What is the Sabbath?
Genesis 2:2-3
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
The first mention of the Sabbath in Scripture is found in the creation account. Within the first few chapters of the the very first book of the Bible, we are presented with the concept of the Sabbath. Well before the law existed, God saw it fit to rest from or “cease” His work in the creation. The idea of resting was obviously a very important concept for God, and therefore is important for us to study and understand. The Sabbath day has always, since the very beginning, been blessed by God, and made holy, or sanctified to Him. There has never been a Sabbath day that was NOT blessed by God, since the very first Sabbath was made holy. Another important thing to notice is that God Himself saw it fit to rest on the Sabbath. We know God is all powerful, and so an omnipotent God could have created everything at the blink of an eye, or over millions or billions of years. But How, or in what manner, God did the work of creation is as important as what God created. The Bible tells us that God’s nature is seen in the creation. Romans 1:21 says “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
And we can see an aspect of His nature or an “Invisible quality” that is orderly, sequential, and hierarchical. Not only did God create the heavens and the earth, but he created the concept of time and progression, and like the rest of creation, Time shows us His glory. His very first act of creation was “let there be light,” and then separating day and night, or making a day and establishing TIME. His last act of creation was setting apart (or making holy) some of the time he created. This was God’s desire. The time that’s blessed and set apart is not to be used for work. We know God is all powerful, doesn’t tire or grow weary, so this rest isn’t required for God’s benefit. This day is a blessing to us, His creation. God gives us lots of work to do, there are plenty of things that God gives us to do and accomplish, and make, and study. One of the first things God does with Adam is place him in the garden to “work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). But God has also set apart a special time for us, as a blessing to us, in order to show us His glory. If we ignore God’s desire to have us rest, we are sinning. If God Himself chooses to spend a day after his work in Creation for rest, then who are we to believe that we don’t need the rest that an All Powerful God takes? The person who decides not to rest may be filled with pride, saying “i don’t need to rest”, or may love his or her work more than God, or may love the compensation or fruits of his or her work more than God. I don’t want to presume to know what’s in peoples’ hearts- there could be numerous other reasons people decide to break the Sabbath, but not keeping that day set apart and holy is contrary to God’s intention and is sin.
So what does the law say about this day? Exodus 16:23-29
23 He said to them, “This is what the LORD commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’”
24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
27 Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. 28 Then the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? 29 Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
A few months after the Israelites were saved from Egypt, they began to grumble against God, complaining of their hunger. God provided them quail and Manna, but the nature of Manna was unique. This food would spoil over night, beginning to stink and grow maggots if not eaten that same day. Moses warned them of this, but there were some that just wouldn’t listen to Moses (and ultimately to God), and tried to preserve it. However on the day before Sabbath, people would gather twice as much and it would miraculously not spoil like on every other day of the week. Moses told them that God would give them a double portion and there would be none on the Sabbath. Chapter 27 shows that there were always people that did not listen to Moses; this stubbornness and disregard for God’s commands angered both God and Moses. Chapter 29 reiterates what we read in Genesis, “the Lord has given you the Sabbath”. This day is a gift to the Israelites. The rules of observance of the Sabbath in this chapter of Exodus were simple. Do not gather Manna, and stay where you are – do not go out. And on the day before the Sabbath, the command was “bake what you need to bake and boil what you need to boil” – or basically prepare what you need for the Sabbath. Later in Exodus, When God gives Moses the 10 Commandments, we see the Sabbath law further defined. Exodus 20:8-11
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 male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 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.
From this passage, we understand that God’s desire for his creation to rest is very important. Imporatant enough for its own Commandment, but also important enough that God wanted the Israelite community to observe it, including men, women, children, male and female servants, animals, and foreigners that lived amongst God’s people. We understand now that His desire is for the entire Israelite community to rest (not just Jews, but foreigners, slaves and even animals as well). Exodus 23:10-12 reiterates all of this, but also adds that every seventh Year should be a Sabbath for the land, where the soil can rest, and the poor and wild animals can eat what grows wildly.
