Headline: Jesus Broke the Sabbath!

Well, no, not really.  However, if you are into twisting Scripture in order to allow yourself to not feel guilty about breaking the Sabbath, then you might not be able to come to any other conclusion applying the same logic to Jesus’ actions when He was walking the earth.

In all honesty, I have to wonder why some really bright people would make arguments as dumb as the one I am going to present here.  The only conclusion I can come up with is that if you are going to take a Scripture out of context in order to make your point, then you have also blinded yourself to all the other passages that contradict your little pet theory.  It boils down to picking and choosing which bits of the Bible you want to believe and throwing the rest out just so you don’t have to feel guilty about doing what you really want to do in the first place.

BTW, I am breaking tradition by consistently using the more modern translations here because they more clearly represent both viewpoints.

OK, so here it goes.

29 Remember that I, the Lord, have given you a day of rest, and that is why on the sixth day I will always give you enough food for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day and not leave his home.

~ Ex 16:29 (GNT)

Argument:  There it is!  If you truly are serious about keeping the Sabbath, then you are breaking it by leaving your home in order to go to church services.

Answer:  Then you are effectively stating that Jesus sinned and therefore is not the perfect Lamb of God and that we are all dead in our sins.

If Jesus, even once, broke the Law, then He could not have been our perfect sacrifice.  Breaking the Sabbath command would have made Him a sinner.  So, according to the above logic, Jesus leaving His home to go to the synagogue would make Him a sinner.

 16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.

~ Lk 4:16 (NIV)

Therefore, Jesus kept the Sabbath by going to the synagogue “as was his custom” or “as he always did” (NCV).

It is worthy to also note that Jesus often had confrontations with the Pharisees over their nit-pick manmade rules they invented to be kept on the Sabbath.  Yet, never once did He criticize them for going to the Temple or the synagogue on the Sabbath.

Furthermore, we can see that God in the OT actually commanded an assembly on the Sabbath day.

 3 " ‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.

~ Lev 23:3 (NIV)

So, how can you reconcile Ex 16 with Lev 23?  Easy!  Just read the passages in the context as they were designed to be read instead of reading your own interpretation into them!

What is going on in the Book of Exodus?  What time period does it cover?  What is going on in the Book of Leviticus?  What time period does it cover?

Do we really expect God to make sense?  Or, do we expect Him to be the author of confusion (cf 1Co 14:33)?

Or, how about:  What if the Children of Israel were commanded to assemble in Ex 16 instead of being told to stay in their tents?  Where would they meet?

Stop.  Think.  Engage logic.

 1 Then the LORD said to Moses: 2 "Set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the first month.

~ Ex 40:1-2 (NIV)

 1 The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting….

~ Lev 1:1 (NIV)

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