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The first time God
commanded anyone to keep a Sabbath rest was
when he gave the seventh day Sabbath rest to
Israel after the exodus in Exodus 16:22-23.
Shortly afterward, God made the Sabbath a
commandment for Israel to follow when He
entered into the Mosaic Covenant with them
on Mount Sinai.
Nehemiah 9:13-14
says, “You came down on Mount Sinai and
spoke with them from heaven and gave them
right rules and true laws, good statutes and
commandments, and you made known to them
your holy Sabbath and commanded them
commandments and statutes and a law by Moses
your servant.”
God gave the
Sabbath to Israel to serve as a sign of the
Mosaic Covenant.
Exodus 31:12-14 says,
“And the LORD said to Moses, “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. 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.”
And Ezekiel 20:12, 20 says,
“Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a
sign between me and them, that they might
know that I am the LORD who sanctifies
them…and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may
be a sign between me and you, that you may
know that I am the LORD your God.”
The Gentiles were never commanded to keep
the Sabbath in the Old Testament, or
condemned if they did not. If Sabbath
observance was meant to be a universal,
eternal moral principle then you would
expect to find scripture references that
condemn the Gentiles for breaking it, but
there are none.
The Sabbath could
only serve as a sign of the Mosaic Covenant
if it was unique to them. The Sabbath
distinguished Israel from all the other
nations. The Sabbath could not function as a
sign of God’s covenant with Israel if
everyone else was expected to keep it. A
sign sets something apart from the rest. In
fact, one of the main reasons God gave for
Sabbath-keeping was to remind Israel of
their captivity and how their
covenant-keeping God, Yahweh was able
to deliver them from Egyptian bondage
(Exod. 16:23, 29; 31:13-18; Deut. 5:12-15).
A visiting stranger was expected to
keep the Sabbath when they were in Jerusalem
because if they were out trying to buy and
sell in the city they would be tempting
God’s people to sin (Ne. 13:15-21). If
they wanted to keep the Passover and the
other feasts the males had to be circumcised and
become Jews (Exod. 12:43-49). Those who
became followers of God would be Israelites
in God’s view and could participate in the
Passover and the other feasts (Exod. 12:48-49; Jer. 12:16).
Jesus was accused of breaking
the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was
not a moral law, it was a ceremonial sign of
God’s covenant with Israel (Exod. 31:16-17;
Ne. 9:13-14; Ezek. 20:12, 20). When
the Pharisees criticized Jesus’ disciples
for picking a few pieces of corn to eat on
the Sabbath, Jesus defended his disciples by
referring to two examples from the Old
Testament. First, when David and his men
were very hungry and needed food,
they were rightly allowed to eat the holy
bread of the tabernacle, which normally only
priests were allowed to eat (Matt. 12:1-4;
1 Sam. 21:1-6). Second, even the Levitical
priests worked on the Sabbath, for they had
to circumcise male children on the eighth
day of their life, and they had to prepare and offer the sacrifices
in the temple (Lev. 12:3; Matt. 12:5; Num. 28:9-10).
Jesus used
these two examples from the Old Covenant to
show that in a case of necessity the legal
requirements of the Sabbath law could be
overruled. Life is more important than
ritual. People are more important than the
Sabbath. Jesus said the Sabbath was given
for Israel’s benefit, not for their
discomfort; and since Jesus is the Son of
man, he had the authority to decide how the
Sabbath could best be used (Matt. 12:6-8;
Mark 2:27-28).
If the Sabbath was a
moral issue there would be no exception to
the rule. God never said it was okay to
commit adultery or murder someone, did he?
Jesus was saying that he was God in the
flesh, and that he had the authority to work
on the Sabbath just as his Father in heaven
was working.
There is no
command anywhere in the New Testament for
Christians to keep the seventh day Sabbath
from the Old Covenant.
Gentiles were never required to keep it. The
New Covenant is more inclusive than the Old
Covenant was. There is no command in the New
Testament for Christians to keep any day
holy. Obviously, new converts were expected
to follow the moral teachings of Christ and
His apostles, which are based upon and
expanded upon the moral principles taught in
the Torah. However, if the Sabbath was a moral
law then we would expect to find a command
to keep it in the New Testament epistles,
but there is none.
