Are you in Sabbath Mode?

We have been out shopping for appliances for our new house. It has been fun--actually having a reason to look at every range, microwave, refrigerator, dishwasher. Yesterday, as we wandered through the appliances department in Sears, who is having a HUGE sale, we came across a similar, wonderful stove and decided that it is just right for us. Beside being white, it has five burners. That means I can cook up a storm. It is also on sale, which we like.
But we found out that it has something called "Sabbath mode." What on earth is that? I imagined that it had to do with Orthodox Jew's laws that forbid the lighting of fires or turning on of lights on the Sabbath. After some interesting reading, here is what I found out:

Typically, ovens automatically turn off after being run for 12 hours at a go. The Sabbath Mode overrides this and keeps going for as long as is needed, which for Orthodox Jews means that the food prepared on Friday can stay warm for up to 24 hours. Also, all beeps, digital readouts, and icons are suddenly invisible in Sabbath Mode. This keeps all the Jews happy and they can adjust the temperature of their ovens without knowing how much they are increasing it (no readout and thus no record of breaking the law); they can make food and keep it warm, and not be bothered by icons of flames, numbers, or any other thing that they make change by doing inappropriate work.

It seems to me to be the ultimate in legalistic adherence to dead rules. I've read somewhere that there were hundreds of laws about Sabbath observance when Jesus walked on this earth. That is why He got criticized by the Pharisees for "harvesting grain" on the Sabbath (rolling the heads of it in his hands and eating it as he walked through a field), telling someone to pick up their bed and carry it on the Sabbath (verboten), or even healed someone on the Sabbath (I have no idea what was wrong with this). These kinds of bogus laws called forth some of Jesus' most crisp comments about those who were careful to tithe the herbs they grew, but were oblivious to the most basic of human kindness and warmth toward others. The Sabbath, Jesus said, was about doing good, resting, meeting together--these things we can see from His example all through the gospels. It was not about measuring steps to see how far a Sabbath day's journey was, or a host of other things that detracted people from the very purpose of the Sabbath: to have 24 hours of guilt-free time to enjoy God and His creation.

Our new oven has Sabbath Mode. We are tickled by this, since we have grown up with the word Sabbath on our tongues since childhood; since we vowed to have a Sabbath home, and since Sabbath is our favorite day. But isn't it ironic that while our Sabbath gives us peace, rest, and fellowship, the Sabbath of Jewry seems to be ironclad in laws and rules? Perhaps I will think of this while I am cooking Sabbath meals on Sabbath, grateful that I don't need to use the Sabbath mode in order to be holy or accepted by God.

The Sabbath was made for man,

Not mane for the Sabbath.