  Foundations of the Faith
By Robert P. Mills The Presbyterian Layman Tuesday, September 15, 1998 Foundations of the Faith explores and explains the fundamental doctrines of our Christian faith. Our prayer is that laity and clergy alike will find these articles useful not only in developing their own faith, but in their ministries of preaching, teaching, and witnessing.
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The importance of the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy,” is attested by the fact that it is longer than any of the other commandments. Yet despite its lengthy explanation in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, it is perhaps the least well understood, and almost certainly least observed. In this study we will look at three of the commandment’s key words, at its grounding in creation and the exodus from Egypt, and at Jesus’ response to it. For as we consider its meaning, origin and fulfillment in Jesus Christ, we gain a deeper sense of what it means to remember the Sabbath. Remember the Sabbath The Hebrew word translated “Remember” covers a range of meanings from a purely mental act, to a mental act accompanied by appropriate activities, to invoking God’s name and reciting God’s law. In this verse the verb is an emphatic imperative, conveying the sense of “observe without lapse” or “hold as a present and continuing priority.” These overlapping meanings are similar to the Hebrew verb “to hear” with its implication “to obey.” “Sabbath” is a transliteration of the Hebrew sabbath, from a root meaning “cease, desist, rest.” The Old Testament consistently uses this term to denote a day of cessation, for religious reasons, from the usual daily routine, a day designed to interrupt the normal activity of work, and a definite and fixed day. Unlike Israel’s other days of religious observance, none of which are mentioned in the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath is extraordinary in the week, not the year. Six days for business as usual must suffice. On the seventh, no one is to undertake such routine work. The major thrust of the command falls on the verb “to make holy,” from a root meaning “set apart.” The command to remember the Sabbath is not simply concerned with stopping routine activity but with the positive action of setting the day apart for service to God. Sabbath, creation and the exodus Exodus 20:11 connects the command to remember the Sabbath with the fact that after six days of creation God rested on the seventh (Gen. 2:2-3). The nature of the day as holy, set apart for God’s purpose, is grounded in the creative act of God. One could go so far as to say that the Sabbath is built into the very structure of the universe. At a minimum the Sabbath invites God’s people to rejoice in God’s good creation and to recognize God’s sovereignty over all creation, including time. God himself respects this as a day of rest from the labor of the other six days. Since he himself kept it and blessed it, his people could hardly do otherwise. The divinely appointed task to exercise dominion over the created order (Gen. 1:26) carried with it the privilege of sharing in God’s rest. Thus the Sabbath is a regular reminder of the eternal covenantal relationship that is the ultimate purpose of creation. When Moses repeats this commandment to the Israelites as they prepare to enter the promised land (Deut. 5:12-15), he connects the Sabbath with deliverance from Egypt. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, there had been no day of rest from forced labor. Moses’ requests for time to worship were rejected by Pharaoh. But God brought his people out of Egypt, commanding them to celebrate the Sabbath day as a “stopping day,” a proclamation not only of their dependence on God but also their independence of all other peoples and powers. Both creation and the exodus emphasize humanity’s dependence on God. To rest on the Sabbath day is to remember that God’s people, as a part of God’s created order, remain totally dependent on their Creator. The exodus too was a type of creation, marking in effect the creation of God’s people as a nation. The early Christians recognized these truths when they connected the day of rest with the remembrance of Christ’s resurrection. Jesus Christ is the one who gives us freedom and who makes us into his people. The relationship between the Sabbath and the exodus is analogous to that between the Lord’s Day and the resurrection. The principles of creation and freedom remain in force for Christians, although the day has been changed. (For a history and theology of the transition from Sabbath to Sunday see D.A. Carson, ed., From Sabbath to the Lord’s Day.) |
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| Jesus and
the Sabbath By the time of Jesus, the Sabbath commandment had apparently proved too vague for certain Jewish religious leaders. They had divided the injunction against working on the Sabbath into 39 areas of prohibited work, each of which was further subdivided into still more areas. As a result, it was tradition, not Scripture, that had become authoritative. What Jesus did on the Sabbath (see Mark 2:23-28, John 5:8-18) was certainly in conflict with Jewish legal precepts and interpretations of the law. But Jesus’ actions were not in conflict with the law itself. What he said and did corresponded completely with the character of the Sabbath described throughout the Old Testament. While Jesus challenged the pharisaical perversion of the Sabbath, he bound himself to the biblical commandment and made very clear that it was to be obeyed. Moreover, Christ himself fulfilled the Sabbath (Matt. 5:17). Therefore, the Sabbath is different after Christ. Just as Christians no longer offer sacrifices in the Temple because Christ himself is our sacrifice, so we do not observe the sabbatical cycle of years and the year of Jubilee. Neither do we execute those who violate the Sabbath (Num. 15:32-36). For the Christian, God’s law, including the command to remember the Sabbath, is fulfilled in Christ, through whom we enter into God’s own rest (Heb. 4:1-11). Celebration and commemoration In every age there have been people enslaved to their work. More than 300 years ago Thomas Watson offered an obser-vation that has never been more timely: “The business of the week-days makes us forgetful of God and our souls: the Sabbath brings him back to our remembrance. When the falling dust of the world has clogged the wheels of our affections, that they can scarce move towards God, the Sabbath comes, and oils the wheels of our affections.” The “falling dust of the world” still clogs our souls, blocks our vision of God and slows our progress toward him. Remembering the Sabbath reverses such debilitating effects on our Christian faith and life. Remembering the Sabbath also reminds us that God is sovereign over time–over each year, each day, each moment. It reminds us that Jesus–not the clock or calendar, not a company or country–is our Lord. And it reminds us that the Sabbath is a celebration of God’s good creation and a commemoration of our liberation. |
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