Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

Should YEHOVAH's People Refrain from Going to Restaurants on the Sabbath?

by Jennifer Mullen

The Sabbath is often referred to as “God’s Test Commandment.” If there is one of the Ten Commandments that people brush off more than the others, it would be the Sabbath. YEHOVAH God tells us that the Sabbath is “perpetual covenant” and “...a sign between Me and the Israelites forever, because in six days YEHOVAH made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed (Exodus 31:16-17).

Just as our observance of the Sabbath is a sign to YEHOVAH God that we are willing to obey Him, it is also a way for YEHOVAH to know whether or not we truly have His mind.

Those of us of Israel who keep the Seventh Day Sabbath generally know the importance of the Seventh day. We know that YEHOVAH God did not simply stumble upon the seventh day because it just so happened that He was done with His work in six days and then it was time to rest. If YEHOVAH God so chose, He could have made all of creation in one day and, being the all powerful God that He is, He would not even have needed to take a rest. Why, then, did YEHOVAH God spread creation out for six days and then rest on the seventh? Our Father was trying to teach us something.

2 Peter 3:8: "But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

Prophetically speaking, a day represents a thousand years and, prophetically speaking, the seven day week represents YEHOVAH God’s seven thousand year plan. The final thousand year period is a millennial Sabbath Day rest -- a time when YEHOVAH God will seize “the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and [bind] him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:2) -- a time when YEHOVAH’s chosen people “will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years” (Revelation 20:6). Given this understanding, we know that it is not in the power of any man to change the day of worship to any other day than that which our Heavenly Father established from the beginning of creation -- not a day chosen at random by YEHOVAH God with no significance, but a day representative of YEHOVAH’s great plan for His people Israel.

With the importance of the seventh day established, many of us have also come to understand the Sabbath as being a blessing. Proper observance of YEHOVAH’s Holy Sabbath Day comes with great blessings.

Isaiah 58:13-14: "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of [YEHOVAH] honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words: then you shall delight yourself in [YEHOVAH]; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: 'for the mouth of [YEHOVAH] has spoken it.'”

In addition to the blessings that YEHOVAH God promises for obedience, note that we are also to “call the Sabbath a delight”. Especially in today’s rush, rush society, it is an incredible blessing to simply have a chance to slow down and rest for a while. Speaking personally, with the number of things on my plate during the week, I would likely be pulling my hair out without the opportunity for rest that YEHOVAH God has given me through the Sabbath day. The Sabbath is a time of physical and spiritual rest. It’s a time that we can take in more of YEHOVAH’s word, spend time with our brethren, and get closer with our Father in Heaven.

Each week I look so forward to the Sabbath -- a time when I can put the week’s worries aside and spend more time learning YEHOVAH’s ways. I only wish that everyone could have this great blessing of the Sabbath day. I hope that all of Israel can realize what an incredible blessing YEHOVAH God has given us through the understanding of His Sabbath. As YEHOVAH teaches us more and more of His word, we are given access to His mind.

1 Corinthians 2:16: "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have Christ’s mind."

How do we know if we have the mind of the Messiah? Having the mind of the Messiah does not mean only doing what he commands, but also thinking the way he thinks. This involves loving the things he loves, wanting the things he wants, and hating the things he hates.

Do we want what the Messiah wants? As mentioned earlier, the Sabbath can be used as a test commandment in this area. We know that YEHOVAH God tells us in various places to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). Does this commandment merely mean that YEHOVAH God wants only His people Israel to keep the Sabbath and no one else?

Isaiah 2:2: "It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of [YEHOVAH’s] house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.”

The plan of our Great God is for His people Israel. While He wants all people to be coming to His house, He especially wants each and every one of us of Israel obeying His laws and living in peace as part of His Holy Kingdom. This is our Heavenly Father’s ultimate goal and, therefore, it should also be ours. Our thoughts and our actions should project our desire for all people of Israel to obey YEHOVAH God. While we understand that the majority of His people Israel will not turn to Him in this lifetime, this does not mean we are not to try and teach them now. However, we should not forget that YEHOVAH’s plan involves having us teach the rest of the world when His Kingdom comes. 

