Sermons
The Sabbath (pt 1): A Holy Day of Rest
Series: The SabbathThe Sabbath
Part 1: A Holy Day of Rest
I. Introduction
Why are we here today? I mean, why are we here TODAY, on Sunday? Why didn’t we assembly yesterday to worship, on Saturday?
Whatever happened to the Sabbath day? Is Sunday the Christian Sabbath? Where do we read that in the Bible?
These are some questions that many Christians have asked. Sometimes these questions are posed to us. I remember getting some kind of publication in the mail years ago, and it was all about how Sunday worship is actually from Satan, and those who worship on Sunday have the mark of the beast that is talked about in Revelation. This is actually an official doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Well that caught my attention and caused me to do some studying at the time.
Then this past week I got a text from Amanda Parks. She said take a look at this and let me know what you think. It was a link to a youtube video in which a guy makes the same basic argument. Sunday worship is from the devil. Someone had sent it to her, and she knows someone who has left the church over this issue.
In the video, the speaker says, “it doesn’t matter what your pastor says or anyone else, just open the Bible and read it for yourself.” Well that’s the right idea for sure. And that’s exactly what I want us to do. Let’s see what we can learn about this question: why are we here today to worship instead of yesterday?
As I started digging into this subject, I quickly realized there’s a lot to discuss. So this will be part one. In today’s lesson, we will go back to look at the origins of the Sabbath and the original instructions for keeping it. We will see how important it was to the people of Israel. I’m convinced that a proper understanding of what exactly the Sabbath was then will help us when we come to today.
II. A Holy Day
A. Rooted in Creation
The story of the Sabbath has its roots in the opening pages of the Bible.
Gen. 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
In the beginning, God set everything in motion, including the rhythm of a seven day week. It’s something we just take for granted. Like the kids sing, “there are seven days, there are seven days, there are seven days in a week.” But why? Because God set it up that way from the beginning. Seven symbolizes perfection. He worked for six days and rested on the seventh.
Now it says here that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. But it doesn’t say that he gave any instructions about it to man at this time. In fact, nothing is mentioned of a Sabbath day until the time of Moses. There isn’t a single word said about it during the lives of Adam and Eve through Noah and the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If God gave them any instructions about the seventh day, it isn’t recorded for us.
B. Given with Manna
The first recorded commands concerning the Sabbath are found in Exodus 16. This was after God used Moses to lead the people out of Egypt. Once they crossed the Red Sea into the wilderness, they quickly became hungry, and God provided for them by sending bread from heaven, which they called manna. They were told to gather each morning enough for that day, and don’t try to keep any leftovers. This was to teach them to depend on God.
Of course, they didn’t listen.
Ex. 16:20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
But on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much as normal. And Moses explained why:
Ex. 16:23-30 he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”
This is the first reference to the Sabbath. And it appears that it was a new practice for the people, and one that they didn’t take to right away:
Ex. 16:27-30 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
So on the seventh day, they were not to go out and gather. They were to “remain each of you in his place.” Stay put. Rest. A solemn rest.
This required making preparations on Friday so that they wouldn’t have to work on Saturday. In fact, the name for Friday became “Preparation,” which lasted all the way until the time of Jesus and beyond. Get things ready on Friday so you can rest on Saturday.
C. A day of rest
This was further spelled out in the 10 commandments. The fact that the Sabbath was one of the 10 shows how fundamental it was to Israel’s covenant with God.
Ex. 20:8-11 “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.
For the Israelites, Sunday, the first day of the week, was their Monday. They worked on Sunday – Friday, but they were to rest on Saturday.
As you can imagine, this would also be for their own good:
Ex. 23:12 “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.
It’s not good for people to work day in and day out without rest. We know this by experience. God also gave instructions for them to let their fields rest every seven years. They had a Sabbath year.
D. A holy day
But the Sabbath was more than just a day off from work.
They were to honor the Sabbath as a holy day. This is one of many ways in which they were to make a distinction between common and holy things. This was an important part of what made them distinct as a people.
