Day 1179: The Sabbath rest - Exodus 20 vs 8 - 11

8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 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, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11 English Standard Version.

Having just posted on Jesus' prayer that believers 'might be one', we come today to something that’s led to much division. It was God's commandment that the ‘Sabbath day’ be kept holy. Matthew Henry (a saint of old) said: "The sabbath day is a blessed day, for God blessed it. And that which He blesses is blessed indeed. God has put an honour upon it, has appointed us, on that day, to bless Him, and has promised, on that day, to meet us and bless us." So why are there different opinions when it comes to the Sabbath day?

Firstly, because this command was especially given to Jewish people who had been saved out of Egypt. And, like circumcision, it was one of the commands that defined being Jewish. Over the years that followed, however, their leaders defined 'not working' to the point that they lost the purpose of the Sabbath. It led Jesus to say:“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) And He added “So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

At the council of Jerusalem, when the Church met to discuss what certain Jewish Christians were teaching, that “it was necessary to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses”, they responded by highlighting what they deemed to be important for Gentile converts. They said they should “abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.” (Acts 15:20) No mention was made about keeping the Sabbath as “necessary for salvation”.

We must remember that, as the Church grew amongst gentiles, many converts would've been slaves, and could not be fussy about “wanting time off to go to Church!” Perhaps this is why Paul said to the Colossians that God had forgiven them all their trespasses “by cancelling the record of debt that stood against them with its legal demands.” (Colossians 2:13-14) He goes on to say: “Therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” (Colossians 2:16-17)

Jesus had said: “Don't think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them . . . anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19) But then He enlarged upon the spiritual dimension of the law. The book of Hebrews follows His pattern, and speaks of the Sabbath rest as meaning a rest from our own works to earn salvation. It says: “There remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:9-11)

So the first Christians began to meet especially on the first day of the week, as it was the day Christ arose, but it wasn't due to any command. Paul reminded Christians in Rome: “One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord.”

But for the Jews of old, they were indeed called to remember the Sabbath day, and to keep it holy by resting from their work as God did from His. May we as Christians not fill our lives with so much busy-ness, that we neglect to set time apart to meet together as God's redeemed people.