In the religious realm, there are many customs, traditions, and practices relating to sabbath. What is God’s purpose for sabbath? Is sabbath a specific day or is it a place of relationship, fellowship, and rest? I say Sabbath is the seventh day ordained Holy by God…a day that points us to true Sabbath which is eternal Rest in God.
Sabbath is first and foremost…a place of rest within fellowship with God. And to assure the opportunity for that kind of restin the work-hewn
world, God ordained the seventh day as a special time of interaction between God and man. Within the rest of sabbath man is be refreshed, renewed, encouraged, strengthened as he rests from his labors. Within sabbath man would be quiet and know God….would commune with God in Spirit and Truth. Le 16:31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.
Ex 23:12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.
Ex 31:13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Mark 2:27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Matt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’
De 12:10 But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety;
Has man lost the true meaning of sabbath and spiritual rest? If sabbath is lost to us then God may be lost to us as well. Someone once said, ‘All work and no pray makes for a hungary soul.’ Have we become so busy that we have neglected the one place where rest is found? Yes, I believe we may have confused the real place of rest ….of sabbath with an empty replica that affords no rest of the eternal sort.
Contemporary Sabbath is a smorgasbord of Saturday(Adventists), Sunday(most other Protestants) , Church attendance, doing no work on Sabbath, doing proselytizing work on Sabbath, socializing with fellow believers on Sabbath, visiting/preaching to those in prison on Sabbath, of providing products and services to the populace, and so forth. Where has Sabbath gone? Sabbath has gone in the way of man’s traditions that has broadly declared Sabbath obsolete. Blue Law which once protected and honored Sunday as Sabbath has long since been undone.
True, the laws of Sabbath as originally given to the children of Israel under the Law were modified some within the fulfilling of the Law…Christ. But, according to Exodus 31:13, Sabbath is a perpetual covenant. Thus, Sabbath remains a special day, a special place…and a special rest for the children of God. The Bible is filled, front to back, with discussion and revelation about rest of the God kind. Without doubt Sabbath is both the seventh day in the realm of man and a timeless place of abiding for the man who believes…the man who has fellowship with God.
Heb 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Matt 11: 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 19 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Ex 33:14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
As an fyi, the word Sabbath means intermission. And no, I am not a Sabbatarian 🙂 — but Sabbath was given to all sorts of things like the land, i.e. there was an intermission when the land took a rest and regenerated before crops could be planted on it again. When the Israelites partook of the Sabbath, they had an intermission (Sabbath) in which they rested and then they would resume work.
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I agree. And Sabbath is a good thing in all its applications. We just gathered the first vegetables from our home garden. The garden is planted on a ‘rested’ plot of ground in order to allow a ‘sabbath’ for the place we have used for some years now. Ya…Sabbath is a very good thing.
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