prepare our homes for a delightful weekly Sabbath—both physically and spiritually—just as we are preparing our lives, God’s house and God’s Work for the coming of our Lord and His millennial rest.
As we love and desire God’s Kingdom, even so we should love and desire His Sabbath. If we truly love the Sabbath for the important occasion that it is, then we will want to get ready for it ahead of time to make it what it should be. To this end, advance planning and preparation are invaluable.
Some Goals to Pursue
Try to organize your household and weekly work so that physical considerations do not pursue you into the Sabbath, distracting you from this Holy Day’s spiritual nature. This should typically be the responsibility of all family members—for functional reasons and also so that all can benefit from the spiritual lessons of Preparation Day. When the wife works outside the home, the husband should generally be especially engaged in helping with preparations. Children should pitch in, as well. Even if small children may not always be a tremendous help in putting your house in order, active participation is a wonderful opportunity for them to learn the value of preparing for the Sabbath day.
Of course, family situations vary widely, and each family’s balance of preparation duties will be unique. Remember that if you purposefully plan and prepare to make the Sabbath a delight, God will see your active love and desire to properly keep His Sabbath holy. He will bless and magnify the fruits of your efforts.
Helpful Hints
Following are some of the tips that my wife and some other women have accumulated over the years from their experience in the Church. These, of course, are only tips. It should be remembered that how people manage their households is a personal matter. And how people prepare will vary widely depending on individual tastes and circumstances.
Remember that Preparation Day begins Thursday night. There are some things you can get ready earlier than Friday if you want to—even during the week. This is especially helpful and even essential for families where both spouses work outside the home. Some examples might be:
- Plan meals for Sabbath evening, Sabbath morning and Saturday night. If possible, plan for Friday dinner to be the nicest of the week.
- Shop for groceries.
- Finish at least part of the major housecleaning.
- When appropriate, begin cooking for Sabbath meals. You may want to fix a double portion of a dish for Thursday’s dinner and serve the rest on Sabbath.
- Do some of the packing for Church services including children’s bags, diapers and quilts.
- If necessary, get any cash that may be needed for the weekend.
- Make sure you have enough gas in the car.
Again, please remember that every family is different in terms of specific needs and work schedules that may lead to their particular priorities for preparation. And remember: we should not be judgmental of one another. What works well for some may not work well for others.
In any case, each family will find that some tasks are best suited for Thursday evening, while others are better handled on Friday. The key is to focus on planning to set God’s holy time apart from customary labors—i.e. plan to make the Sabbath’s holiness a delight.
- Before sunset on Friday, you might want to set the prettiest table of the week and prepare the best meal possible. After all, it is a feast day! Candles and flowers can make the meal special, and should not “break the budget” when used occasionally.
- Finish the cooking (or warming up the dishes that were prepared earlier in the week) and do the last household chores. If you are going to be cooking late Friday afternoon, clean up as you cook to make the cleanup simpler. The dishwasher can be emptied and ready to use after dinner.
- Set aside the clothes you will wear to Sabbath services, and be sure they are ready to wear.
More Sabbath Suggestions
Remember that Satan hates the Sabbath, because he knows what it pictures. He will do anything he can to spoil, disrupt and profane what God has set apart to be a delight. However, if we prepare, we can successfully resist his efforts.
Do employment-related phone calls intrude on your Sabbath? Consider screening calls with an answering machine. Jesus explained that it was quite permissible to pull your ox or donkey—i.e. work animals—out of the ditch on the Sabbath (Luke 14:5). Showing mercy to a person or an animal in pain or need on the Sabbath does not profane it. Jesus explained that showing genuine mercy is consistent with the holiness of the Sabbath. But make sure that you are dealing with a real need for mercy. Too many people use Christ’s comment about the “ox in a ditch” as an excuse for doing more or less anything they want to do on the Sabbath. And that is clearly not what Christ meant!
Moreover, as best you can, watch out for ditches and keep your oxen away from them! That is to say, try to anticipate problems and stop them in advance—during the work week— before they invade your Sabbath. Preparation is the key!
Another important principle is to orient your family toward the Sabbath. If you have children, you may want to plan activities for them for Friday evening and for the time before or after Church services. The Sabbath should not be a day of restriction and boredom for young people—it should be a treat. It should be a time when Mom and Dad are readily available.
No discussion of preparing for the Sabbath would be complete without mentioning the importance of coordinating work hours. For men and women who work outside the home, it is important to arrange for job hours to be finished as long before Friday sunset as possible. For some, this may be difficult—especially in the winter when the sun sets earlier. But to the extent you are able to provide yourself some extra time, you can reduce the number and the severity of “carrier landings” as your Sabbath begins, which can reduce the stress caused by various last-minute contingencies. Problems sometimes crop up, so “expect the unexpected” before the Sabbath, and—if at all possible—leave a little extra time for dealing with minor emergencies.
Husbands, remember that your role as head of the household is a position of service to your family. Assist your wife in making the whole family’s Sabbath as enjoyable as possible. Provide leadership in planning to make the Sabbath a delight.
Finally, consider this small but vital detail: when you say the blessing for your Friday evening meal, do not forget to ask for God’s rest, joy and peace to come upon your household. God will give those things if you set your heart to properly observe His holy time.
The Sabbath is a great blessing that God has given His people. God tells us so, in the text of the Fourth Commandment. But in order to make the most of that blessing—to make the Sabbath’s holiness the delight God intends it to be—we need to plan in advance so we can cease fully from our customary activity, and engage in activities set apart for the holy day. To help us do this, God has given us the Preparation Day. He has shown us the importance of preparation. If we use wisely the day He has given us, we can more effectively keep our lives oriented toward preparing for the soon-coming Kingdom of God.