The
Truth About the
Sabbath
Exodus
31:12-17
April
25th, 2010
For several lessons now we have at least mentioned God’s
covenants. One thing we did not note was
that whenever God made a covenant, He gave a sign of that covenant.
First, what is a covenant? The Hebrew word translated “covenant” occurs
over 280 times in the OT. The English
word means “a coming together”.
Covenants are such things as treaties, alliances, agreements, compacts,
pledges, mutual agreements, promises, and undertakings on behalf of
another.
When the OT was translated into Greek, the chosen Greek
word meant “Testament” as in “Last Will and Testament”. It occurs 33 times in the NT. The difference between the OT covenant with
God and the NT covenant with God is that the NT or New Covenant rests upon the
death of the one who made it, namely Jesus.
Also, it is NOT a mutual agreement because the New Covenant with God
through Jesus does not involve joint obligations between two equal parties. Check www.Idolhin.org/Covn
Now, let me explain about the sign of the covenant. Remember that I am talking about covenants
with God. God cut a covenant with the
nation of Israel that went like this: If you keep My law, and My statutes, I
will be your God and give you rain in due season; I will give you peace in the
land; I will rid the evil beasts out of the land; I will give you victory over
your enemies; I will make you fruitful and multiply you. That was the promise of God to
Israel. The sign of that covenant was their keeping
of the Sabbath.
Do you remember the covenant between God and Noah? It was no more floods. And the sign of it was what? It was a rainbow. And the covenant with Abraham was that
through his seed all of the nations of the world would be blessed and that their
land would be from the Nile to the Euphrates. And the
sign of that covenant was the circumcision of the male child.
The new covenant with the church was that if we believe
in Jesus, that He is the Son of God who came into this world to die for our
sins, and rose again the third and if we will make Him the Lord of our lives, He
will forgive our sins, and give us eternal life. And the sign of that covenant was and is the
blood of Jesus Christ.
Now, let’s go back to the sign of the covenant with
Israel, the keeping of the Sabbath
Day. Note that it was not the Sabbath
but the keeping of the Sabbath. Verse 13
of chapter 31 says it pretty clear.
“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between
me and you throughout your generations”.
I love the way it is put in the New Living Translation when it says,
“Tell the people of Israel: ‘Be careful to keep my
Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you from
generation to generation. It is given so
you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.” Verse 16 ends by saying that this is a
perpetual covenant and verse 17 says it is forever.
A couple of things to note here would be the penalty for
violating the Sabbath was very serious and severe. The violator would be put to death.
Now let’s move to the NT and look at Jesus and the
Sabbath. Jesus was many times accused of
violating the Sabbath day law. Most of the time it was for healing on the Sabbath. Once they got after Him because the disciples
had picked some grain on the Sabbath day and rubbed it in their hands to thresh
it and then ate it. Jesus defended them
against the charges by reminding them how David and his men ate the showbread
which only the priest were allowed to do.
Under the law the priests did their work on the Sabbath day and were
blameless. He declared Himself to be the
Lord over the Sabbath. He told them that
the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
One of my favorite stories it that of when Jesus healed
the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day and the Pharisees went out,
and held a council against him, how they might destroy him (Matt. 12:14). Their rules were, to me, so silly. When Jesus healed the man at the pool of
Bethesda on the
Sabbath day and told him to take up his bed and walk, He was told that too broke
a rule, the rule of baring a burden on the Sabbath.
Now, when did it change from the Sabbath Saturday to the
Sabbath (day of rest) Sunday? On the day
Jesus arose He met with His disciples and it was the first day of the week,
Sunday. Then, one week later as they
gathered on the first day of the week, He appeared to them again. In the book of Acts, it speaks of them
gathering on the first day of the week, which is Sunday. Acts
20:7 says, “And upon the first day of the week, when the
disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.” Paul also wrote to the church at Corinth about when they
gathered on the first day of the week (1 Cor.
16:2).
There are several other writings in the NT concerning
the Sabbath Sunday observance. For
example, in Romans 14 Paul said
that there were certain issues that they were not to argue about. One was eating meat verses being
vegetarian. The other was concerning
holy days. I like the way he put in the
Romans 14:5 where he says, “Let
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind”.
In Colossians
2:16 and 17 Paul writes, “Let no man therefore judge you in
meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of
the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: which were a shadow of things to come; but
the body is of Christ”. The feast days,
the holy days, the Sabbath days were only a foreshadowing of the coming things,
the substance of Jesus. That is Jesus
was foreshadowed in all these special days, including the Sabbath.
Jesus was crucified on the day of Passover as He was the
true Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, of which the lamb in
Egypt was only the shadow. And so was the feast of Pentecost a shadow of
the great harvest of souls that would be brought into the kingdom of God through the preaching of the
gospel.
Now, let’s close out this study as we see how the
Sabbath day worship foreshadowed Jesus Christ.
Remember from last week that Sabbath means “rest”. Turn to Hebrews
4:1-11 and read before you continue. In this we see that the Sabbath Day was/is a
day of rest and was a foreshadowing of the rest that we as believers have in the
finished work of redemption that Jesus accomplished through His death and
resurrection. The work was not finished
until Jesus rose from the dead.
Romans 4:25 tells us that
He was crucified for our offenses but risen for our justification.
In John
4:34 Jesus said that His meat was to do the will of Him that
sent Him, and to finish His work. The
work of my salvation is a finished work.
It was finished on the first day of the week, and in the early church
they began to worship on the first day of the week. Think about this: Israel
celebrated the finished work of creation.
In the church we celebrate the finished work of redemption. On the cross Jesus cried, “It is
finished”. He was talking of the price
paid for our redemption through His blood.
Paul also wrote to the Romans about this matter and I
love the way he put it in Romans
9:30-33 (Read now).
Even so today, there are those who are trying to save
themselves by the works of the Law in keeping the Sabbath day, and there are
others of us who by faith rejoice in the finished work of Jesus. Paul wrote, “For by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast”.
I love the old song that goes: “And when before the
throne, I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, My lips shall still
repeat, Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe, Sin has left a crimson stain, He
washed it white as snow”.
In Jesus I am resting, resting in the joy of what He
is. I am finding out the greatness of
His loving heart. I rest in Him
completely.