The Sign of the Sabbath

And He gave to Moses, when He had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exodus 31:18)

Imagine being there, at the top of Mount Sinai, and receiving those two stone tablets engraved with the ten most important instructions from the heart of the Creator to His highest creation, man. Wouldn’t your heart have been pounding? Wouldn’t you have read them very carefully, and cherished them in your heart, and felt an urgency to pass on His words to everyone you loved so that they would be able to please their Creator? What could be a greater treasure than to have your Creator’s infinite wisdom condensed into ten simple commandments, given out of His great love for His people?

Perhaps you haven’t thought of the Ten Commandments in that way before. You may not even remember them all, or know where to find them in the Bible. Most people have forgotten at least one of them. Ironically, it is the only one that begins with the word, “Remember...”

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy... (Exodus 20:8)

If you are a Christian, you are probably already saying to yourself, “Oh, the Sabbath was for the Jews. For Christians, Sunday has replaced the Sabbath as our day of rest.” Perhaps you have been taught that Jesus fulfilled the Law, therefore the commandment to keep the Sabbath is no longer binding upon Christians. You may remember that Jesus said to His disciples:

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law until all is fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17-18)

But there is a problem with this line of reasoning. If Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, and if that means that His followers are released from keeping the Sabbath, then are we not also released from honoring our father and mother? Are we now free to murder and to commit adultery? Can we now worship other gods, and make idols, and take His name in vain? After all, we’re free from the Law. Ridiculous! Yes, but why is it not also ridiculous to set aside the fourth commandment? After all, right after the verse quoted above, Jesus also said:

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19)

So even if you consider the keeping of the Sabbath to be the least of the commandments, shouldn’t these words of the Savior cause you to pause? Ironically, the commandment to keep the Sabbath is the one about which more instruction is given in the Bible than any other commandment. It is also the first commandment which, when broken, resulted in the death penalty for the offender.1 Why, then, is it routinely ignored by the vast majority of Christians?

Actually, there is a very good reason lurking in the pages of church history.

Most Christians do not realize that the early church kept the Sabbath. According to the New Testament, the first disciples rested on the Sabbath, and then after the sun had set, marking the beginning of the first day of the week,2 they gathered to break bread, as is clear from Acts 20:7-8.3 It became the custom for the early church in the second century to rest on the seventh day and then have a festival on the first day of the week, at which there would be teachings and other ways of celebrating the resurrection. Ignatius wrote early in the second century: “And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s day as a festival, the resurrection day...” As late as the early fourth century it is recorded that Christians observed both the Sabbath and the “Lord’s Day” in their different ways.3 But by the end of the fourth century, Sunday had replaced the Sabbath in the minds and habits of most Christians.

A Sign between God and His People

“So what’s the big deal?” you might ask. “What difference does it make whether I go to church on Saturday or Sunday?”

It doesn’t make any difference at all for those who are not His people, but for His people, it makes a big difference! But the Sabbath is much more than a day of the week to cease working and attend a religious gathering. For God’s holy people, it is actually a prophetic event of great significance, which this passage expresses in the strongest terms:

And the LORD said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘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.

You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.

Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between Me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”

And He gave to Moses, when He had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exodus 31:13-18)

The Sabbath is a sign between God and His people that He has set them apart unto Himself, and is purifying them, which is what sanctify means. Israel was always intended to be a set-apart people, as even Balaam reluctantly prophesied: “Behold, a people who dwell apart, and will not be reckoned among the nations.”4 That meant that they were to dwell together and not live according to the cultures and the values of the nations around them. Instead, their tribal life, characterized by care for one another and trust in their God, was to be a light to the nations around them. According to the prophet Isaiah, being this light was Israel’s prophetic purpose, for by it they would bring salvation to the ends of the earth.5 Paul carried this right over into the New Covenant as the purpose of the church.6