Articles
The Sabbath
The Old Testament often speaks of the sabbath, a word that means to cease or to rest. Misconceptions about the sabbath day are common. Here are some facts, according to the Bible.
▸ The sabbath was the seventh day of the week, Saturday. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God . . .” (Exodus 20:9-10). That day was chosen because in it God rested from His creation (v. 11; cf. Genesis 2:3). No Bible passage ever refers to Sunday as the sabbath! And the Bible never uses the phrase Christian Sabbath. There was also a sabbath year, every seventh year, in which no planting or harvesting was allowed (Leviticus 25:1-7). It was the land’s “rest.” Every forty-nine years there was a double Sabbath year, the Jubilee, a year of liberty as well as a double period of rest.
▸ The first recorded sabbath observance was after Israel’s exodus from Egypt, at the time God began to feed them with manna (Exodus 16:22-30). Interestingly, it is initially referred to in that paragraph as “a” sabbath, not “the” sabbath, suggesting it was not something previously known. That corresponds with the statement in the book of Nehemiah that God made His sabbath known at Mt. Sinai (9:13-14). No Bible passage ever depicts anyone keeping the sabbath prior to this time!
▸ The sabbath was a memorial of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:15). It was the fourth of their Ten Commandments. It was also a sign to Israel of God’s covenant with them (Exodus 31:12-17). No Bible passage indicates that non-Israelites (Gentiles) were ever commanded to keep the sabbath!
▸ One kept the sabbath by ceasing secular work. “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest” (Exodus 34:21). Jesus taught that the sabbath law did not preclude humanitarian activities or medical services (Luke 13:15; John 7:23). No one was excused from the Sabbath requirement on the basis of the hardship it might create for his business! Several references indicate that many in ancient Israel did not at all like this requirement (Jeremiah 17:19-23; Amos 8:4-6; Nehemiah 13:15-18).
▸ Keeping the sabbath was part of the law that Christ took away. “He . . . canceled out the certificate of death consisting of decrees against us . . .; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:14-17). Christians are no more obligated to keep the sabbath than the other Old Testament festivals or its food and drink regulations! In fact, we are warned against going back to the Law to justify our practices. To do so severs us from Christ (Galatians 5:1-4).
▸ Death was the God-given penalty for not keeping the sabbath. “Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 31:14-15). If, as some suggest, we should still keep the sabbath because of what is said in these Old Testament references, should we enforce the penalty that these same references require?
Let us be content to leave the Sabbath where God put it, part of His ancient covenant with the nation of Israel, a covenant that has been replaced by the gospel of Christ.
