The Sabbath

On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.

Before Israel, before the fall, before any covenant, God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. The Sabbath is woven into creation itself.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

The fourth commandment is the only one that begins with "Remember" — God anticipated that this is the one we would be tempted to forget. Its reason is creation, not Sinai.

He said to them, "This is that which Yahweh has spoken, Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning."

The manna account establishes the seventh-day Sabbath BEFORE Sinai. God provided double on Friday and none on Sabbath — for forty years.

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words: then you will delight yourself in Yahweh; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father:" for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.

Sabbath is meant to be a delight, not a burden. The promised reward is intimacy with God.

Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.

The Sabbath is a sign of who sanctifies us. We rest because we cannot save ourselves — He does.

He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

Jesus did not abolish the Sabbath; He claimed authority over it. He said it was "made for man" — for humanity, not just Israel.

He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

Sabbath-keeping was Jesus' weekly custom. The example matters.

It was the day of the Preparation, and the Sabbath was drawing near. The women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, and saw the tomb, and how his body was laid. They returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

After the cross, before the resurrection — the women rested on the Sabbath "according to the commandment." Luke writing decades later still treats the commandment as binding.

Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, nor on a Sabbath,

Jesus, predicting events forty years after His death, still assumes His followers will be keeping the Sabbath. He did not anticipate a change.

So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the synagogue broke up, many of the Jews and of the devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas; who, speaking to them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. The next Sabbath almost the whole city was gathered together to hear the word of God.

Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, preached to Gentiles on the Sabbath — and the next Sabbath, not the next Sunday.

Paul, as was his custom, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

Sabbath was Paul's custom too. Not a Jewish concession — a continuing apostolic practice.

There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

Years after the cross, the writer of Hebrews says a Sabbath rest still remains. The Sabbath points beyond itself — to rest in Christ — but does not therefore disappear.

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says Yahweh, so your offspring and your name shall remain. It shall happen, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says Yahweh.

In the new earth — after sin is gone — all flesh will worship from one Sabbath to another. The day is forever.

He said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!"

The first angel's message calls the world to worship the Creator. The Sabbath is the standing memorial of creation. The connection is intentional.