In fact, the New
Testament explicitly teaches that
Sabbath-keeping along with the other
ceremonial requirements of the Old Covenant
Law are not required for Christians living under the New Covenant
(Matt. 11:28-30; 12:1-8; Acts 15:1-28;
Col. 2:14-17; Gal. 4:10-11;
Rom. 14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-18; Heb. 3:7-4:13; 10:23-25).
The Sabbath rest in the book of Hebrews.
The book of Hebrews boldly proclaims the
superiority of Jesus Christ and Christianity
over every other religion on earth. Jesus
Christ is superior to everyone and
everything. Hebrews 3-4 is talking about the
superiority of the rest Jesus offers us
compared to the rest that Israel failed to
enter into under the Old Covenant law.
The author of Hebrews warned his Jewish
readers about repeating some of Israel’s
difficult history under Moses’ leadership in
the desert wilderness (see Exod. 17:1-7;
Num. 20:1-13; Ps. 95:7-11). He went on to
show the difference between Jesus and Moses
(Heb. 3:1-6), and compared their disciples’
reactions. Because of their disobedience and
unbelief, Moses’ followers were unable to
enter into God’s promised rest (Heb. 3:7-11). Christ’s followers need to resist
the tendency toward unbelief and
stubbornness by remaining confident to the
end (Heb. 3:12-15). Because of their
unbelief, most of those who participated in
Israel’s deliverance from Egypt were denied
entry into the promised land
(Heb. 3:16-19). As a result, the author
cautions Christ’s followers not to repeat
the same pattern of failing to enter into
God’s eternal rest of faith. The example of
Israel under Moses was used by the psalmist
to warn the Israelites of his day against
unbelief and disobedience. Likewise, the
author of Hebrews recalls the psalmist’s
words to warn his readers about the dangers
of unbelief.
God’s plan was for
Israel to find rest in Canaan after they
were delivered from slavery in Egypt
(Deut. 5:12-15). Similarly, God’s
desire for us is to find freedom from
slavery to sin and learn to experience the
divine rest we have when we accept Jesus
Christ as our Lord and Savior. However, just
like with Israel, unbelief will keep us from
receiving God’s promised rest (Heb. 4:1-2). God’s rest has been available to
everyone since the creation of the world,
but many of those who claim to be God’s
people haven’t experienced it to the fullest
because of the sin of unbelief (Deut. 28:65; Lam. 1:3). God’s true rest
can only be obtained by faith in what God
has already accomplished for us through the
cross (Heb. 4:3-5).
The Israelites
who disobeyed Moses did not enter the
promised land or experience the rest that
God had promised. The Israelites that
entered Canaan under Joshua were from the
following generation. Long after Joshua’s
time, David reaffirmed God’s promise of rest
to show that Israel’s occupation of Canaan
was not the fulfillment of God’s true rest
(Heb. 4:6-8; Ps. 95:7-8). Salvation by
faith alone is the divine rest that God
offers to each of us on a daily basis. The
Greek word for rest in Hebrews 4:9 is
different from the words used in Hebrews 3:11, 18; 4:1, 3, 5, 10, 11.
This word is “sabbatismos”[1]
and it means a “Sabbath rest” and is found
only here in the New Testament. The Jews
commonly taught that the Sabbath
foreshadowed the world to come, and they
spoke of it as “a day which shall be all
Sabbath.”[2]
Hebrews 3:12-15 says, “Take
care, brothers, lest there be in any of you
an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to
fall away from the living God. But exhort
one another every day, as long as it is
called “today,” that none of you may be
hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we
have come to share in Christ, if indeed we
hold our original confidence firm to the
end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his
voice, do not harden your hearts as in the
rebellion.’”
The recipients of this
letter were Jewish Christians who were in danger of falling away from
God and forsaking their assembling with one
another (Heb. 3:12; 10:25). They were
warned against allowing unbelief and a
sinful heart to cause them to fall away like
Israel had throughout their history. The
Greek word is “apostēnai.” It means “to
turn away from, or apostatize from” the
faith (cf. Luke 8:13; 1 Tim. 4:1).
