Is it sin to sew gobelin in the days of rest?

I have received the following question from a visitor of our portal:

I would like to know if it is sin to sew gobelin in the days of rest. After all, I do not do any work, but it is a pleasure, as it is one thing to water the flowers from the garden, and another one to spade the earth around them.

The Bible doesn’t speak specifically about the gobelin sewing, but it gives us some important principles that will give us an answer to the asked question.

Keep the day of rest

The first four of those ten commandments establish our relation with God, and the last six refer to our relation with people. The fourth commandment, that is the last one from those that establish our relation with God says:

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:9–11)(NASB)

Another place from the Scripture adds:

For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings. (Leviticus 23:3)(NASB)

The Sabbath was a guide towards Christ

This day had many more implications than the one that people shall rest and not work. The Sabbath was an important element of the Jewish religion, that pointed towards the salvation and the rest that all of us had to receive in Jesus Christ, as the author of the Epistle to Hebrews wrote later in the New Testament:

So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:9–11)(NASB)

The Lord Jesus teaches us to do good to people on the Sabbath

The Pharisees, who were the most religious people during the time of the Lord Jesus, blamed Him that He was doing good to people in the days of Sabbath. For example, when the Lord Jesus was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, the Pharisees rebuked Him showing Him the disciples who took the heads of grain to eat. The Pharisees did not care that those people were tired of walking and they were hungry, and they didn’t invite them to eat, but decided to condemn them and to blame the Lord Jesus Christ, who told them:

But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (The Gospel of Matthew 12:7–8)(NASB)

In the same place from the Gospel of Matthew, we are given the following case:

Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”–so that they might accuse Him. And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? ”How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. (The Gospel of Matthew 12:9–14)(NASB)

Repentance and the relation with the Lord Jesus brings the real rest

As I have previously said, the Sabbath established by God in the Law of the Old Testament was a shadow that pointed towards the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, as Apostle Paul wrote:

Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day– things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16–17)(NASB)

And the Lord Jesus, who is the Lord of the Sabbath spoke so regarding the real rest:

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (The Gospel of Matthew 11:28–30)(NASB)

On the basis of the biblical texts presented above, there are some things that become evident.

Conclusions and application

God established the Sabbath day so that people may rest, think at their relation with Him and point towards the coming of His Son, the Lord Jesus, who is the Savior of the world.

If there is someone who doesn’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ from all the heart and doesn’t receive the gift of eternal life, he will not enjoy the real rest, that will be in the Kingdom of Heavens.

If someone doesn’t receive the real rest through repentance and through following the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter if he rests or not on the Sabbath, because he will never find rest for his soul.

The Bible doesn’t say that it is sin or not to sew gobelin on the Sabbath, but God wants you to invest the time of those days and of others to build up a beautiful relation with Him through studying the Bible, prayers and going to church and to build beautiful relations with your neighbor, who needs you to do good to him. May God help all of us to do this.

Translated by Felicia Djugostran