Zechariah 14:16: "And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which come up against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King [YEHOVAH God], the LORD of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles."

Even if we believe deep down that the majority are not going to listen, we should still want them to listen. We should still want for everyone to obey YEHOVAH God, for this is what our Father wants.

Many of YEHOVAH’s people have chosen not to participate in politics and do not believe in “voting”. However, without even realizing it, every one of us votes. We’re voting when we turn on the television to watch a particular show, we’re voting when we go to the movies to watch a particular movie, and we’re voting when we go to the store to purchase a particular item. With our actions, we are saying that we like what a particular show or product has to offer us and we want the company to continue providing us with this product or service in the future.

I recall a story about a Starbucks protest, which turned into a riot where a group of protesters were throwing rocks through a Starbucks window. The irony is that, while throwing rocks with one hand, one of the protesters was carrying a Starbucks cup in the other. It’s easy to see the hypocrisy here. This protester must have just joined in for the “fun” while not really believing in what he was fighting for.

Do we have similar hypocrisy in our own actions? Do we say that we believe in the Sabbath and look forward to a day when everyone will be observing it, while at the same time enjoying the benefits of a society, which does not obey YEHOVAH God? When we go into a restaurant on YEHOVAH’s Sabbath, what are we voting for? Our vote is saying that we like that this restaurant is open on the Sabbath and we want this restaurant to continue being open on the Sabbath because we enjoy the benefits that it offers us.

Not only are we not “preach[ing] the Good News” to those people in the restaurant (part of “all the world”) and teaching them to observe YEHOVAH’s Sabbath day, but our actions are telling them the exact opposite -- that it is perfectly fine for them to be working on the Sabbath and that we will even support them in doing so with our own money.

I’ve often heard Luke 6 quoted in defense of eating in restaurants on the Sabbath.

"Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first, that he was going through the grain fields. His disciples plucked the heads of grain, and ate, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said to them, 'Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?' Jesus, answering them, said, 'Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him; how he entered into the house of God, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?' He said to them, 'The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath’” (Luke 6:1-5).

When reading this scripture, we must remember that the Messiah is talking about an exceptional situation. Given their circumstances, the Messiah, being the Lord of the Sabbath, excused David and his men for what they did, but note that the Messiah still says that it was “not lawful”. Also note that, while the Messiah excuses the actions of his hungry disciples, he never says that their actions were lawful and the scripture never tells us that the Messiah (who never sinned) was plucking grains himself -- only his disciples.

Many of us like to believe that if we don’t prepare ahead of time or if we are traveling, then this is one of those exceptional situations and, therefore, it is all right to go to a restaurant on the Sabbath. If we have the chance to prepare ahead and simply do not take the time to do so, this is not an emergency situation. Even if we are traveling, we have the chance to prepare ahead of time. Maybe a cooler full of cold food isn’t your ideal meal, but it’s certainly better than buying our food on the Sabbath and “voting” against YEHOVAH God’s will.

Once we start thinking that it’s all right to go to a restaurant on the Sabbath in some situations, it becomes easier to start opening that gap wider and wider until we get to the point where it is always all right -- and then we’ve made a law out of the exception. We must be careful to avoid this. Chances are, if we’ve been blessed enough to be able to afford eating in a restaurant, then we’re not going to be starving. Most of us fast at least one day a year anyway, so if we have to go one day without simply because we haven’t prepared ahead of time, its not going to kill us. Perhaps it will teach us to be better prepared next time.

Many of us are closing our eyes to the fact that we are casting “votes” in contradiction to the will of YEHOVAH God. I count myself in the numbers as for many years I also had my eyes closed to this hypocrisy in my own life. I used the same arguments that I hear from others today, but now I can see the many holes contained in those arguments. It does not matter whether “they’re going to be doing it anyway.” Correct, they do not understand YEHOVAH’s law, but this is not the issue. We mustn't use the lack of knowledge of those working on YEHOVAH’s Sabbath day to justify our own actions.

We do understand YEHOVAH God’s law and our actions need to be in parallel with the will of YEHOVAH God. When our actions depend on others not keeping YEHOVAH’s law, we are voting against the will of YEHOVAH God. We need to make the issue about us and not about them. In addition, we need to understand that it is not merely “selling” on the Sabbath that is a sin. We believe that it would be wrong for us personally to work in a restaurant on the Sabbath, but we often see no problem with us going into that same restaurant on the Sabbath to buy.

