love Sabbath-keeping it forces me to rest and recover-and in my classes I often mention the blessings and joy it bestows. One question that occupies my students is whether they could keep the Sabbath from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, yet still worship with their family in church on Sunday. I've read in Christianity Today that Michael Card, the noted performer of contemporary Christian music, does just that.

It's clear that by New Testament times Jews gathered in synagogues to study the Scriptures and pray-as did Jesus. But what happened in Old Testament times, and what did God have to say on the topic?

When I was in college I was much amused by the poet Emily Dickinson's famous lines, "Some keep the Sabbath going to church; I keep it staying home." She did this because she was a recluse, but it turns out there is Old Testament precedent for her approach.

The origin of the Sabbath is God's resting on the seventh day from the work of creation (Gen. 2:2, 3). There are several Hebrew verbs translated "rest." Shabat means specifically "ceasing," in this case from work. The Hebrew noun translated Sabbath, Shabbat, also means "a ceasing" from work.

Our English versions usually tell us God "hallowed" the day, meaning He made it holy. However, the Hebrew verb qadash, though it can mean to "consecrate," primarily means to "set apart." For example, the priests were set apart from all other Israelites. The tabernacle was set apart from the rest of the camp (and the world). Similarly, this day of ceasing was set apart from the rest of the week. Genesis 2:2, 3 says nothing about worship-only ceasing. Exodus 31:17 tells us that on the seventh day God "ceased and was refreshed." Likewise, the Sabbath is for our refreshment (Mark 2:27).

The story about the manna-set before the Ten Commandments were given-declares that ceasing from work on Sabbath is a covenant test (Ex. 16:4, 28). In verse 23 Moses tells the people there will be no manna on the seventh day because "Yahweh has decreed a ceasing, a ceasing set apart to Yahweh" (these are my own literal translations). God doesn't ask them to worship, only to cease from work and remain in their place (verses 29, 30; see also Ex. 34:21; 35:2).

As I studied, I was shocked to discover that the fourth commandment, which I had known by heart for 40 years without actually reading it carefully, similarly doesn't specify churchgoing, or even worship. It requires us to cease from work on the Sabbath, setting it apart from the rest of the week because God set it apart at creation (Ex. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12- 15).

In Numbers 28:9, 10 we find a brief mention of special Sabbath sacrifices, but no requirement for worship. Leviticus 23:3 tells us the seventh day is "a Sabbath of ceasing, a sacred assembly." This sounds like church, but the verse goes on to say: "in all your dwellings." This may mean people were to assemble together in every village. However, more likely it means gathering together for family worship.

The Torah specifies that all Israelite men were to come to the tabernacle for three feasts a year, but it doesn't require them to come on the Sabbath. We aren't even told that there was any sort of worship service at the tabernacle. There are hints that there may have been such services at some point after the Temple was built, but this isn't certain (2 Kings 16:18; 2 Chron. 23:4-8). The overwhelming concern in the Old Testament is not worshiping on Sabbath, but ceasing from work on that day.

Does this mean we can stop going to church? If church is what it should be, who would want to stay away? What's more, our families are small today, and a "sacred assembly" with spiritual brothers and sisters can be a delight. If the seventh day is "a ceasing set apart to Yahweh," then the Sabbath is the logical time to worship Him every week. And the New Testament exhorts us not to forsake "the assembling of ourselves together" (Heb. 10:25, KJV).

Worshiping God on a day other than the Sabbath is a bit like celebrating a birthday or anniversary on the wrong day. Do we care enough to remember the right day? I tell my students I'm not there to judge them, but I heartily recommend the blessings that come from remembering the Sabbath day.

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Ed Christian teaches English and biblical literature at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. E-mail: christia@kutztown.edu.