Bible Nuggets

Thoughts on the Sabbath for the Christian

Introduction

There are some who believe that the Sabbath, to a Christian, is Sunday; a day of rest; a day of going to church; a day to worship the Lord.  There are some who believe that the Sabbath, to a Christian, is Saturday, for the same purpose.  There are yet others who believe that the Sabbath has been fully abolished, and has no meaning in the life of a believer.  Truth be told, I am in none of those 3 categories, but no matter which you might be in, I hope to impart what I believe is the true meaning of the Sabbath in the life of a believer.

The Sabbath Command(s)

To do this, we must first understand the role of the Sabbath to the Old Testament people of God, Israel.  To the Israelites, the Sabbath was an extremely important day.  Why is that?  Well, in short, it was part of the 10 commandments.  God made the Sabbath day part of the old covenant itself. 

The Sabbath command, with the other 9 commandments, can be found in two different places in scripture.  One place is Deuteronomy, chapter 5.

Deuteronomy 5

¹² "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

Notice the reason given for establishing the Sabbath Day here.  God says that it is because of the mighty deliverance of the people of Israel that He instituted the Sabbath.  However, in Exodus 20, the reason is different.

Exodus 20

⁸ "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The reason given here is to commemorate the Creation.  So, we can see that God had two different reasons in mind for instituting the Sabbath: Creation and Deliverance.

What was the Sabbath?

It was to be a day of rest to commemorate the rest that God took after creation (and to celebrate the wonder that is His creation) as well as to commemorate the deliverance from Egypt.  It is understandable that a day of rest could commemorate the rest that God took after creation, but how would a day of rest memorialize the deliverance from Egypt?

I believe that there are 2 ways in which the Sabbath can commemorate this.  First of all, the Israelites had worked hard in bondage for 400 years.  They were slaves of the Egyptians and toiled day after day, year after year.  They had not really seen any fruit from their labor, except for more slavery.  But then God delivered them and set up a day of rest to honor that deliverance and the rest He gave them from their slavery.

But I believe that there was another, slightly different reason God had in mind.  Did Israel do the work to gain freedom?  Did they deliver themselves?  Did they even deserve it?  No, no and no.  God did it all from His grace.  He gave it to them because of His love.  The day of rest was to remind them that it was not their work that earned them their freedom; it was God’s grace.

How important was the Sabbath to the old covenant?

These verses give us an idea of just how important God thought it was.  Taking a look at them, we can see:

*        God calls the man who does not defile the Sabbath “blessed”

*        God even says that the foreigner and eunuch who keeps the Sabbath will not be cut off.

*        Those who keep from defiling the Sabbath will be brought to God’s Holy Mountain.

*        Their offerings will be accepted.

That seems pretty important.  I believe that God was certainly serious with how He treated His day.

The Preparation Day

Part of the Sabbath day was also the preparation day, which is not spoken of much in the Old Testament, but is at least a bit, in the New Testament.  The preparation day was the day before the Sabbath and was a time that Sabbath-keepers would use to prepare practically for the Sabbath.  In this way, once the Sabbath arrived, there would be no work that needed to be done.  This was a very important day, since it made a day of rest possible.  You could not properly keep the Sabbath if you were not prepared beforehand.  By preparing, you could eliminate all obstacles, making a straight, unobstructed path to keeping the Sabbath day before the Lord.

What does that all mean to the Christian?

Again, I’d like to point out that, for the purposes of this study, it does not matter if you believe in a 7^th day Sabbath, or a 1^st day Sabbath or whatever else.  I am not trying to win you over to any particular viewpoint, and I believe that there are strong biblical arguments that can be made for either viewpoint.  (See Romans 14 for more on this subject)  I believe that the truths I’m about to share transcend our differences and get to the heart of the whole point of the Sabbath.

To begin with, let’s take a look at the book of Hebrews.  This book was written to Hebrew believers.  It was written to Jews.  A large portion of the book is dedicated to a comparison between the old covenant and the new covenant.  In chapter 3, we find the author reminding the reader that Christ is altogether superior to Moses.  We also find the following quote from Psalm 95:

God says here, concerning His disobedient people Israel, “So I declared on oath in my anger,  'They shall never enter my rest.’ ”  Was God speaking of the 7^th day Sabbath there?  Israel had already been given the 7^th day Sabbath, so it could not be the 7^th day Sabbath spoken of here.  What rest did those unbelieving Israelites not enter into?  They were not permitted to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land.  God was equating the crossing into the promised land with His “rest” or Sabbath here.