God’s desire for sabbaths requires something from his people, which isn’t entirely apparent without thinking about it a little more deeply. If you are a Jew who farms, or cultivates the soil, you need to take off every seventh year, which requires planning and faith. Thinking of this from the perspective of the farmer, I need to budget and save my crop so that my family won’t go hungry in an off year. Reading this verse alone in isolation, I am not entirely sure what this looks like. Maybe I can cultivate 6/7 of my land every year, and rotate which 1/7 is being used, so that I don’t have to take an entire year off from growing, but during any year, there’s 1/7 of my property that’s taking its required sabbath break. Or maybe I need to cultivate my entire property 6 years, and none of it on the seventh year? In Leviticus 25, we get the clarity and find out that it’s the latter. The farmers were supposed to take an entire year off from their work. Think about this. After 6 years of work, everyone was supposed to take a year off. On top of that, After 7 different 7 year land cycles (49 years), there was an extra year off called the Jubilee year. On that year, nobody would grow anything, and all lands purchased would go back to their previous owners. What this means is that the Jewish farmers, in order to follow God’s law, needed to give serious thought to saving, or else their families would have periods of starvation. Today, it is still important to heed God’s teaching. He tries to teach his people lessons about saving, frugality, budgeting, planning, and when all that planning is done, ultimately having faith in His providence. He desires a mental exercise, and then a spiritual exercise. American families today have trouble saving and planning their resources, and I believe some of this has to do with the imbalance of work and rest that is so rampant in peoples’ lives. As a modern day illustration, think about the concept of taking a vacation. You prepare lots of clean clothing and do a lot of work in advance in order to not have to think about it while taking the time off. There is significant planning and budgeting that goes into vacationing, but if you do it correctly, you don’t worry about it when you are on your time off. God’s wisdom is seen in requiring his people to think and prepare for their rest.
What does this rest look like?
Exodus 35:1-3 says that nobody should light fires in their dwellings. Israelites who do work should be put to death
Leviticus 16:31 says the Sabbath is a day to deny yourselves and rest
Numbers 15:32-36 tells of a man who broke the sabbath collecting wood, and was stoned to death
Numbers 28:9-10 explains that burnt offerings of Lambs without defect should be given every sabbath.
Jeremiah 17 tells about how nobody should carry a load through the gates of Jerusalem or into and out of their homes
The crazy thing about these Sabbath laws is they were made for our benefit. God wanted us to have rest. But, like all things that humans do, we are able to profane even the simplest thing. What exactly is prohibited on the Sabbath? There is no universal example in Scripture. Each different group at different points in History did different “work” for 5-6 days of the week. So, what does it look like to desecrate the Sabbath? We do the same things that we do the other six days. We work. Everybody should know what “work” looks like, and it might be different for every person who has a different job on their other 5-6 days. For the Israelites, in Exodus 16, their work was gathering manna and baking it. Gathering Firewood was a popular task at that time. Exodus 35 said nobody should light fires in their dwellings. God wanted his people to cease doing the things they normally did. It would also profane the sabbath to try and get ahead of other Israelites that WERE taking the day off. The sabbath day should look different, holy, set apart. God says a few specific things, but they are addressed to different groups. Jeremiah 17 is directed at the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem, but it wasnt a blanket command for ages to come. And we must remember that Sabbath was a day to bring offerings to the temple, so Levites and priests were always “desecrating” the Sabbath by doing their work. In 1 Chron 23:31 we see that the Levites had the job of standing every morning and evening to thank and praise the Lord, including on Sabbaths during burnt offerings. But they were never found guilty of “desecrating” or breaking the Sabbath. Jesus pointed this fact out to his opposition, and Jesus encountered lots of opposition when he did things that the Pharisees considered “work”. We will look at those things a bit later.
However, God isn’t specific in a universal sense, but I don’t think he needs to be. It should be fairly simple. we should know what work is. We spend lots of time working. When the command is vague, what ended up happening was legalism set in. The Jews made rules and regulations about how far somebody is allowed to walk (Acts 1:12 mentions a “sabbath Day’s Walk”, they made up regulations about how much was acceptable to carry (in John 5, the invalid who was told to pick up his mat and walk was rebuked by Pharisees for carrying a mat), Pharisees made rules about what activities were ok, and which weren’t. To this day, you can see Orthodox Jews walking in the streets from Friday night to Saturday night “observing the sabbath” What are they doing? They are following a set of rules. But if you think about it, these Jews, by walking, are giving their cars a sabbath rest, while giving their leg muscles a workout. All because God commanded the ancient Israelites to give their animals a sabbath rest from plowing the fields. So we see Jews trying to follow laws, and at a certain point, when you try very hard to NOT work, you end up working extra hard to follow the “law”. I think of the modern day scenario when on Mother’s day, the family decides to force Mom to stay in bed, giving her a “day off” while they prepare her a breakfast and make a huge mess in the kitchen and around the house. Her time of “rest” ends up becoming a burden, giving her much more work than if she wasn’t forced to stay in bed.
