Excuse VI

They're Not My Servants

Question:

Isn’t it true that God’s law never addresses whether or not His people may compel another person’s servant to labor on their behalf?

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In an attempt to justify purchasing the services of restaurant personnel on God's Sabbath, the doctrinal committee of one of the largest COG associations published a paper outlining why they approve of this practice. In it, they claim that those who labor in restaurants are not THEIR servants but rather the servants of someone else. Therefore, because the commandment only mentions "your servant" God must approve of His people seeking out unbelievers who desecrate holy time as well as paying them for the fruit of this sacrilege. In other words the actual meaning of the fourth commandment in the eyes of these COG scholars would be something like this

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any work. You nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant. However, you may compel someone else’s manservant or maidservant to labor on your behalf, provided they are not under your direct authority or responsibility and would be working anyway. (Ex. 20:8-10 revised)

This COG presents this phase of their case by posing two questions and then confidently providing the answer. Notice their words carefully. As you read them ask yourself the following: "Would I be comfortable advancing this argument before God Almighty?"

Isn’t it wrong to have someone serve you in a restaurant?

Are they working for you?

The answer to both questions is “no.”

The waitresses, waiters, cooks, etc., in a restaurant are not your servants. They do not live in your household. This was the principle given in Exodus. Those who live under your roof or are under your control were not to work on the Sabbath. This cannot be applied to a waitress unless you have control over her and can force her not to work.

The Meaning of "Your"

Here, this prominent COG association adopts a very narrow view of the term "your" when offering their explanation of God's intent when giving the fourth commandment. We're just curious, but what do they believe God meant by the word "your" when He gave the ninth and tenth commandment? After all, those commandments only mention "your neighbor" with respect to bearing false witness and coveting. Are they suggesting that God's people may covet the wife of someone else's neighbor?

Furthermore, what these men assert as the "principle given in Exodus" is totally UNTRUE! Contrary to their claim, God's purpose when giving the fourth commandment was not to define what a servant was. Nor was He was crafting some elaborate labor code. He was declaring in no uncertain terms that the Sabbath is HOLY and that work profanes this day no matter who performs it. That’s the PRINCIPLE!

When the Almighty gave His Sabbath law to the children of Israel He prohibited them from personally engaging in, or soliciting from others, labor. Furthermore, there was no provision in His law for finding a way to circumvent the command. Any honest examination of scripture bears this out. Consider how all encompassing that law is as expressed in the fourth commandment.

Whose Servants are They?

Perhaps the greatest error in this COG’s thinking is in claiming whom restaurant workers serve. Most think they are the servants of their managers. But is this true? At this point, it is important to understand that those who labor in restaurants on the Sabbath are SINNING! That's right, it is a SIN. It may look innocent, but looks can be deceiving. God calls labor on His Sabbath a CAPITAL CRIME (Ex. 31:14), unless it is performed by those He specifically designates. This being the case, those who work on the Sabbath are actually SLAVES to SIN! The apostle Paul understood this truth and wrote about it to the Church at Rome.

Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Ro. 6:16)

Today, those who work on the Sabbath are truly slaves to sin—a sin that has been sold by mankind’s greatest enemy (Rev. 12:9). Furthermore, those in God’s Church who proactively seek out this sin are condoning both the slavery and the SLAVE MASTER (2 Cor. 4:4). This is what God was conveying when He gave the fourth commandment. Our Great Lawgiver actually explained why His people were to release their servants from labor on His Holy Sabbath. Notice the command:

But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your gates; that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.

And remember that YOU WERE A SLAVE in the land of Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. (Deut. 5:14-15)

Here, God is telling His people that labor on the Sabbath is a form of bondage. This is the very bondage He freed them from when He delivered them out of Egypt. This being the case, it is hard to understand why anyone would want to return to that bondage, even to look at it.

A Final Thought

God’s plan is that all mankind will ultimately be free from the bondage of sin. The Sabbath pictures that freedom. It is not by accident that when giving the fourth commandment, God reminded His people that they were once slaves in Egypt (Dt. 5:15). It is for this very reason that every Sabbath God’s people are to be liberators. In other words, they are to declare all who labor for them "FREE!" Nowhere in the command does it remotely hint that God condones the practice of His people going back into “Egypt” and solicit the very sin they were once a part of (Dt. 5:14-15). The Sabbath is about liberty, not slavery.

Excuse #7
Beyond Our Control