A Day for Rest and Worship

“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, 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 (ESV)

In the first statement of this commandment recorded in Exodus 20:8-11, a reason for rest on the seventh day of the week is in remembrance of God’s resting after He had completed creation. For the second listing of the commandment about the Sabbath, see Deuteronomy 5:12:14. In it a reason for keeping the Sabbath is in remembrance of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egyptian bondage. In the wilderness wanderings, it was forbidden that the people gather manna on the seventh day but that they gather enough on the sixth day to last for two days. It is interesting to note that a system of working six days had already been established by the time the Ten Commandments were given. This was as God had done in creating the heaven and the earth and all within them. On the seventh day God rested. It was beneficial that man, too, rest on the seventh day. The seventh day became a day of worship as well as a day of rest. 

 

Leviticus states that a ‘holy convocation’ (for worship) was to be declared for the Sabbath day.  Thus worship began to be observed on the Sabbath Day. In the New Testament we read that Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath Day to worship: “And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read” (Luke 4:16). Also in the New Testament, we learn that Christians began to observe the first day of the week as a day holy unto the Lord and for worship, in commemoration of the Resurrection of the Lord on the first day of the week: “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked to them…” (Acts 20:7a). “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” wrote John in Revelation 1:10a.

Why did the observance of the Sabbath become so burdened down with “thou shalt nots” for Jewish worshipers? The observance of the Sabbath became somewhat the heart of the law. Prohibitions became burdensome. Some, like tying and untying a knot (as work) were enforced, and others as well were added to what was permitted and not permitted. By Jesus’ day, the practice of keeping account of Sabbath rule-breaking was so prevalent that Jesus was prompted to say: “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28). This occurred after his disciples, hungry on the Sabbath, plucked some grain from a field they passed and were criticized. Lest anyone think they were “stealing,” as well as plucking grain (working) on the Sabbath, the Deuteronomic law allowed for anyone hungry to gather enough grain from a field to assuage hunger (see Deuteronomy 23:25). 

 

What shall we say of the Sabbath as it relates to Christian practice? Sunday, the first day of the week, is observed as a day of rest and worship. We are to consider the day set aside for the work of the Lord and for gathering in assembly to study God’s word and worship. Our society has made work on Sunday almost a necessity and a way of life. We ought to seek a time to set aside for worship and a day to rest. Hebrews 4:1-11 speaks of the Sabbath Day as a foretaste of the heavenly rest to come when we are gathered into the eternal kingdom. We should say with conviction about Sunday and the day of corporate worship: “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1). -Ethelene Dyer Jones 09.20.2015