How long will it take for us to realize that there can be no buying without selling? They go hand in hand; therefore, if one is a sin, the other must also be a sin. When the Israelites began returning to YEHOVAH God in Nehemiah 10, part of their decision “to observe and do all the commandments of [YEHOVAH] our LORD, and his ordinances and his statutes...” included the agreement that is that “if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy of them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day” (Nehemiah 10:29-31).

Also, through the miracle of manna, YEHOVAH God taught the children of Israel that they should not gather food on the Sabbath, but they should already have collected food for the Sabbath ahead of time (Exodus 16, Numbers 11).

"They joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons; and that we would forego the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt."

In addition to the argument that “they’re going to be doing it anyway”, I have heard others claim that, if we take on the belief that we should not eat in restaurants on the Sabbath, then we are trying to “out-righteous Christ’s ministers” and we are “judging the ministry”. Therefore, the claim is, if we refuse to eat in restaurants on the Sabbath, we are sinning.

To give the point some credit, if we are truly only refusing to eat in restaurants because we want to be better than someone else, then we would be sinning. However, again, this issue should not be about “them”. Whether the “them” is people in the world who do not understand YEHOVAH’s law or the “them” is others of YEHOVAH God’s people, our decisions to obey YEHOVAH God should never be about them.

Our personal decisions should be based on knowing the law of YEHOVAH God and striving to fully have the mind of the Messiah. The Messiah, being our ultimate example, should also be our ultimate goal. If we continue to reach out and grow toward the level of the Messiah, while others get tired of stretching and stick with “status quo”, frankly, we are going to “out-righteous” those others in a sense.

The goal, however, should never be to “out-righteous” anyone else. If we truly want what YEHOVAH God wants, we will not only be striving to reach the level of the Messiah ourselves, but we will also want our brethren to continue on with us toward reaching the ultimate goal. If we truly want what YEHOVAH God wants, we will do all that we can to help each other continue to grow. YEHOVAH did not make us to be solitary creatures. We need each other. Therefore, Paul exhorts us that we should:

Hebrews 10:24-25: "Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching."

One last argument that I would like to address is the one concerning mercy. Some have claimed that because of the mercy we now have, we don’t need to be so strict -- we don’t need to be concerned about little things like eating out on the Sabbath, because YEHOVAH God has given us mercy. First, let me point out that mercy is not a new thing. We have always had a merciful God. In fact, the word “mercy” appears in the “Old Testament” 215 times. We must remember that mercy does not mean license to sin, or even license to be less strict in our obedience of YEHOVAH God.

Throughout his life, the Messiah taught us to keep His Father's commandments. Throughout his life, the Messiah also taught us about mercy. If mercy means freedom from obeying the law, then the Messiah would have been contradicting himself. Mercy does not invalidate the law, but “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). Mercy allows us to be forgiven and not receive the penalties of YEHOVAH’s judgment, but mercy does not give us freedom to be less strict in our obedience of YEHOVAH God.

I do not intend to suggest that this one issue of eating in restaurants on the Sabbath is of any greater significance than any other issues of obedience to YEHOVAH’s laws. We need to be certain to obey YEHOVAH God in all ways. However, this issue is a good example because it is one of the areas where a large number of YEHOVAH’s people are stumbling. Seeing as how YEHOVAH God calls the Sabbath a sign, issues surrounding the Sabbath make good test issues as to whether or not we have the mind of YEHOVAH God and the Messiah.

The concepts, however, apply to all of YEHOVAH’s commandments and to all the decisions that we make. When we make day to day decisions, we need to consider what the decisions say about us. Is our will in parallel with YEHOVAH’s will when we watch a television show that YEHOVAH God would disapprove of? Are our priorities in line with YEHOVAH’s when we skip our morning prayer and rush on with our day? Are we “voting” for the things that YEHOVAH God wants, or are we using our time and money in support of something that is against the will of our Father? Think about it!

-- Edited by John D. Keyser.