The Sabbath Holiday
Gen 2: 1-3, Exodus 20:1-8, 31:17, Deut. 5:12-15, Hebrews 4:3-10
This past Monday was Labor Day in the US; Labor Day has been a National Holiday since 1894. As you probably know, the word “holiday” comes from the Old English words “HOLY-DAY”: a “holiday” originally referred to special religious days. In modern use, it means any special day of rest or relaxation, as opposed to normal days away from work or school. Today is a holiday on the calendar too: It’s Grandparents Day in the US and Canada, so “Happy Grandparents Day” to all the Grandparents! (I guess that means that your grandchildren are going to do something special for you-maybe send a Hallmark card!)
The Creation Holiday
When was the first “HOLY-DAY” celebrated? God celebrated the first “holiday” in Genesis 2:1-3 ESV. In the first chapter you read the vast creative activities in which God created everything and then in Chapter 2 we read: “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.”
The first HOLY DAY (HOLIDAY) in the universe was celebrated by God alone and God’s Word explains the CAUSE for this special day, how it was CELEBRATED, and NATURE of the Holiday. The CAUSE for the celebration was God’s Completion of Creation. The word in the Hebrew is Kalah (“kaw-law'”). The word is used in verses 1 and 2: God masterfully completed the creation of the heavens, the earth, and everything in them. In essence, God is making a similar declaration which Jesus made about His Redemptive Mission in the last words on the Cross; About His CREATIVE WORK, God declared: It is FINISHED.
God wanted to make it perfectly clear to mankind that it was God and God alone who created the earth and all that was in it in SIX DAYS and then God did what? He RESTED. (The Hebrew word is Shabath (shaw-bath'). He ceased from all of His Creative work. He celebrated a SABBATH…that’s what the word “sabbath” means: REST. The Seventh Day in world history was celebrated by God’s REST. In essence, a calendar was established by God, based on HIS WORKS: He established a cycle through the creative events from the beginning of time: Work six days…REST ONE.
The Command for Sabbath: Exodus 20
God accomplished all of His Creative work FIRST and then HE RESTED. The NATURE of this holiday is clear from verse 3: “So God blessed (barak-kneel or praise) the seventh day and made it holy: It was a HOLY Day. God made the day “Qadash”. He declared the seventh day in His cycle of creation to be sanctified, to be separated, to be set apart from the others, consecrated and hallowed. Why? Because it was God alone who created and fashioned all things, and He declared them ALL to be GOOD- (Everything passed the test of God’s perfect standard.) and so God declared the seventh day to be Holy and Hallowed to Him. Man did the same: He delighted in all that God had made. There was no work for him, no sin, no pressure, only joy in God and in His creation.
God did not COMMAND man to honor this day…but Man did disobey the ONE COMMAND that God gave in Gen 2:16-17: “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Man was expelled from God’s Holy presence on account of his own disobedience. The entire world was destroyed by the flood because of man’s extreme sinfulness but Noah was saved by faith, finding grace in the eyes of God; but sin had not been destroyed. Abraham was called by God and saved by faith; Israel was established as a nation while in Egyptian captivity, etc.
Now I am not going to venture how many years the book of Genesis covers, but we know there is a lot of History; We know that the children of Israel spent around 400 years in captivity by the Egyptians, (the period between Joseph at the end of Genesis and Moses at the beginning of Exodus) and that Israel was miraculously led out of Egypt by the power and might of God.
Then in Exodus 20 on Mount Sinai, Moses received the law of God, written by God’s own hand in stone, and in Exodus 20:1-11, we read the first four commandments which explain man’s responsibility in life before the one and only Holy God:
“And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth… 7 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 8 "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.
By the time of the Ten Commandments were given by God, many “theories” concerning the Creation of the World had evolved; In His infinite and sovereign wisdom, God includes in the fourth commandment that Man is to Remember the Sabbath, and for what purpose? That man would not forget that God was the Creator.
The Command for Sabbath: Deut. 5
Later, after Israel’s wilderness wanderings, Moses again gives the law in Deut. 5:12-15, prior to his death and Joshua’s leadership. The second giving of the law was almost word for word to that in Exodus 20 except for the fourth commandment. Listen:
"Observe (not “remember”-recall or bring to mind) as in Ex. 20, but “observe” meaning to “Keep, give heed, guard”) the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 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 or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. (You should keep one day in seven as Holy to God in order to remember God created YOU as well as everything that you can see in the Heavens and on earth (and don’t cause someone else to work: And here is an additional reason to keep a HOLY HOLIDAY every week:) 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.”
