“For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would notafterward have spoken of another day.”
(Heb. 4:8, NKJV)
In Scripture it is presented as the “seventh day”, the day of the Sabbath rest of God, the day of rest in which ALL WORKS ARE FULFILLED, but it is only valid for today. Your calling can only be fulfilled today. In the previous teachings we noted that this truth will not only hold immense implications for the fulfilment of your calling, but that it also has radical implications for our eschatological perspective, our perspective on the end times and what comes thereafter, which is commonly called the thousand year reign of peace.
We are going to spend a while off the course of our main theme, so that this important topic can be discussed.
Over the course of centuries the Christian tradition has placed a lot of emphasis on the importance of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is part of the creation order of God. In Gen. 2:2-3 we read the following: “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
Based on this God regarded the observance of the Sabbath as so important that he spelled it out in a specific commandment in the Ten Commandments: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Ex. 20:11).
A few chapters later the importance of the Sabbath and one’s observing thereof is highlighted again. It is presented as a sign, but also as an eternal covenant, and strict punishment is meted out if Israel does not hallow it: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’” (Ex. 31:12-17).
Throughout the Old Testament the importance of the Sabbath is emphasised. A few examples include Lev. 19:3 & 30; 23:3; 25:2; 26:2; Neh. 9:14; Jer. 17:24-27; Ezek. 20:12 & 20 and Ezek. 44:24.
Very specific positive effects are also mapped out for those who do indeed celebrate the Sabbath, of which Isa. 58:13-14 is perhaps the most beautifully articulated: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Also read the amazing promises about observing the Sabbath, as one for instance finds in Isa. 56:2-6.)
Then a very interesting thing happens: after the prophet Ezekiel speaks about the Sabbath, it is followed by the small prophets, and only two of them feature a reference to the Sabbath, and a single reference at that. Both instances speak of the sign of its end:
- 2:11 – “I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her New Moons, her Sabbaths— all her appointed feasts.”
- Amos 8:5 – “When will the New Moon be past, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit …”
We know that God is in the process of breaking his eternal covenant with Israel, not because He wants to, but because it is what Israel has chosen: “The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” (Isa. 24:5).
Ending the covenant with Israel has certain necessary effects – it also means the priesthood who ministered to the covenant comes to an end (which is what the entire prophetic book of Malachi is about – see for instance Mal. 2:8: “’But you have departed from the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,’
Says the Lord of hosts.”). If the priesthood ends, so does the law: “For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.” (Heb 7:12).
This should not come as a surprise. The prophet Jeremiah made this clear in no uncertain terms: “’Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’ Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name): ‘If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.’” (Jer. 31:31-36).
In earlier teachings we wrote about the timeline of Daniel (Manna Day 345-356), and the important role Stephen played within it. In Acts 6:13-14 the following is said of him: “They also set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.’” Jesus indeed changed the entire old covenant, and with that also the Sabbath. More on this in the next teaching.
- Selah: In light of the above – why do New Testament believers then still observe the Sabbath?
- Read: 8-14; Ester 1-5.
- Memorise: 13:1.
