Hi everyone,
First of all thank you for allowing me to post on your forum. I look forward to partaking in fruitful conversations. I have some questions regarding the Sabbath & I'm hoping that someone can share their views. We have a family member that is going on a trip during the Sabbath. She knows very well about the Sabbath, in fact fully believed and accepted all of God's commandments up until about a year ago or so. We're uncertain as to why she has changed her mind. Anyway, she will be flying and will be departing at a very early hour in the morning and she needs a ride to the airport. Is it against God's commandments regarding the Sabbath to take someone to the airport where they will be buying and selling, plus traveling? Would we be committing a sin against God? Please tell me what your convictions are on this...I would love to hear what light God has shed upon you. Thank you Rebecca

Dear Rebecca,

I believe it would be a very loving of you to take your family member to the airport on the Sabbath. It would be wrong to be an accomplice in the act of murder or to assist in a theft or to help create a lie but the Sabbath is different. Sometimes your ox falls into a ditch on the Sabbath day and the greater good is to work to get him out. Sometimes the greater good is to take care of an emergency plumbing problem on the Sabbath. Conceivably, having to travel that day might be unavoidable (Matthew 24:20). Life now is far more hectic than in ancient times. The Jews had regular spiritual festivals throughout the year. New moons were also given as a special time of spiritual worship (Isaiah 66:23). Society today is simply not as smart as the design for living that God gave in the Bible. Most people in the US are a slave to a 40-hour workweek and to their very demanding employers. We understand that tight schedules create stress and make our lives miserable. When God's people were in Egypt, they couldn't keep the Sabbath at all. Think of Egypt as a symbol of the world. Anyone who is remotely Christian would want to keep the Sabbath and also have free time for additional spiritual growth and personal development whenever they want it, and it would be a blessing for everyone — believer and nonbeliever — but the powers of Egypt are against it.

Hi,
Thank you for responding to my question. I greatly appreciate it. I wanted to reply sooner, but life gets going and I have to follow.

This person that needs a ride, but also knows about the Sabbath, is going because the person chose that day. In other words, this person could have easily chosen another day to go without any problem.

I know that God wants us to do good on the Sabbath, but I don't know if God meant it in a way that would position us to help someone else to do work, or buy/sell on the Sabbath. When Jerusalem would close their gates on the Sabbath and no one would work on that day, I ask myself, what was the Ox doing in the ditch, did he wander in there? It couldn't have been because the owner was working, because everyone observed the Sabbath. I've been praying about it day in and day out. I don't want to offend our heavenly Father, and I know that our heavenly Father knows how much I love this person, but He must come first. I know that this is a test and I want HIM to know that I love Him and, by His grace, do everything for Him. So, why am I questioning this??

Sabbath is generally a weekly day of rest or time of worship. It is observed differently in Abrahamic religions and informs a similar occasion in several other practices. Although many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over the millennia, most originate in the same textual tradition. The term has been used to describe a similar weekly observance in any of several other traditions; the new moon; any of seven annual festivals in Judaism and some Christian traditions; any of eight annual pagan festivals an annual secular holiday; and a year of rest in religious or secular usage, originally every seventh year.