In December 1993 Parliament came to vote on the issue of Sunday Trading. For a long time in this country, although the tradition of not trading on Sundays has been upheld, many shops have continued to open. For many other people working on Sundays has been routine, albeit for double wages or time in lieu. Now large stores will be able to open for six hours on Sundays and remain within the law (although many are already advertising opening hours of 10-6) and smaller shops could open for longer. Reactions to this have been mixed. Some have shrugged their shoulders, others have declared it to be a sign of the times, others sink back in despair of losing Christian values in society. However you feel about it, it has been difficult to remain in ignorance of the debate about the Sabbath Day.

Neither is it possible to begin medical training without being aware that the issue of what happens to your Sabbath Day will crop up at some point. Being a student often means that the traditional family Sunday has gone and there are plenty of things to take its place. For some the routine of going to church, meeting friends and relaxing may continue as at home. For others there are plenty of lectures to catch up on in the quietness of a Sunday afternoon, and plenty of recovering from a Saturday night to do on a quiet Sunday morning! Sports are another Sunday event. Whatever your background by now you will probably have settled into some sort of routine that suits you.

Will that change when you qualify?

All of a sudden there is no longer the same volume of studying to do. But there are weekends on call and weekends not on call. Is there a Sabbath Day in any of this? Does the order of my life need to change if I consider this question? Where do the answers lie? Take some time now to think through what you think you should be doing with God's gift.

I believe in the Bible. God is timeless, and the wisdom of the Bible is timeless too. If this is so then what the Bible says about the Sabbath is vital. To look at the question of whether I obey the fourth commandment,[1] and how to obey it, I have had to go back to the beginning, to the creation of the Sabbath day.

Genesis.

The Beginning.

The creation of the world.

On the seventh day God rested.

He took stock of his creation.

'And God saw that it was good'

This perfect world was work and rest.

The seventh day had been set aside and had become a day of rest, of leisure.[2] In Exodus 16 the Sabbath Day is first mentioned by name and is called a holy day.[3] The Israelites in the wilderness had complained of lack of food. Each morning manna was to be found on the ground and the instructions were to collect enough for each household for that day only. But on the sixth day twice as much was to be collected. Why? On the seventh day there was to be no work, not even collecting manna. It was to be a special day. This was to be a holy day, a 'holy Sabbath to the Lord'. It was given to the Israelite nation. On this day the people rested they did not go out to the work of food gathering. Instead, they were to spend time in worship and contemplation of God's care and protection of the nation.

And so for God's people the keeping of the Sabbath Day became one of the laws by which they were to live.[1,4] God regarded the gift of the Sabbath Day as something special. He took breaking of the Sabbath Day law by his nation very seriously.[5,6,7] Individuals too were not exempt and a man could be stoned to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath Day.[8] Even the issue of Sunday trading is not a new one! Back in Nehemiah's day guards were put on the city gates to stop the traders getting in and allowing the people to forget the promise they had made with God not to trade on the Sabbath Day.[6,9]

God frequently lists breaking the Sabbath among Israel's sins.[10,11] More than once Israel strayed 'and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord'. God's anger and distress with the Israelites resulted in withdrawal of the Sabbath Day feasts and celebrations.[12,13] What had the nation lost? God had withdrawn from them and his holy day no longer meant anything to them.

But what was the purpose of leaving the Sabbath Day free? The Sabbath Day commanded by God was part of the pattern of living for Israel. It was a day for refreshment of the Israelite nation; a rest day.[5] It was not a day of empty idleness but a positive day of rest. A day to let go of everyday pressures, to enjoy what God had done.[14] A day to celebrate[5] and to remember God's grace and deliverance.[15] The day would be seen by surrounding nations and indeed later in Ezekiel[16] observance of the Sabbath Day and God's treatment of the nation was regarded by God as evidence of his holiness and that of his people. More than once the Sabbath Day was mentioned as a sign of a covenant between God and Israel.

This day is SPECIAL!

But you will tell me that this was a law for the Israelite nation.

We have been given commandments on how to live by God. Against their yardstick we measure up to very little. But, you will tell me, we are no longer under the law. Jesus is measured in our place and not found wanting, and so we are no longer condemned by the law.[17] The law has lost it's power to condemn just as it had no power to change.[18] Let me explain it another way. The law is an external norm, it cannot change me from within. Keep the law and I am saved,[19] but I am unable to do so and so am condemned. Jesus however has brought an end to this function of the law. My relationship with God no longer depends on the law, it now depends on Christ.[20]

But the law of God still has a part to play in my life. Just as God has remained unchanged over centuries, his law, the expression of his will for his people has also remained unchanged. So, as with all other nine commandments, must I say that this Sabbath law is still God's will for me? We often regard God's Commandments as a heavy burden. Have you ever thought how much the nation of Israel needed these commandments when they were given and how they reacted when Moses brought them down from the mountain? This law allowed the Israelites to know where they stood and how God thinks. God's gift to me is to let me know how he thinks, how he wants my life to be.

