What doesshabbatmean?

(Lev. 23:1, 3.) The children of Israel were not left to decide when they should gather together in the presence of Jehovah; there were set feasts, fixed times which Jehovah appointed as holy convocations; gatherings that were consonant with the holy character of the God who had chosen Israel to be His people. Because of its recurrence each week, the sabbath constantly kept before Israel the thought of rest. Work was to be done on six days; "But on the seventh day is the sabbath of rest," when toil ceased and rest began. The word sabbath means cessation, and God was indicating in it that He had in His purpose a time when toil would for ever cease. Each sabbath brought this thought of rest before them, but the rest of each sabbath was broken, or brought to a close, by the labours of the other six days.

Genesis 2:1-3, really belongs to Genesis 1, and completes the paragraph. The seventh day was a day of rest for God. His work had involved both creating and making, but all was now complete, and evidently He has not set His hand to work of that order from that time until now. The entrance of sin necessitated His taking up work of another order, and the Lord Jesus alluded to this in saying, "My Father works hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17).

Thus the seventh day was specially blessed and set apart, and we may say that a seventh day of rest after six days of work is a thought that dates back to the very beginning of man's history. The word "sabbath" does not occur until we reach Exodus 16:23, where it designates the seventh day after the manna was given. After that the law was given, and this "sabbath" — this "ceasing" as the word means — became a legal institution for Israel, and a sign between them and the Lord for ever, as stated in Exodus 31:17. Hebrews 4:4-10 also alludes to this, and evidently Israel will yet enjoy her sabbath in the millennial age; God thus redeeming the sign He had given.

Some people talk about the "Christian Sabbath" meaning the first day of the week. There is no such thing in the Bible as the "Christian Sabbath." "Sabbath" means "rest," and the Lord said, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." John 5:17. The Lord Jesus could not rest in a world full of sin and suffering: He could not keep the Sabbath down here; and so we find that continually the Jewish leaders were finding fault with Him because He broke the Sabbath. No more can a true Christian keep the Sabbath in such a world. He has no more right to be resting here than his Master. If his Master must work, so must he. But in Hebrews 4:9 we read: "There remaineth a keeping of a sabbath to the people of God." The sabbath rest is ahead of us. Soon, in the glory, we will rest with Him who has purchased that rest for us. Then we will keep sabbath: but not now.

Why then should the Sabbath have such a prominent, place to begin with? The answer is that the Sabbath typifies the very end of God's ways in grace on earth, even His own entrance into the rest He has had ever before Him, of accomplishing all the purposes of His grace and love to men. The very word Sabbath, Hebrew, Shabbath, means cessation of work. "He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works" (Heb. 4:4). The Sabbath typifies the eternity of rest that lies before God when He will rest in the complacency of His love, when righteousness shall dwell. "We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness" (2 Peter 3:13).

"Sabbath" means "rest", and we should understand clearly that in the Bible, whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, having a share in God's rest is what marks God's people. This is their special privilege. As God says, "Verily my Sabbath (rest) ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you." The form of the rest may change, as we shall see, but a share in God's rest is always the sign between God and His people.

We read in Genesis 2 that "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." (v. 3.) This fixes the meaning of the sabbath or the seventh day; for it should be carefully observed that it is the seventh and no other day, showing clearly that it is God's rest. This meaning is asserted most distinctly also in the epistle to the Hebrews. (See Heb. 4:1-11.) The sabbath therefore is a type of God's rest, and as given to man expresses the desire of God's heart that he should share with Him in His rest. It is found here for the first time. There is not a trace of it through all the patriarchal age, or during the sojourn of the children of Israel in Egypt, but, as found in this chapter in connection with the manna, it has a most blessed significance.

The sabbath was instituted, as we know, at the beginning. It formed the close of the week devoted by God to making the heavens and the earth which now are. It set forth the precious truth, that He who had deigned to work in forming the earth for man always looked onward to a rest which the renewed creature should share; not merely a rest for us, but for Him and us together, when there will be no more working. The sign of this was the sabbath or seventh day.

"And the heavens and the earth and all their host were finished. And God had finished on the seventh day his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that on it he had rested from all his work which God had created in making" (or, and made, lit. to make) (vers. 1-3).

The last is without doubt a remarkable phrase, falling in naturally with what we have seen in the opening verses, an original creation where man was not, succeeded by catastrophe, and by fresh creative energy, the details of which refer to the scene where and when man was to be brought into being. Here the work and the rest of God are in clear view of the race; and the seventh day or sabbath has immense importance. On its first mention it was unmistakably the witness of God's rest: His rest, not from weariness of course, but from the work of creation and making. This work was now ended for the life that now is. And as the six preceding days were literal, so is the seventh the closing day of the week.

This is amply and strictly confirmed by Ex. 20:1-11. The sabbath is not a but the seventh day, the memorial of creation finished — of the Adamic world. "For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it." The language is precise. It is not said "created" but "made." This was the right phrase as a whole for the work of the six days, however well creating is said of parts within that work. It was not the original production but a special construction of divine will and power with man in view. That the seventh day is the sabbath is with equal care impressed in Deut. 5:12-15, though the connection of heart here is with the deliverance from bondage in the land of Egypt rather than with creation.

The writer refers to creation to show that from the beginning God has had before Him “rest”, and to manifest the character of God's rest. After the world was formed and man was created in the image and likeness of God, the creation works of God were finished. This led to creation rest with its two distinctive marks: firstly, God's satisfaction in all that He had made, as we read, “God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good”; secondly, the entire cessation from all His creation work, as it is written, “He rested on the seventh day from all his work which He had made.” (Gen. 1:31; Gen. 2:2). Thus we learn the two great truths that mark God's rest: the absolute complacency in the result of the labour; and satisfaction being reached, the absolute end of all toil.

There are few subjects on which so much misunderstanding and contradiction prevails as the doctrine of "the Sabbath." Not that there is the slightest foundation for either the one or the other; for the whole subject Is laid down in the word, in the simplest possible manner. The distinct commandment, to "keep holy the Sabbath day" will come before us, the Lord permitting, in our meditations on the book of Exodus. In the chapter now before us, there is no command given to man, whatever; but simply the record that, "God rested on the seventh dray." "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And 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. and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." There is no commandment given to man, here. We are simply told that God enjoyed His rest, because all was done, so far as the mere creation was concerned. There was nothing more to be done, and, therefore, the One who had, during six days, been working, ceased to work, and enjoyed His rest. All was complete; all was very good; all was just as He Himself had made it; and He rested in it. "The morning stars sang together; and all the sons of God shouted for joy." The work of creation was ended, and God was celebrating a Sabbath.

And, be it observed, that this is the true character of a Sabbath. This is the only Sabbath which God ever celebrated, so far as the inspired record instructs us. After this, we read of God's commanding man to keep the Sabbath, and man utterly failing so to do; but we never read again the words, "God rested;" on the contrary, the word is, "My Father works hitherto, and I work." (John 5:17) The Sabbath, in the strict and proper sense of the term, could only be celebrated when there really was nothing to be done. It could only be celebrated amid an undefiled creation — a creation on which no spot of sin could be discerned. God can have no rest where there is sin; and one has only to look around him in order to learn the total impossibility of God's enjoying a rest in creation now. The thorn and the thistle, together with the ten thousand other melancholy and humiliating fruits of a groaning creation, rise before us, and declare that God must be at work and not at rest. Could God rest in the midst of thorns and briers? Could He rest amid the sighs and tears, the groans and sorrows, the sickness and death, the degradation and guilt of a ruined world? Could God sit down, as it were, and celebrate a Sabbath in the midst of such circumstances?