The commandment says nothing about that. It doesn't say a word about not creating.
Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But 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, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Isa 58:13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Exo_35:3 Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.
No one has kindled a fire in hundreds of years. Unless you're camping out with no matches. It is a lot of work.
The admonition is against kindling, not against the fire.
Here is something interesting:
BDB lists the verb as [בָּעַר] burn, consume (בְּעַר burn; seek out, collect, glean; this apparently earlier meaning (
comparison to Arabic form)
Ex. 22:5 shows this usage: "If a man shall
cause a field or vineyard
to be eaten..." יַבְעֶר here means, "caused to be consumed" and it refers to an animal devouring grass, much life a fire devours (licks up) wood.
The connection of the verb to 'collecting' must also be addressed here. Clearly, wood must be 'collected' for a fire. Collecting sticks is the only Sabbath breaking we see punished by death in the Scripture (Num. 15). We might read, 'you shall not collect [wood] into the fire.' Double meanings are common in Hebrew. Therefore, the 'gleaning' of wood to be thrown in the fire, and the act of burning it, are understood under one word. It is not then the presence of fire that is a problem, but gathering up kindling to feed one.
This begs the question: if wood is already there next to a fire, may we feed the fire. The logical answer is no. That would still be gathering up wood.
This solves a lot of problems. Lighting a candle or a lighter therefore shouldn't be a problem.
What about kindling wood that has already been gathered before Sabbath? If we light it, are we 'causing [it] to be consumed' and doing work? Few today would say that throwing a match into some kindling to generate a fire is work, but creating a spark using flint or another material wasn't always simple. It often involved a great deal of work, specifically blowing the fire/smoldering wood to feed it oxygen and make the fire grow. Therefore we can derive a lesson from this. If we have to do anything to 'feed the flames' besides lighting it, we are breaking this commandment.
This opens up a lot of practical and legal uses of fire on the sabbath. For instance, even lighting a candle on the sabbath with a lighter would be ok, because it is a candle is a self-feeding device (we are not working to feed it). Some might object, 'you have to hold down the gas' to feed the fire of the lighter after sparking it. However, the flame of the lighter cannot be called 'esh' (fire) but is rather 'ner' (flame). Ditto for a candle. However, see Gen. 22:6 (flint simply
represents fire here, i.e. what causes a fire). 'Esh' in its Sabbath context, refers to a wood fire (or some similar kindling such as leaves).
Some might also object to matches: matches are small pieces of wood you have to pick up to light (could be viewed as gathering). However, striking a match is essentially the the act of lighting a single stick without actively feeding it (it feeds itself). Gathering, then, can only refer to sticks that are on the ground or in nature. Those already in a box/book/inside can be used to light a fire, but not to feed it (that would be work).
However, Ex. 3:2 reads, יֹּ֣אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֔ה אָסֻֽרָה־נָּ֣א וְאֶרְאֶ֔ה אֶת־הַמַּרְאֶ֥ה הַגָּדֹ֖ל הַזֶּ֑ה מַדּ֖וּעַ
לֹא־יִבְעַ֥ר הַסְּנֶֽה
"And Moses said, I will turn now and I will will see this great sight, how the bush is not consumed"
This might indicate that when something is normally ba'ar-ed it is burnt up. Here, Moses wonders why the bush isn't burnt up completely and consumed.
This might lend itself to a more strict interpretation: nothing may be burnt up by flames. Therefore lighting a campfire would be forbidden. I believe a balanced view would be to say that no esh (campfire/flames plural) may be kindled, but this doesn't indlude (nerot) lamps/ single flames. Some may say, 'a lamp's flame consumes the oil' or 'a candle consumes the wick.' But I would say, 'the lamp candle is not licked up by flames in a blaze as wood is.' A candle is burned on its exposed surface, and not consumed in a blaze as wood is. Therefore candles and lamps do not fall into the same category as campfires, and nor do embers.
Was Israel to be without heating or an ability to cook food on sabbath? (Exodus 35:2-3)
Bottom line is: God did not want us to work on that day. He never said a word about flicking a light switch, nor did He say a thing about how many steps to take on that day much less turning on a car. There is no need to add man's rules to what He has said.