The Sabbath - A Conenant Sign

The Sabbath - A Conenant Sign

The Hebrew verb shabbath means “to rest from labour.” So we have simplistically come to think of it as a day of rest. The idea first mentioned in the Garden of Eden, when man was in innocence. “On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made” (Gen 2:2)

In the New Testament, in one incident, when Jesus and His disciples were deemed by the Pharisees to have done something that was considered unlawful to be done on Sabbath, He retorted: “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath” (Mark 2:23-28).

What are we to make of this? First, let us consider two O.T. scriptures on the Sabbath. In Exodus 31:13, 17 we are taught that the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant: “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. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever…”

Second, we are commanded very clearly to “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). Here, it would appear the injunction is straightforward. To us the prescription is: “Remember” and “keep holy.”

But how do we remember and keep holy? A couple of observances are to be made if we are to remember and keep holy this “sign of the covenant.”

Worship. Divine worship is to be celebrated. Two scriptures inform us of this. Ezekiel 46:3,”Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths…” And Acts 16:13, “On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.” (ESV)

Word. The Scriptures are to be read. “For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day…” (Acts 13:27) and “Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day” (Acts 15:21).

Preaching. Finally, the word of God is not only to be read, but it is to be preached as well. In Acts 13, after “the reading of the law and the prophets,” the rulers of the synagogue will ask for a “word of exhortation for the people” (v 15). The practice was entrenched when, “the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God” (v 44).

These observances, which we need to continuously uphold, serve to show God’s continuing creative power mediated by Jesus through the Word. It is the only means to heal and to cleanse – to make you more like Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath.

In Him,
Rev Robert Chew