The author warned his readers not to turn
away from their faith in Christ as Lord and
to walk together in mutual love and
encouragement as long as it is called
“today” (Heb. 3:13). The sin of unbelief
can lead a person away from the only true
God. This kind of unbelief is the stubborn
refusal to trust in God and the truthfulness
of his word. Those who commit this type of
apostasy are said to be “crucifying the Son
of God all over again” by their unbelief
(Heb. 6:6).
God has called each of
us to exercise faith in Jesus Christ, His
one and only Son. Biblical faith is a
trusting commitment to God and belief in His
promise of salvation and eternal life (Ps. 18:2; 40:4; 71:5; 73:26; Prov. 3:5;
Jer. 17:7; John 3:16; Rom. 1:16; 5:1).
The rest in Hebrews 4:9 is not
the weekly, seventh day Sabbath rest given
to Israel under the Old Covenant Law.
It is a perpetual “Sabbath rest” to be
enjoyed by believers who are in fellowship
with the Father and the Son. We are meant to
experience it every moment of every day in
contrast to the weekly Sabbath rest Israel
had under the Old Covenant Law. Unbelief
keeps us from entering into God’s rest, but
trusting in what Christ has done for us
opens the door wide. We do not need to wait
for the next life to enjoy God’s
“sabbatismos” rest because it is said to be,
“Today.” We can enter God’s rest right now
by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for our
salvation! The divine rest God offers us
will not end in death, but will continue on
through eternity in our heavenly home (John 14:1-4).
In Hebrews 4:11-13, the
author says that we must be diligent to
enter the rest into which we have already
entered.
We cannot live by
law and grace! You must live by one or the
other.
Hebrews 4 uses 3
different illustrations for the rest God
wants us to enter into in the New Covenant.
The type of rest that God alone entered into
after he created the universe (Heb. 4:4),
the rest spoken of by David in the psalms
(Heb. 4:6-7), and the rest Joshua wanted
Israel to enter into when they took
possession of the promised land (Heb. 4:8-10). The text doesn’t say anywhere that
God expects us to keep the weekly, seventh day
Sabbath from the Old Covenant.
The
seventh day Sabbath has nothing to do with
our salvation, and nothing to do with the
gospel of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant. The Sabbath served
Israel as a ceremonial sign of the Mosaic
Covenant to distinguish Israel from the
surrounding nations (Exod. 31:16-17; Ne. 9:13-14;
Ezek. 20:12, 20). It was
never made a requirement for the New
Covenant Church (Acts 15; Col. 2:14-17; Rom. 14:5-12;
Eph. 2:11-16; Gal. 4:10-11). The New Covenant rest
that God promises us is the assurance of
salvation in Jesus Christ alone. Just as God
rested after His work of creation in Genesis 2,
we too can find both, physical and spiritual
rest when we stop trying to earn our
salvation and trust in what Christ has
already accomplished for us through the
cross (Heb. 4:9-10;
Matt. 11:28; John 3:16; 5:24; 17:3; Rom. 6:23; 1 Jn. 2:25).
Jesus Christ
promises God’s divine rest to all those who
believe in Him. Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come
to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light.”
Jesus Christ is the
good shepherd who came into the world to
free us from the curse of sin and death, and
give us an abundant life. Jesus came to set
us free from life’s worries and to give us
comfort and peace by trusting in Him. God’s
true rest is for everyone who seeks the
forgiveness of their sins and freedom from
the crushing burden and guilt of trying to
earn their salvation by good works.
We can only experience God’s divine rest
when we stop working for our salvation and
put our trust in Jesus Christ alone for our
redemption.
References:
1. Here
are two good Bible dictionary definitions for the Greek
word, “sabbatismós.”
•
The Complete
Word Study Dictionary says, “the noun
sabbatismós, a Sabbath keeping, is used in
Hebrews 4:9 to indicate the perpetual
Sabbath rest to be enjoyed uninterruptedly
by believers in their fellowship with the
Father and the Son in contrast to the weekly
Sabbath under the Law. It is a divine rest
into which the believers enter in their
relationship with God here on earth and in
eternity” [σαββατισμός / sabbatismós].
•
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines “sabbatismos”
as, “The blessed rest from toils and
troubles looked for in the age to come by
the true worshippers of God and true
Christians” [R.V. Sabbath rest, Hebrews 4:9].
2. See: The Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible:
Hebrews 4:9.
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