Sabbath

After God created everything, He designated a seven day week and specified rest on day seven. (Genesis 2:1-3). When God spoke to Moses in the wilderness and gave Israel the Ten Commandments, He designated the seventh day the Sabbath. (Exodus 20:8-11) The people were to do no work and were to rest and worship on this day, "...a day...of solemn rest, holy to the Lord." (Exodus 31:15)

When the Israelites first came out of Egypt, God gave them food each day, bread in the morning and quail in the evening. He told them to take twice as much on the sixth day so they could rest on the seventh day. In explaining it to the people Moses said, "See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He gives you bread for two days." (Exodus 16:22-30)

Later, when the children of Israel were to start making the tent of meeting, Moses told them, "Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day." (Exodus 35:2-3) In Leviticus we learn that even the land was to be given a Sabbath rest every seven years. (Leviticus 25:1-7)

Isaiah gives us a little more insight into God's heart about the Sabbath, "...[if you] call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasures, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the LORD..." (Isaiah 58:13-14) This was a big deal because God says, "Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them." (Ezekiel 20:12)

But somewhere along the way, the scribes began to make the Sabbath less about the Lord and rest and worship and more about keeping the rules, rules they made up about what constituted work and how far you could walk and how much you could carry. Lots and lots of rules. Several of the difficult encounters Jesus had with the the religious leaders of His day concerned the Sabbath and Jesus not keeping their man-made rules. (Matthew 12, Luke 13, John 7)

So what about me today as a follower of Jesus. Does that Old Testament commandment apply to me? The other nine do, so why not this one?

Not long after the resurrection, the Jews who were following Jesus began to worship on the first day of the week, designating it the Lord's Day because Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week. As the Gospel spread to the Greeks and Romans the old Jewish rules were no longer observed. (Acts 15:1-21)

However, the law as given by God, not men, was not abolished by Jesus but fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17) For Christians the law about the Sabbath is not about a day of the week but an attitude of the heart and a desire to know and worship God. It is about putting aside all the busyness of the life and spending time with God. It is about reading the Bible and prayer and singing praises to Jesus. It is about knowing God and His son Jesus Christ and refreshing mind and body and spirit.

But wait...that's what it's been about all along!