Why didn’t these people enter God’s rest?  Verse 19 says:

Faith, or a lack of faith, in this case, is the key.  They did not have faith in God that He would be able to grant them victory.  They looked at their own capabilities to conquer and work for what they would be given, and had no faith to look past their own shortcomings to the promise that God had made to them.

Hebrews 4 then begins with a statement that “the promise of entering his rest still stands.”  Again, this is not speaking of the 7^th day Sabbath, nor is it speaking of the Israelite’s promised land, since the next generation of Israelites did cross the Jordan.  So then, what is this promise?

These verses present some information about the 7^th day Sabbath by way of forming a comparison, similar to the surrounding portions of the book.  They are introducing the symbolism that will be further described a few verses down.  God’s rest in Genesis 2 is described as being permanent.  His creative work was finished.  He rested.

These verses then reiterate that Israel did not enter this rest, and that there still remains a rest for the people of God.

Verse 10 is really the key to the symbolism that the Sabbath presents us with.  This describes the life of a Christian.  The one who has entered His rest has ceased from his own works.  In what way has he ceased?  “Just as God did from His.”  This refers directly to the point earlier made in verses 3&4.  Permanently.  Obviously, this is not speaking of our vocational work.  But what work, then do we cease from?

What Works do we Cease From?

Notice that the word “works” appears two times in these verses, and they almost appear to be contradictory at first glance.  We are saved by grace through faith, not by works, but unto works.  But what does that actually mean?  Our works cannot save us.  In fact, God says this about our own works:

Does that mean that we simply accept God’s gift of salvation and then sit like a bump on a log and do nothing?  Not at all.

What is our Response?

We cannot save ourselves by our works, but we are saved by God’s grace for the purpose of the works He has for us to do.  So what is the difference?  Whenever people begin mentioning works in the life of a Christian, the subject of the book of James usually comes up.  I believe that one of the key passages in the book of James is James 2:18-19:

Our faith (and as a result, our salvation) is demonstrated by our works.  When we have faith leading to salvation from God, there will be fruit in our lives – the works that we do.  So how can we tell the difference?  It is really a matter of the attitude and motivation of the doer.  Back in Hebrews 4, we see:

God can discern between the thoughts and intents of the heart.  He knows the reasons we do the things we do.

But the good news is that we no longer must do works to be pleasing to God.  Jesus has already accomplished all to ensure our justification and righteousness.  By the grace of God, we have been justified and declared righteous.  By His grace, we are saved.  We can have true rest in knowing that we are saved because of what Jesus has done.  This truly sets us free to do the works God has set before us.  Not because we must, but out of thankfulness for what God has already done for us.

So, our Sabbath, like the one of the Israelites, hearkens back to our deliverance and to our re-creation.  We are to rest in the deliverance of God, because we are new creations in Christ.  We should also live our lives with an attitude of worship at all times, to celebrate what God has done for us.

Defiling the Sabbath

What would it mean, then, to defile or desecrate this Sabbath?  Again, it goes to the attitude of our heart.  If we are working out of guilt, or out of a sense that we are earning our salvation or earning anything from God, then we are, in essence, working when God told us not to.  We would be breaking the Sabbath in that sense.  God does want us to be servants, working the works that He has for us (Eph 2:10).  But, Romans 12 gives us the way we should do it.

We should present ourselves to God as a “living sacrifice” as a response to the mercy of God.  And this is described as our “spiritual act of worship” which was a primary purpose of the 7^th day Sabbath in the Old Testament.

Another Interesting Point

I’d like to present one last note concerning the Sabbath, which I find interesting.  As I mentioned, the preparation day was an integral part of the Sabbath.  Looking in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, we see that it begins with Jesus discussing John the Baptist.  How does Jesus identify John?

John’s purpose was to prepare the way for the Lord.  At the end of the same chapter, Jesus states:

He is speaking of rest.  Is this a co-incidence?  Chapter 12 then begins with a further discussion of the Sabbath, in which Jesus says:

I believe that Jesus is revealing Himself as our Sabbath rest; a permanent, abiding rest, in which we are set free to serve the Lord without heavy burden, since His yoke is easy.

To truly be a servant of God, one needs to stop working for wages and start serving from grace.  This is the Sabbath rest we are promised.