Ox In the Ditch.html

Scripture: Jesus said, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good, or to do evil, to save life or destroy it?” Luke 6:9, NIV

     Oh! How we struggle to find excuses to do the things We want to do!
    There is no question about God’s law concerning the Sabbath:
He told Moses,   “Write this down!”

Deuteronomy . . . Chapter 5

¹²Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.
¹³Six days thou shalt labor, and do all thy work:
¹⁴But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
¹⁵ . . . : therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

End of argument! . . .
But, no; people now argue over -
               “What is work?”!!!
    Some (Like the Pharisees) hold that nearly everything but worship, and those things absolutely necessary to sustain life, are ‘work.’ Even then, you can only walk a limited “sabbath day’s journey.” And, for example, if your ox is in danger of suffocating in a ditch, you may pull him out, and save his life. But you can’t wash him off - that is work! If it is not life-threatning, you can not attend to it on the sabbath.
Scripture: Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?“ (Luke 14:3 NIV)
    “No!”, they replied.
And (Jesus) 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?   (Luke 14:5)
    A-hah!! So some “non-worship “ things can be done on the Sabbath! Jesus said so.
    Strange, the things we now consider to take the place of the ox and ditch.....

Ox in the ditch every Sunday?
Sell the ox or fill the ditch!

Note that Jesus was talking about compassion, not avoiding worship. So pull that ox (or your neighbor’s car) out of the ditch, and head for church.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another . . . Hebrews 10:25, NIV

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