What is the Sabbath day?
The Sabbath is the seventh day, the day God set apart at the end of creation week and later commanded Israel to keep by resting from all work. Its name carries its meaning, and behind the weekly observance stands a much larger question: whose rest is it, and has anyone entered it yet?
The Word Itself
Israel did not choose its own gathering times; God fixed them, and the weekly one taught a single lesson by repetition.
An Outline of Sound WordsBecause it came round every week, the sabbath constantly kept the thought of rest before Israel. Work was to be done on six days; "but on the seventh day is the sabbath of rest," when toil stopped and rest began. The word sabbath means cessation, and by it God was showing that He had in His purpose a time when toil would stop for ever.
God's Rest, Not Man's
The institution goes back to the beginning of the Bible, and the one who rested first was God — which changes how we read the whole subject.
C J DavisThe Sabbath is a divine institution, as mentioned in the second chapter of Genesis. You read that after the work of six days, God rested on the seventh day, and sanctified it. Carefully note that it was GOD'S rest, not man's. God rested after He had finished His work. It was not that He rested from labour, as man needs to do, for none of us would say that.
That rest was never meant to stay God's alone.
William KellyIt set out the precious truth that He who had stooped to work in forming the earth for man was always looking on to a rest which the renewed creature would 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.
A Sign Given to Israel
When the Sabbath appears in the ten commandments, it is not a general rule for the nations. Commentators press this point strongly.
William KellyIt must be repeated that it formed part of the law, and was distinctly a sign between God and Israel. The sabbath was never given to the Gentile as such, whatever people may argue. If a Gentile came and put himself under the shelter of Israel, of course he kept the sabbath; but as a Gentile he had nothing to do with it… "Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you."
Why No One Could Keep It
Sin interrupted the rest that Genesis describes, and that is why the Sabbath in the Gospels becomes a point of conflict rather than a point of peace.
Hamilton SmithThe significance of the sabbath is "rest from labour", as when in creation God "rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made". The creation rest was broken by sin, and now there can be no rest for God or man as long as man is under the power of sin and death. When, through the work and power of Christ, man is delivered from sin and healed, "the same day" will be the true Sabbath.
Christ Above the Day
Challenged by the Pharisees over His disciples, Jesus set the day in its proper order — under a Person.
F. B. HoleThe sabbath was set up for man's benefit, and not the reverse. So man takes precedence of the sabbath; and the Son of man, who holds dominion over all men, according to Psalm 8, must be Lord of the sabbath, and so free to dispose of it according to His will. Who were the Pharisees to challenge His right to do this?
The Rest Still Ahead
Hebrews traces the promise past Joshua and past David, and finds it unfulfilled.
Edward DennettThe conclusion is now drawn, "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God"; that is, it is yet future, being in fact the sabbatical rest of eternity, God's own rest, into which He in His grace proposes, as He always has proposed, to bring His people.
Sabbath and Lord's Day
Christians commonly call Sunday the Sabbath. Writers here treat that as a mix-up of two different days with two different meanings.
G C WillisBut the Sabbath day was the Seventh Day — a rest at the end of the week, after the labour is finished. The Lord's Day is called in Scripture the First Day of the week; for us it is the day above all days. It is the resurrection day. It shows we find our rest in resurrection. We find our rest at the beginning of our spiritual life, instead of finding it at the end of our labours.
Summary
- Cessation. The word means stopping work; every seventh day trained Israel to expect a time when toil ends for ever.
- God's. The rest began as His own, at the close of creation — and He always intended to share it, not keep it.
- Sign. For Israel the day marked out whose people they were; commentators here hold it was never laid on the nations.
- Broken. Sin ended creation's rest, so the day pointed to a rest no one yet had; Christ, Lord of the Sabbath, stands above the institution He made for man.
- Remaining. A Sabbath rest is still ahead for God's people, while the Lord's Day — the first day, resurrection day — already gives believers rest at the start rather than the end.