Keeping the Sabbath and the Trillion Dollar Salary

²⁷ But if you do not listen to me, to keep the sabbath day holy, and to carry in no burden through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates; it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.

Jeremiah 17:27, Old Testament, The Bible

Which is the most important biblical commandment figured prominently in Jesus’ debates with Jewish leaders. But arguably, the most important in terms of its prominence and repetition in the Bible is the sabbath commandment – the command to rest on the seventh day. It is baked into the very structure of Creation (1) and forms the central lynch pin of the Ten Commandments (2). It is repeated endlessly throughout the Old and New Testaments. Yet it is probably the commandment that is ignored the most by both Old Testament Israel and modern day Christians. The Old Testament prophets constantly highlighted the transgression of the sabbath command as one of the major reasons for God’s displeasure with ancient Israel and Jesus consistently upbraided the Pharisees for their narrow interpretation of the commandment (3).

The prophets of the Old Testament make it clear that the sabbath commandment was much more fundamental than simply about personal rest. It is about the economic order of the world. The commerce of the city was to pause for the sabbath, the to-ing and fro-ing of goods through the city gates was to cease. Observing the sabbath command is a recognition that the generation and the accumulation of wealth must not be allowed to dominate society, that the economic well-being of a people rests fundamentally on God’s providential care, which is not to say that hard work and wise use of resources are not important but to recognise who is sovereign and the true purpose of the economy.

We have recently witnessed the absurd approval of a trillion dollar salary for Elon Musk by Tesla share holders. It is a symptom of a society in which Mammon (4) truly has become god, where all worship wealth with the result that more-and-more is concentrated in the hands of a select few and the poor are increasingly made to pay for such extreme excess. The sabbath command rests on the fact that God made creation good, fruitful in its harmony (1). He made the sabbath holy to  celebrate creation and its observance is to remind us that humanity is its stewards and not its owners. Our economic purpose is to preserve the harmony of Creation and nurture its fruitfulness.  The outcome of harmony and fruitfulness is that all benefit and enjoy the fruits of Creation. This does not mean that everyone enjoys exactly the same wealth as everybody else, but that everyone enjoys more than enough so that all can rejoice and give thanks.

The fact that people sleep on the streets of our richest cities, that millions have little access to comprehensive health care or education, that one man can be paid more than every country in the world save 19 (5) is the proof of an economic order that fails in observing the sabbath command. The degree to which Christians feel comfortable that one man could be paid such an absurd sum is the measure of how far they have strayed from the God who has given the sabbath commandment.

The sabbath commandment reminds us that real world economics must not be reduced to the mere accumulation of wealth. To do so is to worship a false god. Tolerating the existence of extreme poverty, hindering the ability of people to access healthcare, denying education to children is idolatry.  

1. Genesis 2:2-3, Old Testament, The Bible
2. Exodus 20:8-11, Old Testament, The Bible
3. Gospel of Mark 3:1-6, New Testament, The Bible
4. Gospel of Matthew 6:24, New Testament, The Bible
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) acc. 17:19GMT 23.11.2025