Is cooking/preparing food on the Sabbath Day an issue or non-issue?

[Peairtach]

Thanks for all of the posts...I have been wondering about some of these same issues. I do, however, agree with Sarah, in that we can get a bit "legalistic" if we are not careful.

True enough. You can get a bit legalistic in applying any commandment. But it's important to know what God's will is, and if God's Word in the Old Testament said we weren't to prepare food/cook/wash up on the Sabbath then we'd have to take that on board - whether that would mean the same in the New Testament is a moot point.

It looks like it doesn't/didn't teach that for the Jews or us, in line with our Lord's instruction in the New Covenant. I wouldn't call such research legalistic, just seeking God's will.

-----Added 9/24/2009 at 03:27:57 EST-----

Interesting also Mr. Shepard is of the view that the sabbath begins and ends at sundown. It is a substantial part of his very insightful work.

I haven't read the whole treatise. Does he give any reasons why that is better than the Sabbath beginning and ending at midnight; which would be/ may be slightly less confusing than the sundown to sundown Sabbath in our society?

 

[Scott1]

Richard Tallach
I haven't read the whole treatise. Does he give any reasons why that is better than the Sabbath beginning and ending at midnight; which would be/ may be slightly less confusing than the sundown to sundown Sabbath in our society?

He has a whole section dedicated to when the sabbath begins. It is a substantial part of his treatment of the subject.

The treatise being organized by "theses" (a well laid-out paper in classical form), he particularly says it mirrors the command as observed in the Old Testament (sundown to sundown), changed to the first day of the week in recognition of Christ's resurrection.

III. OF THE THESES CONCERNING THE BEGINNING OF THE

SABBATH.





1-2. Five several opinions concerning the beginning of the Sabbath,



3-12. The time for beginning of the Sabbath not according to the various customs of divers nations,



13-27. The time of the artificial day not the beginning and end of the Sabbath, as it begins and ends,



28-47. The beginning of the Sabbath not midnight,



48-49. The morning doth not begin the Sabbath,



50-57. That place of Matt. 28:1, usually alleged for the be*ginning of it in the morning, cleared,



58. The resurrection of Christ not aimed at by the evangel*ists to be made the beginning of the day, although it be of the change of it,



59-63. John 20:10, cleared,



64-67. Paul's preaching till midnight no argument of the begin*ning of the Sabbath in the morning,



68. The various acceptation of the word day and morrow to answer many proofs alleged for beginning the Sab*bath in the morning,



69-71. Some that hold the beginning of the Sabbath was from even to even until Christ's resurrection, and then the time was changed, confuted,



72. There is not the like reason for the Sabbath to begin at the first moment of Christ's entrance into his rest, as for the first Sabbath at the beginning of the Father's rest,



73-74. The reasons for the change of the day are not the same for the change of the beginning of the day,



75. The conceived fitness for the beginning of the Sabbath in the morning rather than in the evening is a vanity,



76-77. The evening begins the Christian Sabbath,



78-80. The place Gen. 1:2, cleared,



81-85. The darkness mentioned Gen. 1:2 was not punctum temporis,



86-89. The separation of light and darkness (Gen. 1:2) cleared,



90-93. Levit. 23:32 proves the beginning of the Sabbath at evening,



94-96. Nehemiah an exemplary pattern for beginning the Sabbath at evening,



97-99. Those that prepared for the burial of Christ began their Sabbath in the evening,



100. Christ's lying three days in the grave,



101-102. Those northern countries who have the sun in view divers weeks together in a year yet know when to begin the day,

 

[Peairtach]

I think in the light of Shepard's comments and recognising the fact that our Saviour's words about the Sabbath being made for Man, not Man for the Sabbath, apply to the Patriarchal Sabbath and the Mosaic Sabbath, as well as the Christian Sabbath, it seems reasonably clear that the idea that preparing/cooking food is not for the Sabbath is another Jewish imposition based on a poor interpretation of Exodus 16:23 and other passages about lighting fires.

Where we have servants or where someone in particular is responsible for preparing/ cooking food, that should be kept in mind by others, and some possible preparations can be made the day before, in order that the individuals' Sabbaths are not ruined by too much hard work.
But the extremes that orthodox Jews go to are a legalistic and over-zealous misapplication of certain passages.

It seems fairly clear that the Continental Reformers' - including Calvin's - view that the Old Covenant Sabbath was meant to be stricter and more rigid than the Christian one, in its normal application, because the Old Covenant Sabbath was a type of believers resting from sin and sinful ways of justifying themselves is also erroneous and led to a looser Sabbath on the Continent.

 

[Scott1]

It's also comforting to see how our Lord in Matthew 12 explicitly allowed the plucking and eating of grain (a form of food preparation) on the sabbath.

In my understanding, food preparation per se has never been prohibited completely on the sabbath, but the Israelite was under various ceremonial and civil law aspects of that food preparation as "a church under age."

It seems the key is that the focus and priority of the day is to cease from ordinary work and play in thought, word and deed and not to allow the day to become unduly burdened by even the necessary aspects of eating and meal preparation. If we prepare in advance to do that, and work on making it a mind and speech aspect, we go a long way to obeying our God and calling the sabbath the delight that God made it to be.

 

[(^^)Regin]

This is an important topic for me; Good insights on all sides

 

[ewenlin]

I don't cook food on the Sabbath Day because I'm such a bad cook that it would just become a warzone in the kitchen and this hinders the true purpose of the Sabbath for me. So I usually prepare food like cold pasta / sushi / cold sandwiches the night before and keep them in the fridge and they are ready to eat on the fly the next day.

That's what I do. But I have a question for Paul_Nowlan as to what entails "preparing" food? If I were to eat just fruits (which obviously don't need cooking, unless you're from another planet), and I cut them into bite sized pieces would that be considered "preparing?"

I don't think it is necessarily so clear cut as to how we can completely not prepare food on the Sabbath Day.

 

[lynnie]

When you have your first nursing baby all of your legalistic opinions about the sabbath and "work" go out the window. It takes hours to feed a baby.

Then you have another, and have to feed them too, with a toddler. I had four spaced two years apart. With going to church ( 3 hours total usually) added to the day I felt like my ox had fallen into a well every week, and that was with a wonderful helpful husband.

Nursing babies with toddlers around, and rest- ha. They don't mix. I don't know what I think about the subject anymore, but I try to make any opinions I do have apply to nursing moms.

 

[Kevin]

This may be the reason that the reformed church in Scotland developed the custom of women with new borns not attending Sunday services until the child was two years old.

 

[Peairtach]

Quote from Lynnie

When you have your first nursing baby all of your legalistic opinions about the sabbath and "work" go out the window. It takes hours to feed a baby.

Good point.

I hope this has been - rather than an exercise in legalism - an attempt to understand the interpretation and application of Scriptures, which may be thought to have pointed in one direction by the Jews and others, including Calvin, (i.e. not preparing food on the Sabbath) and yet which are after all completely reconcilable with our Lord's words on the Sabbath, that the Sabbath was made for Man, not Man for the Sabbath.

It would be interesting to see what James Alting (Jacobus Altingius) said about this, as referenced by Fairbairn, but, after a search of the internet, there doesn't seem to be anything available from him.