WHAT IS SABBATH? Did you know that God wants a placeholder on his calendar for a weekly meeting with you? In the Old Testament, this appointment was called the Sabbath (Hebrew: shabbat). The idea began at creation (Gen 2:1-3) and was instituted after the exodus of Israel from Egypt (Ex.20:8-11). The Hebrew term shabbat speaks of “rest” (Gen.2:2). Each week, from sundown on Friday till sundown on Saturday, God commanded his people Israel to honor him and set this time aside from the chaos and distraction of everyday life. Doing so reminded Israelites of certain things. First, they were reminded that God rested after making chaos into a habitable place for humanity (Gen.1:2; 2:1-3). God had brought order to the unformed earth and the primeval watery deep (Gen.1:2) to create a home for humanity. He came to earth to dwell in his garden with his human family (Gen.3:8; Ezek.28:13; 31:8,9; Isa.51:3). Second, Sabbath reminded Israel of how God had again shown his mastery over the chaotic watery deep by parting the Red Sea to deliver his people from Egypt’s pharaoh and its gods. He would bring them to the home he had prepared for them and save them from all the supernatural powers of chaos that sought their destruction. By remembering the Sabbath, Israel remembered who truly was God of gods, master of creation, and that this mighty God had loved them before God gave them the law (Deut.7:7-8). Israel did not have to earn God’s love, only rest in it. The Sabbath rest reminded them of the hand of God in their origin, status, and destiny. Jesus and his disciples observed the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. After the resurrection, Jewish followers of Jesus honored the Sabbath but gradually began to meet on the first day of the week, the day of resurrection (Matt.28:1; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor.16:2). The New Testament believers, Jew and Gentile alike, thought of this day as “the first day of Sabbath rest” (the literal Greek wording in Acts 20:7; 1 Cor.16:2). They connected the idea of Sabbath to what Jesus did on the cross. As the book of Hebrews tells us, Jesus is our Sabbath rest: For we who have believed enter that rest… So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (Heb.4:3,9-10 ESV) We lack nothing in God’s eyes when it comes to his acceptance of us as children in his family. We are whole in Christ, equal members of the same family, not on the basis of our performance, but on the basis of the perfect obedience of Jesus in accomplishing his mission for our forgiveness and salvation. We are to rest in that.
5 Online Touch Home