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CHAPTER
24
CHAPTER
TWENTY FOUR
LORD
OF THE SABBATH
In
the order that the Ten Commandments were given by Almighty
God to Moses, the commandment concerning the Sabbath
day was fourth on the list. It was extremely important
and we are brought back to this time after time in the
Old Testament and even in the New Testament. God commanded
the people of Israel to:
“Observe
the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your
God has commanded you. Six days you shall labour 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,
neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant
or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your
animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your
manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.”
(Deuteronomy
chapter 5, verses 12-14).
God
was showing His concern for the Israelites, their servants,
strangers who might be among them, and even for their
animals. All should be blessed with rest on the seventh
day of every week. But it was more than a time of rest
from hard labour, it was meant to be a constant reminder
that the God of all creation was their God. He toiled
over creation for six days and rested on the seventh.
He desired His people to rest and remember Him who could
bless them in so many other ways. It reminded them that
they were to be different and set apart from the nations
around them. It reminded them of His concern for the
lowly, the stranger, and it showed them that even beasts
of burden should be treated well. In fact, it would
be a time when all the other nine commandments could
be remembered and meditated over, a time of worshipping
God and learning His ways. This would lead to regular
worship in tabernacles, temples and synagogues.
Sabbath,
meaning ‘a time of rest’ or ‘ceasing from work’, fell
on a Saturday. When the Church came into being the regular
weekly meetings would take place on a Sunday, the first
day of the week. This became known as the Lord’s Day
and the beginning of the week due to the fact that Jesus
was raised from the dead on that day. The Sunday of
the Christian churches is not the Jewish Sabbath moved
to another day, it is a new thing entirely, as are all
things in Christ; however, it has also traditionally
been a day of rest and a day of communal worship for
Christians.
In
truth, the Christian need not hold any particular day
holier than any other. When we are indwelt with the
Spirit of God every day can be a day of fellowship,
prayer, praise and worship; however, weekly organised
meetings are still a great benefit for many reasons,
and we are told in the New Testament to meet regularly.
In
Exodus chapter 31, verses 12-14, we read of the serious
consequences of neglecting to honour the Sabbath day:
Then
the LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You
must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between
me and you for the generations to come, so that you
may know that I am the LORD who makes you holy.
“Observe
the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates
it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that
day must be cut off from his people.”
We
can understand why the Israelites should be so severe
in their keeping of the Sabbath day, though by the time
when Jesus was among them, the religious Jews had taken
Sabbath keeping to ridiculous extremes---not allowing
even good works of charity or healing to be done:
Another
time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shrivelled
hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason
to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see
if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the
man with the shrivelled hand, “Stand up in front of
everyone.”
Then
Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to
do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But
they remained silent.
He
looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed
at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch
out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was
completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and
began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill
Jesus.
(Mark
chapter 3, verses 1-6).
The
Pharisees had hard hearts; they imagined they were pleasing
God by interpreting God’s laws in a strict outward fashion---even
a good work would not be tolerated on the Sabbath. So,
was Jesus ignoring or flouting God’s Sabbath rule? Never:
“Do
not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the
Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil
them.”
(Matthew
chapter 5, verse 17).
The
Sabbath law itself was only a shadow of the true rest
of God. A man might find rest for his body on the Sabbath
day, but a greater, deeper, everlasting rest was in
view; a rest that involved the whole man, the inner
man. Remember, Jesus said, ‘Come to me you who are heavy
laden, and you will find rest for your souls.’ This
is the true rest---to find eternal rest in Christ.
Who
dare change the Almighty’s Sabbath conditions? Jesus
said He did not change them but He fulfilled them. He
is the promised rest. We no longer have to work at law-keeping
to please God; and we can never work our way into heaven.
Rather, the work that God requires of us is this:
Then
they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God
requires?”
Jesus
answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the
one he has sent.”
(John
chapter 6, verses 28-29).
Faith
in Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s laws because He
fulfils all that is in the ‘Law or the Prophets’.
Jesus
was confident about the works He could do on the Sabbath,
because He knew Himself to be the very Lord of the Sabbath:
“So
the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
(Mark
chapter 2, verse 28).
No
false belief or unbelief will ever bring rest for the
soul. Our true rest can only be found in the Lord of
rest---the Lord of the Sabbath.
Thine
earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love;
But
there’s a nobler rest above:
To
that our labouring souls aspire,
With
ardent pangs of strong desire.
(from
‘Lord of the Sabbath’ by P. Doddridge)
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