They had common days, and one holy day. The main thing they had to do on this holy day was to rest from their work. To set it apart for God.
I don’t find any instructions about what they were supposed to do on this day, but it is apparent that it was intended to be devoted to God.
Lev. 23:3 “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.
E. A sign of the covenant
Now it’s important to note something about this Sabbath command. It was a special instruction for the people of Israel. It was something set them apart.
Ex. 31:12-13 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.
“A sign between me and you.” Who? The people of Israel. Just as the Sabbath day was made holy, the people of Israel were chosen and sanctified to be a holy people. And the Sabbath was a sign of their special relationship with God.
The importance of this sign is seen in the fact that breaking it was a capital offense:
Ex. 31:14-15 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.
You may recall that after this, in Numbers 15, while they were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath. They inquired what to do to him, and the Lord revealed that they were to stone him to death, which they did.
Now someone might say, “wow, this day of rest must have been really important. If you don’t rest, you’ll be killed.” But the point wasn’t that it was so important to get some rest, but rather that this day was to be a holy day, and it was a sign of their covenant with God. And God commanded them in the 10 commandments to keep it holy. So to ignore the Sabbath was to ignore God’s command and their special relationship with God.
Ex. 31:16-17 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.’”
The connection between the Sabbath and their unique relationship to God is also emphasized in the Deuteronomy account of the ten commandments:
Deut. 5:15 You shall remember that you were a slave 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.
So to summarize, the Sabbath was a holy day, a day of solemn rest, given to the people of Israel as a sign of the covenant that God made with them.
III. What about us?
So where does that leave you and me with regard to the Sabbath? The short answer is that the Sabbath was part of the Old Covenant with Israel, but we are under a new covenant.
Heb. 8:6-9 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “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.
Our covenant is not like the old covenant. It is different in many ways. So we do not look to the Law of Moses to know how we should live today. And in the New Testament, in all the instructions given to Christians, there is not a single verse that tells us to keep the Sabbath. Instead, we have:
Col. 2:16-17 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Now the speaker in the video that I mentioned at the beginning has heard this argument before, but he doesn’t buy it. He brings up several passages to make various arguments in support of his view that we should be keeping the Sabbath today. We don’t have time this morning to go through all those, but Lord willing, we will be examining some of them in a future lesson.
But let’s see if we can make some applications of what we’ve learned so far.
A. God’s laws are for our good
When you look at the purpose of the Sabbath, a solemn day of rest that was to be holy to the Lord, it’s easy to see how this was something that would be good for the people of Israel. Not only because it would give them a day of rest, but it would give them a day each week to focus on God.
God gives us commands that are for our own good.
Deut. 10:12-13 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?
Part of having faith in God is trusting that his way is best. Now just because we are not commanded to observe the Sabbath today doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it. Do we need time for rest?
And how do we use our down time? Do we make time for God? Pray and read and worship? Wouldn’t that be good for us, too?
B. Selfishness and greed get in the way
But what got in the way of the Israelites keeping the Sabbath? Stubbornness, selfishness, greed. They could make more money if they worked and did business on the Sabbath.
The Israelites were often more concerned with pleasing themselves than pleasing God. Is that true for us? The irony is that if we seek to please God and delight in his ways, then we find true joy.
Isa. 58:13-14 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and 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 pleasure, or talking idly; 14 then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
As long as we have the attitude that I want to do what I want to do, and as long as we seek our own pleasure, we will miss out on the true joy of serving God and the blessings that come with it.
C. Work is good for us
And finally, a side note. When God set things up for the people, he said six days you shall work and then rest on the seventh. Sometimes we need to be told to take a break and rest. But in our culture, it’s probably more likely that we need to be told to get to work. Just as rest is good for us, work is good for us as well. Too much leisure time causes its own problems. Sometimes we suffer because we’ve made life too easy.
Ecc. 5:12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
Let’s make the most of our time, and set aside time for God. Don’t let selfish pursuits crowd out the true joy of seeking God.
INVITATION