You might think: Well, I wasn’t a slave in Egypt, so how does that apply to me? Israel SHOULD HAVE recognized that God was speaking here about more than just abstaining from work! They had been rescued, they had been delivered from the bondage of slavery to the Egyptians, not by anything that they had done, but solely by the “mighty hand and outstretched arm” of the Lord God and so God commanded Israel to “Observe” the Sabbath as an honorary Day to God not only because He had created all things, because He ALONE had Redeemed His people. The LORD is the Redeemer Lord.
For the believer and follower of the Lord Jesus, the sabbatical principle is continual, but our PURPOSE is not merely to refrain from sinning or to recognize how sinful we are, which is how Israel celebrated it, but rather OUR PURPOSE is to honor the Lord Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer from the bondage of sin, in the same way that Israel was to honor God as their redeemer from the bondage of the Egyptians.
Application
The application from the Old Testament remains similar for us; (application probably is not the proper word!) The history of the world remains the same now as in the BEGINNING: God remains Creator. HISTORY does NOT change. We would have NO life if He had not created us and we as New Testament believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we recognize that the promises of God to send a SAVIOR from sin have been realized and fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him alone BY FAITH, not by WORKS, not by refraining from sin on the Sabbath, but by worshiping our Great God in Grace EVERY DAY. For the believer, God is “observed”, HE IS KEPT and Guarded in our lives and in our worship as, not only the Redeemer of Israel, but of all of His Chosen People, saved by GRACE. That is what we celebrated this morning at the table of our Lord. We were not made any “holier” but we remember and honor our Lord. We don’t become “better” but God knows that we are weak and NEED to be reminded, and we SHOULD delight in Him as Savior.
God did not need a rest from His work at Creation but He was establishing a pattern for our lives: Work six, rest one. But there is certainly more to keeping one day Holy to our God than resting from our daily work.
Hebrews 4 gives us insight into Celebrating Sabbath: 1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. (“Rest” is the same word used in Genesis 2:2- Don’t fall short of God’s Rest. How is that?) 2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. (They did not find “rest” in God because they tried to rest in THEIR works not in God’s Works!) 3 Now we who have believed (those who have humbly repented and placed their trust in God as Savior) enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' "And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." 5 And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest." 6 It still remains that SOME will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their DISOBEDIENCE. 7 Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.”
TODAY may be your first Sabbath if TODAY is the day of your salvation? The sabbath-rest for the people of God is the salvation of our God! Jesus is MY SABBATH! God’s work was planned before the foundation of the world, and He rested from His work. We enter into His Rest when we enter His Kingdom by faith on account the Gracious Work which God has completed through Jesus the Son. If you are IN CHRIST by faith, then He is your salvation and your eternal sabbath. (Next week we will see the how the New Testament Church fulfills this in their practices on the First Day of the week, not the seventh day.)
I. The First “holiday” (Genesis 2:1-3)
A. The CAUSE for the celebration was God’s Completion of Creation. (Kalah)
B. The Seventh Day in world history was celebrated by God’s REST. (Shabath)
C. The NATURE of this holiday: It was a HOLY Day.(Qadash)
II. The First Commands for Sabbath (Ex. 20 & Deut. 5)
A. Ex. 20: Man is to “Remember” the Sabbath: Remember that God is Creator.
B. Deut. 5: Man is to “Observe” the Sabbath: God Redeemed Israel. ( Matt 28:20)
III. The Remaining Application for today.
A. History remains: God remains Creator.
B. Promises fulfilled: God is “observed” as Redeemer from sin.
C. Jesus is our Sabbath. (Hebrews 4:3-10)
The Sabbath and the Spirit of the Law, Mark 2:27-28, 2 Corinthians 3:5-7, Col. 2:16,
[Let No One Disqualify You] 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.
Heb 10:25: 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Hebrews 4:9 ESV So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,
Jesus said in Matthew 28: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe (this is the same word used in the Septuagint in Deut. 5- to OBSERVE the Sabbath) all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Isaiah 58: 13 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." The mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Jeremiah 17