Change of heart? not God’s heart
Isaiah 1:13
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
Hosea 2:11
I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.
In people’s hearts, the Sabbath had turned into something that God had not intended. They had festivals and assemblies, but they weren’t resting in God. Their hearts weren’t humbled or stirred in worship. God had given something to His people, and they took it and made it into a perversion. God was pointing forward to a new day and a new covenant. Look in Amos 8:4-10
Amos 8:4-10
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, 5 saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”— skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, 6 buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. 7 The LORD has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done. 8 “Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt.
9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
People’s desires were to return to work, and the day of rest had become something they resented. They took a gift from God and made it into something unholy. I wrote about this in a different post. God said he will end the Sabbaths and turn festivals into mourning. The true Israelites would mourn on “that day” as if for an Only Son. The sun was to go down at noon, and the earth would darken on “that day”
Mark 15:33-34 The Death of Jesus
33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
Is the sabbath over? Has God done away with it by sending Christ? The festivals, assemblies, and burnt offerings and regulations are certainly obsolete after the finished work of Christ. But the Bible talks of a new Sabbath, a Sabbath that is only possible after the ministry and work of Christ.
Hebrews 4:1-12 A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God
1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
6 Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Christ is declares that he is lord of the Sabbath. He is the giver of rest, and through Him and Him only can we experience the Rest that God has intended for us. When we are in Christ, we are no longer attempting to be justified or made right by our works. We are made acceptible to God by grace, and by the Work of Christ. We enter a rest from our works when we enter into Christ. The crazy idea about this is that we are acting the most disobedient when we are working our hardest. The harder you work to make sure you aren’t breaking the Sabbath, the harder you work, and more you break the Sabbath! Stop and think about this for a second. The idea of this is very humbling, because we begin to understand that we can’t even rest acceptably in God’s eyes apart from Christ. I can understand that my actions aren’t good enough. I know that My thoughts are sinful, I get that my words and lips are unclean. But now I find out that even my time of rest needs to be made clean before God. No part of us is free from the necessity of Christ and Him Crucified. I can’t even rest right. Our REST needs to be purchased by his precious blood. Similar to the Sabbath day burnt offerings of Lambs without blemish, Christ sacrificed himself and allowed us to be reconciled with God so we can enter that rest. Unlike any Lamb that was brought to the temple, Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient forever, which points to a permanent rest, not a temporary one that the Jews experienced on a weekly basis. How restful can a Sabbath be when you know in your mind that next week, you need to come up with another sacrifice? The rest that God wants for His people a permanent fellowship and acceptance before his throne. The idea that we need to do certain things on a certain day of the week, or avoid doing certain things on a certain day of the week is missing the point. No matter what things we do on Saturday, or Sunday, or any other day of the week, I can guarantee that we aren’t doing them well enough, and our works are not good enough. No matter which things we avoid doing on Saturday, or Sunday, or any other day of the week, I can guarantee that we aren’t avoiding 100% of our sins. The people that try and keep the Sabbath by doing “this, this, and that, and the other thing, while avoiding “that, that, and those other things” are trying to enter the rest by their own deeds or lack of deeds. When you try and enter into a Sabbath rest by works, you can’t enter. In Hebrews 4:10, I always read a translation, that said “anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their work” Assuming it was talking about the regular 40 hour work week “work”, but another translation I read says “for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their workS,” And that one “s” at the end of work made me understand that what God is talking about isn’t just a sabbath rest from “work”, but in Christ, we have a permanent Sabbath rest from living by “works”. What we need is rest from the worries of living up to a certain standard, and the only way to enter that rest is by believing in Christ.
Colossians 2:16-17
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
I posted this verse from Colossians a few months ago, and it makes sense to close here. Nobody should judge you, because the Sabbath is pointing directly to a state of being declared righteous in Christ. Whether you see all days as the same, or you see one more holy than the others, Paul said in Romans that you should be convinced in your own mind. If you see fit to take a day off to savor Christ and worship God, you are free to do that, and I am confident that by God’s grace, you will encounter Him and have a very fruitful day. If the schedule comes out and you need to work on a Sabbath, you are also free to do that because Christ has covered your sins and made you acceptable before God. However If you take a day off, because you feel like not doing so would be a sin and result in your condemnation, then you should reassess your standing before God, and study the power of Christ over all sins. Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, He alone gives the freedom we need. Freedom from sin. Freedom from Judgement. Freedom to rest. When our lives are over, we who believe have fellowship and a Sabbath rest that no amount of our work could ever purchase.