Jesus himself said that he had come to fulfil the law, not to abolish it.[21] He drives his hearers beyond their traditional view of the law and their limited interpretation of it in the Sermon on the Mount. So is there something more in this Sabbath Day, not abolished but fulfilled by Jesus?

Jesus healed on the Sabbath Day.[22,23] He picked corn for his hungry followers.[24]

The Pharisees had wrapped up the Sabbath Day in ceremonial law. And the essence of the law was lost in the centre of the parcel. Jesus dealt with this when he fed his followers and healed a man. What he said in answer to their challenge shook their attitude; 'the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'[24] Even David had gone into the temple and eaten the consecrated bread when he and his followers were in need. The same law allowed men to break the ceremonial law when they were in need. It is tempting to think that we will not make the Pharisees' mistakes, but do not let complacency rule you. Do not be found guilty of sneering at the Pharisees or becoming 'legalistic' in your attitude to the Sabbath Day. Consider instead the essence of the day. For Jesus and Paul it was a day to go to the synagogue and worship, and a day set aside from other days.[25,26] When other things needed to be done however, they were done.

God has laid down a pattern for man to follow.

Rest is GOOD.

You just have to sit some exams or work a weekend on call to know that.

Leisure is great.

What a feeling to do something I enjoy. This Sabbath day has been given to me. Just as God provides order for my life, he provides a way to regenerate and refresh me.

Make the Sabbath Day work for you.

Much of my research is based on making accurate pH measurements. A pH meter only reflects accurately the pH of the solution it is in if it has been calibrated on a regular basis. The longer the time between one calibration and the next, the more inaccurate the instrument becomes, the further the drift. I am sure you understand what I am saying.

So get the calibration right.

Think about what you are doing with this gift that God has given you. Nobody can tell you what you must do on the Sabbath Day except for God. The Bible makes it clear that Christians will have different opinions about this issue and we are told to accept one another without passing judgment.[27] Nor should we let others judge us.[28] No two Christians will do exactly the same thing on the Sabbath Day. But whether you are going to spend the day sleeping or playing sport, or catching up with friends remember to use this day to be refreshed and to stand back from the busy rush of every other day. Remember to keep the day holy and set aside for the Lord. For most people that means spending time in fellowship with his people wherever you are. It is worth getting out of bed on a Sunday morning to get along to that church service. Had you thought about relaxing with a good Christian book or doing some Bible study? That way not only will your physical self be refreshed but your spiritual self too.

Does this sound completely irrelevant to your student life? Perhaps so. But I would urge you to consider the importance of a Sabbath Day long before you are qualified. Get it straight now. One valuable lesson I learned as a student was not to work on a Sunday. It is not impossible. It is easy to make excuses for having to work on a Sunday, like having been out too late on Saturday night, or having to catch up on work not done during the week. Now when I do have to work an on-call weekend Sundays can be sorely missed. But I also have to remember not to use this as an excuse to ignore God on other Sundays.

What about those who have to work on the Sabbath?

Jesus has been down this path before us. He knows what exhaustion is like, and needing time to sleep and to pray. How many times did he tell his disciples that he was going out into the hills to pray and yet get called back to see to the crowds? So tell him how you feel on a Sunday morning trudging down the hospital corridor on the way to yet another call, and know that he understands completely. Ask him for that extra bit of calm and clear headedness or kindness that you are going to need to get you through this week when you have not had a day off. There are a lot of changes occurring in the way that we work in the health service. Hours are being reduced and changed. New consideration is being given to juniors training and teaching. It is a good time to consider how to apply a principle of having a day of rest. Have you thought about whether to have a job which gives you one day off in seven or two days off in fourteen? There is a choice in some hospitals. Should we try to make this choice more widely available?

This article is not about the 'legalistic' side of the Sabbath Day. It is not about keeping the letter of the law for if that were the case we would fail miserably. It is about using the Sabbath Day as God intended. This commandment is not about whether I go shopping on a Sunday. Or even about going to church.

It is about you and God.

And about a gift.