The Everlasting Sabbath

This post is dedicated to my mother-in-law, Rena. We have had several conversations about the Sabbath which made be want to look more closely at the Scripture concerning the Sabbath. Thanks Mom!

Jesus came to fulfill the law and not to abolish it. There has been much controversy and misunderstanding regarding the New Covenant Application of the Sabbath. The Scriptures are the infallible Word of God. Interpreted correctly, they give us true understanding of the ways of God. I am going to go through some Scriptures in the Old and New Testament in order to attempt to shed some light of our Christians today can correctly understand the Sabbath.

Exodus 20:8-11 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and 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.

The first mention of the ten commandments comes in the giving of the ten commandments. God has delivered Israel from the slavery of Pharaoh and Egypt. He has separated them from all the people of the earth as his own position. In verse 1 and 2, the Lord shows that the obedience that the obedience that he will require of the Israelites is based on the grace he has shown them by delivering them from their oppression. One things that must be remembered is that God’s commandments are not random or pointless. The first four commandments have to do with the worship of God. The last six have to do with treating others in a loving manner. The creator of the universe desires honor and praise. He also demands that we should treat others with kindness because they are made in his image. Now certainly, there is a practical aspect of keeping the Sabbath. Men need to rest. This is obvious. However, the reason that the Sabbath is given is not merely that the people of God would remember to rest from their work. Verse 11 shows that the keeping the Sabbath is hinged to the story of Creation and God’s reaction to his creation. We know that God is not tired. He is not a finite being as we are. He has an infinite amount of energy. The Scriptures even say the Jesus Christ holds the world up with his power every minute. God did not get tired. So, why did God rest. I believe that the key to understanding why God rested is found in the statement after creation. “And it was good.” There is a rest that comes from faintness; however, there is also a rest that comes from the enjoyment of accomplishing a task that was rewarding. I believe that God rested to enjoy the goodness of his own creation. So, more that being a command to rest. I think the Sabbath is a call to remember the works of God, especially his creation of the universe. As we witness in Scripture, the Israelite were prone to forget the goodness and power of God. If God did not command them to do so, they would have not taken time to rest and enjoy the creation of God.

Exodus 31:12-18 12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

This Scripture indicates that the Sabbath is a sign for the people of Israel concerning the covenant that God has made with them. The ethics if the law do not lie within the law itself. The law was to be followed because it was a sign of the Mosaic covenant. This is different from others laws because this law was specifically applied to the Jews under the Mosaic covenant. In order to demonstrate the difference of the laws I will take up an example. The Bible is clear that murder is wrong. Murder is not simply wrong for the Jews. It is wrong for all people. No matter the culprit, the Bible calls murder a sin. To further the point, the Bible has exhortations and commands to non Jews about ethical behavior. Case in point, many of the minor prophets prophesied to pagan nations. They condemned there unethical behavior, but did not accuse them of breaking the Sabbath. They were not under the Mosaic covenant. That did not exclude them from ethical behavior, but it meant that the things that were specific to the people of Israel, such as the Sabbath or circumcision, did not apply to them.

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave[a] in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

This is an explicit exhortation to observe the Sabbath once again. Verse 15 gives the reason for the command. The command to observe the Sabbath is a command to remember the salvation of The Lord. The Lord commanded that all of Israel would remember the deliverance of the Lord. Therefore, along with this day being marked out in order to call to remembrance the special covenant that the Lord had with them. They were called specifically to remember the Lord’s sovereign and miraculous work of their salvation.

Isaiah 1:11-17 11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

In this Scripture, God acknowledges that they observe the outward signs of the covenant, but their lives show that the covenant really does not effect the way they live. This shows the moral implications of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not simply right to observe. It could be observed without remembering its purpose. It’s purpose was to remember the covenant that the Lord made with Israel and the salvation that the Lord brought to Israel.

Hebrews 8:8-13 8 For he finds fault with them when he says:[a] “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The Lord makes clear in this Scripture that in Jesus Christ He has established a new covenant. Therefore, the old covenant is of no effect. Which means that the old covenant signs are no longer needed. These signs were but shadows pointing to the new covenant. The new covenant has new signs i.e. baptism, the Lord’s supper. The exodus foreshadowed baptism and the Passover foreshadowed the Lord’s supper. Both point to the work that Christ has accomplished in his life, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

Hebrews 3:7-4:10 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. 4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.[a] 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” 6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God[b] would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

This passage begins with Old Testament quotations concerning the sinfulness and unbelief of the people of Israel. The people of God did not believe in that God would fulfill his promise concerning the holy land. They grumbled before the Lord and were afraid of the people that were currently in the land. They sin was ultimately a sin of unbelief. They did not believe that the Lord would deliver them from their enemies. There fear prompted them to deny the promises of God and act in sin. 

In verses 18 and 19, the Scripture says that the people of God did not enter his rest. The promise land was the place of rest for the people of God. By believing in the promises of God, they had the opportunity to have true rest in what the Lord had given them. The Scripture says that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief.

The rest spoken of in verse 18 correlates to the ultimate Sabbath rest as indicated in chapter 4 verse 9. The Sabbath rest is correlated with resting from our works to be accepted by God. By reflecting on the work of Jesus we are participating in what the Sabbath foreshadowed. As the Scripture says the one who has entered God’s rest has rested from his on works. Jesus has secured our salvation and our future reward of heaven by his work. The great temptation is to not remember this fact and work for God’s approval in our own strength, but that is salvation by the law which leads to frustration and estrangement from God.   

The great striving of the new testament Sabbath is believing in the Gospel of Christ. The Sabbath is not restricted to one day, but the Sabbath rest of God is the Christian’s daily reality. We get to rest before our God, reflecting on two things: our salvation from sin and death and our participation in the new creation that Christ has begun which has its consummation in the new heavens and the new earth. Praise be to God for his marvelous rest!