If you’ve only been exposed to mainstream Christianity, the title may seem very silly. Many believe that we do keep the Sabbath, we’ve just moved it to Sunday instead of Saturday. It may surprise many to learn that the Sabbath is a very special thing that most Christians don’t truly keep. Before we discuss whether we’re risking God’s wrath by breaking the 4th commandment, it’s crucial that we understand why God created the Sabbath in the first place.
God’s original intent
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation. (Genesis 2:3)
After God called His creation “very good,” He rested. Let’s address an obvious point: God didn’t need to rest. He isn’t a finite being with limited resources, as though creating the entirety of an orderly universe took any effort on His part. So why did God rest? Because He is our example, and He knew that we are finite being with very limited resources.
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:23)
God didn’t rest for Him, but for us. God is purposeful in everything He does. He could have made everything in 6 days and moved right on to our inevitable fall into pride and sin. Yet in His sovereign goodness, He set aside a day of rest to give our weary bodies a day to recharge.
Israel and the Sabbath
Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy… For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy. (Exodus 20:8, 11)
The 4th commandment seems like an important verse when we discuss keeping the Sabbath. Christians keep the other 9 commandments, so why should this one be any different? In fact, we see that God even declared the Sabbath as holy before the fall.
This topic can get surprisingly complicated, but we should observe one key fact: the Sabbath was never observed by anyone from Adam to Moses. The other 9 commandments are clearly judged by God throughout Genesis or early Exodus, while the Sabbath is never brought up. On top of that, the Israelites never observed the Sabbath until after they had been rescued from Egypt (Exodus 16), shortly before God gave the command to regularly observe it.
Why does Israel’s first Sabbath occurring after Egypt matter? Because of God’s whole purpose in requiring it.
Recall that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by strength and power. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15)
The entire purpose of observing the Sabbath is to remind Israel of God’s goodness to them, and especially to remind them of the Mosaic Covenant. It’s interesting to note that no Gentile nations are ever required to observe the Sabbath, nor are they condemned for not doing so. God absolutely judges the nation of Israel for abandoning the Sabbath, but no one else has ever faced God’s judgment for it.
Practically speaking, it’s not hard to understand why God would require Israel to observe it. They were once slaves who would one day be their own nation. Most of us know what it’s like to forget God’s goodness when we go from poverty to a pay raise, so imagine how easy it would be to forget what God had done for your people centuries before. God knows the short attention span of His creation and implemented a day for them to cease from all their labors, both for their physical and spiritual health.
As we ponder the purpose of the Sabbath and move on to Part 2, it’s important to remember that the covenants and promises for Israel aren’t specifically for Christians today. We can often see God’s character through the promises He makes, but we must remember that we are outside observers listening in on God talking to His chosen people. We can infer things, but we must be careful not to apply God’s words to Israel as binding on all of God’s people forever. Doing so often meets with very confusing results.
Rest, not church
For six days you may labor and do all your work, 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 cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. (Exodus 20:9-10)
When we try to understand the Sabbath, it’s important to note how absolute God was about it. There was absolutely no room for things to get done that day. It wasn’t just Israelite men and women, but everyone. There was no way to get work done through your children, servants, or even visiting foreigners. God wanted people to absolutely respect His purpose for the Sabbath.
Throughout the Bible, we see some other things God seems to forbid on the Sabbath:
- Gathering sticks (Numbers 15:32-36)
- Making a fire (Exodus 16)
- Based on the above, cooking was likely forbidden
- Carrying anything, or moving things through the city (Jeremiah 17:21)
Along with Exodus 20:9-10 forbidding any activity that made someone else work, we begin to see a clear pattern.
Despite how we often discuss the Sabbath today, it actually had nothing to do with gathering together to worship God. The Sabbath has always been purely about rest, and it has always been meant for Israel. That’s not to say we shouldn’t have a day of rest – indeed, God knew we needed one from the day we were created! Yet even then, it’s not about keeping a law that was never meant for us.
Whether resting from labor or remembering the rest from slavery, God has never made the Sabbath about our New Testament version of church, nor did He ever make it a command for anyone but the Israelites. As we’ll discuss, even the Sabbath itself serves the far greater purpose of pointing to Jesus Christ, our true and final Sabbath rest.
Now that we’ve seen the original purpose of the Sabbath, join me in Part 2 where we discuss what that means for Christians today.
Want to read more? Check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
