All should Keep the Sabbath

The Sabbath

The name "Sabbath" is applied to divers great festivals, but principally and usually to the seventh day of the week, the strict observance of which is enforced not merely in the general Mosaic code, but in the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God himself. The consecration of the Sabbath was as old as the creation. The first scriptural notice of it, though not mentioned by name, is to be found in Gen 2:1-3, at the close of the record of the six days of creation.

The first place that the Sabbath mentioned by name is in Ex 16:22-30 in connection with the prohibition against gathering manna on the Sabbath. It is mentioned as a practice that is already known.

Another place that the Sabbath is mentioned in the scriptures as a practice that was already known is in the wording of the law, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy". The Sabbath was to be a joyful celebration of God's completion of his creation.

• Exodus 20:8-11

In The Law

In the law we find the divine method of working and rest after which man is to work and to rest.

It is important to remember that the Fourth Commandment is not limited to a mere enactment respecting one day, but prescribes the due distribution of a week, and enforces the six days' work as much as the seventh day's rest. It was to be a sacred pause in the ordinary labor by which man earns his bread; the curse of the fall was to be suspended for one day; and, having spent that day in joyful remembrance of God's mercies, man had a fresh start in his course of labor. A great snare, to, has always been hidden in the word work, as if the commandment forbade occupation and imposed idleness. The terms in the commandment show plainly enough the sort of work which is contemplated (servile work and business)

• Exodus 23:12
• Exodus 31:12-17
• Exodus 34:21
• Leviticus 19:3

A day of special worship.

The Sabbath is named as a day of special worship in the sanctuary.

• Leviticus 19:30
• Leviticus 26:2

The Sabbath was not only to be a day of special worship in the sanctuary but it extended into the homes of the people also.

• Exodus 35:2-3
• Leviticus 23:3

Moses gives additional reason for Sabbath.

Moses did not give a different reason for the institution of the Sabbath. He gave an additional reason for the Sabbath to be a joyful celebration by remembering that the Lord delivered Israel out of bondage in Egypt.

• Deuteronomy 5:12-15

The words in Deuteronomy give a special meaning to the joy with which the Sabbath should be celebrated, and the kindness which extended its blessings to the slave and the beast of burden as well as the master.

The spirit of the Law

When we consider spirit of the law we can see that it is work for worldly gain that was to be suspended; and hence the restrictive clause is prefaced with the positive command,"Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;" for only in this manner can the sabbatic rest be fairly earned. Hence the stress laid on permitting the servant and beast of burden to share the rest which selfishness would grudge to them. Thus the spirit of the Sabbath was joy, refreshment, and mercy, arising out of God's goodness as the Creator and as the Deliverer from bondage. The Sabbath was a perpetual sign and covenant, and the holiness of the day is connected with the holiness of the people; "that ye may know that I am Jehovah that doth sanctify you."

• Exodus 31:12-17
• Ezekiel 20:12

No buying or selling on the Sabbath.

The scriptures also tell us that buying and selling of goods also profane the sabbath day.

• Nehemiah 10:31
• Nehemiah 13:15-22

Other Old Testament Scriptures.

Here are some other Old Testament scriptures giving the Jews instructions on keeping the Sabbath.

• Isaiah 56:1-7
• Jeremiah 17:19-27

In the New Testament.

When we come to the New Testament we find that in whatever ways the Jew might err respecting the Sabbath, he had ceased to neglect it. Its observance became the most visible badge of his nationality. Our Lord's mode of observance of the sabbath was one of the main features of his life, which his Pharisaic adversaries most eagerly watched and criticized.

The perversion of the Sabbath had become very general in our Saviors time and is apparent both from the recorded objections to acts of his on that day and from his marked conduct on occasions to which those objections were sure to be urged.

• Matthew 12:1-14
• Luke 13:10-17
• John 5:2-18
• John 7:21-24
• John 9:1-34

The words of Jesus

The words of Jesus do not remit the duty of keeping the Sabbath, but only deliver it from the false methods of keeping which prevented it from bestowing upon men the spiritual blessings it was ordained to confer. It was the custom of Jesus to keep the sabbath and to enter the temples and synagogues and teach.

• Mark 1:21
• Mark 6:2
• Luke 4:16

The First day of the week.

The first day of the week was a special day to the apostles and to the early church because it was on this day when Jesus rose again.

• Matthew 28:1-6
• Mark 16:9
• John 20:19
• Acts 2:46-47

The Apostles observed Sabbath.

The apostles still observed the sabbath in the synagogue even though they were teaching and preaching Jesus and the Lord was adding people to the church daily.

• Acts 13:13-14
• Acts 17:1-3

Both first and seventh day were kept.

For many years both the first and seventh days of the week were kept as sabbaths; and gradually the first day of the week, The Lord's Day, took the place of the seventh day among Christians. The early church chose the first day of the week as their sabbath, The Lord's Day, as this was the day when Jesus was resurrected.

• Acts 20:7
• Revelation 1:10-11

The Fourth Commandment.

The Fourth Commament is just as binding now as it ever was, or as any other of the Ten Commandments. Those who argue that God has abolished this sabbath, but has written the Sabbath Law in our very natures, must have strange ideas of the wisdom of a God who abolishes a command he has made it necessary to keep. Christians in keeping the Lord's Day keep the Fourth Commandment, as really as do those who keep what is called the seventh day. They keep every seventh day, only the counting starts at a different point.

Method of keeping Sabbath.

As to the method of keeping the Sabbath no rules are laid down; but no one can go far astray who holds to the principles laid down:

1. Rest --- Nothing is to be done in daily business, and no recreation taken which destroys the rest of others or takes from any the privileges of the Sabbath.
   
   
2. Spiritual nurture --- One day in seven is to be set apart for the culture of the spiritual nature.
   
   

These two principles of Sabbath keeping will always go together. Only a religious Sabbath, which belongs to God, can be retained among men as a day of rest. If men can sport on the Sabbath, they will soon be made to work.

The only barrier that can keep the world out of the Sabbath or that can preserve it to the working people as a day of rest is God's command to keep it sacred to him.

When the Sabbath becomes a day of pleasure, it ceases to be a day of rest.

The Sabbath is so important to man that no people can have the highest religious life, the truest freedom, the greatest prosperity, unless they be a Sabbath-keeping people, whose Sabbath is one of rest and of religion.

• Hebrews 10:25