QuestionBusiness on the Sabbath: What is acceptable?The following is an exert from a question that was recently received through email: When I graduated from college as a chemical engineer I went to work in an oil refinery. It worked day and night, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That is the way chemical plants work. They, for the most part, cannot be shut down without doing extensive damage to the equipment. It takes days and days to get a chemical plant back into production if it has to be shut down. You use gasoline in your automobile do you not? It is made on Saturday and Sunday. You are forcing men to work on these days by using this product. You use gas and electricity and water do you not? All of these utilities come to you because some men work on holy days. How do you justify this? I went to the hospital recently for an emergency operation. I was taken into the emergency room on a Saturday, operated on that same day, and my doctor came to see me on Sunday. Should my appendix have been allowed to rupture because it was on a Saturday? Answer "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh thy Elohim: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11 AV) The fourth commandment is to keep the Sabbath day holy. Oil refineries and other service related businesses are not required to survive. A hospital is truly the only example of a life sustaining function. A hospital is there for when the ox is in the ditch. An ox in the ditch is an emergency situation where if the ox is not rescued it may die. Would we die without gasoline? The answer maybe yes in today's society since we are dependent on a global economy to provide everything from food to clothing. "And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him. And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Yahshua answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things." (Luke 14:1-6 AV) Is it wrong to do good on the Sabbath day? Is it wrong to give of yourself to others on the Sabbath day? There has to be a distinction drawn between giving of yourself, which is out of love, and financial gains. We must be careful not to say that since my gas maybe is processed on the Sabbath it is all right to go down to the store and do some shopping. It is the kind of logic that leads to sin. We cannot compromise the Sabbath. We cannot make what we do on the Sabbath lead to others working. The Sabbath day is not to be a burden so we must prepare for the Sabbath. It is a fact that not everyone keeps the Sabbath. And we know that we are of Yahweh, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. (1 John 5:19 AV) We have little influence on the actions of the world. With the world the Sabbath day is business as usually but we must set ourselves apart from that wickedness. We must hold fast to the scriptures and not try to justify our braking of Yahweh's commandments with our own understanding. Work and rest are very different. Yahweh has commanded man to rest on the seventh day. This is just a glimpse of the love that Yahshua showed by keeping Yahweh's laws. There is love in the commandments. Yahweh definitely knew that if man didn't have a command he would work every day of the week. Man would have his servants work every day of the week. This is a simple command made to remember the creation and to give Yahweh's servants rest. The Sabbath is a day where Yahweh's people can come together and worship. We must rest because we love Yahweh and so dearly appreciate the sacrifice of Yahshua the Messiah. Do Yahweh's will because we love Him. Please let me conclude with one scripture from Revelations. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." (Revelation 22:14 AV) | 
