1 The Sabbath is a day of rest and refreshment for the mind and body in preparation for work the following week.

2 The Sabbath commandment calls people to gather for worship.

3 Christians changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.

EXPLANATION:

1 We may think that God instituted one day of rest per week, because after six days of toil, the human body and brain need rest. But the Bible says no such thing. Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Jewish rabbi and theologian, wrote in his book The Sabbath that this kind of thinking is in the spirit of Aristotle, not in the spirit of the Bible. Heschel asserts that the Sabbath was not ordained for the purpose of regaining strength for further work, but for the good of life. It is spiritual rest that gives meaning to life, not work.

Do we imagine that on the first day of the following week, God packed his lunch, punched the time clock and started a new week of work? The Bible says His work has been finished since the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:3). The seventh day was the beginning of an endless rest for God, and the promise to us is that we can enter that rest. The purpose of the Sabbath was to separate people from earthly cares so that they could contemplate eternal realities. The New Testament makes it clear that the work that must cease is our futile attempts to earn salvation.

In Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus invites us to cease our work, lay down our burdens, and he will give us rest for our souls. Hebrews 11.1-10 is an invitation to cease our work and enter into God’s rest, the Sabbath. “For he that is entered into his rest has ceased from his own works, as God did from his” (Hebrews 4.10). We enter this rest when we are born again. We know God as our Father, and we are assured that he knows us as his child. He fills us with love, joy, peace and all the fruits of the spirit. He guides us, comforts us and helps us in all the difficulties we encounter in life. Living the Sabbath also requires that we forgive others, not hold grudges, not favour one person over another, but see others as God sees them.

God gave the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 58:6-14) a beautiful picture of the right way to fast and keep the Sabbath. Does this sound like something we should only do on certain occasions, or one day a week? Is it not rather the image of the New Testament kingdom of God, when God’s children will live the Sabbath every day?

2 Read the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8-11). There is no instruction here to gather for worship one day a week. In Old Testament times, there were only three annual festivals on which all adult males were required to gather for worship in Jerusalem.

Nor does the Old Testament give any instructions about setting up synagogues and holding services on one day a week. This was a tradition that seems to have begun during the Babylonian captivity, and it was a good one. Christians adopted this tradition and weekly worship became the main source of support for our spiritual life. It’s not a law written on stone tablets, but it should be a law written in our hearts that we want to gather where and when spiritual food is served.

3 That’s why we can’t say that the Christian Church has changed the Sabbath day. The weekly Sabbath was ordained as a foretaste of the spiritual rest that would be offered by the Messiah. This rest is fulfilled when we are born again and life becomes a perpetual Sabbath. We know God as our Father, and we are assured that he knows us as his child. He fills us with love, joy, peace and all the fruits of the spirit. He guides us, comforts us and helps us in all the difficulties we encounter in life.

We have entered the Sabbath, not a day on our earthly calendars, but a time that will last until the end of time and into eternity. Spiritual realities now take precedence over material ones. We don’t have to worry about our status in the eyes of others; what matters is that we are a child of God, surrounded by his love.

The Sabbath has not been changed or abolished by Christians, it has been fulfilled and they live out that fulfillment every day. When Christians gather one day a week for worship, it’s not the Sabbath, it’s a day of worship, an opportunity to nourish and refresh the soul rather than the body. It’s not a law to be obeyed, but a grace to be received with joy.