Message #256

[AndyHB]

Which instructions are these Andy, that run contrary to the 10 commandments?

Exodus 20: 8-11 outlines the way the Israelites were to behave on the Sabbath.  However, by the time of Christ, the definition of 'work' had been so stretched (so that you couldn't walk more than a certain distance; you couldn't take your donkey out to graze; you couldn't cook anything; ...) as to make a mockery of the instruction in Exodus.  Even today, in certain Jewish communities, the act of flicking a light switch on (or off) is regarded as 'work' and therefore not done.

Doesn't Jesus tell the Pharisees that 'the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath'? (Mark 2: 27).  Didn't he tell them that ' ... it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath' (Matthew 12; Luke 6 - rescuing an animal and healing on the Sabbath, respectively).  I can't remember the exact figure, but the laws that Jesus so often refers to when arguing against the Pharisees number several hundred and had been added to the original 'law' over the generations.