What's Wrong With the Sabbath?

Among the ten commandments, the fourth commandment, the Sabbath, is the most neglected, despised, and disregarded. Most of those who claim to be Christians (followers of Christ) do not keep the seventh-day Sabbath that God ordained at Creation in Genesis 1. Not only have they substituted the first day of the week, Sunday, for the seventh-day Sabbath, they don't even keep that day holy!

As for those who do recognize the seventh-day Sabbath as God's holy day, well, most of us seem more interested in seeking our own pleasure than in keeping the day holy. All too often, our attitude is not one of, "How can I keep this day holy to God and rejoice in His presence?", but one of, "What can I get away with, without technically breaking the Sabbath? Can I watch TV? Can I go to a movie? Can I go shopping or buy things? Can I do homework? Can I work a few minutes after sunset on Friday night once in awhile? Can I play sports?"

Why is this? What's wrong with the Sabbath? Why do so many people seemingly do everything they can think of to avoid keeping the seventh day holy?

Hebrews 4 lays out for us the true meaning of the Sabbath day, and why we ought to rejoice in it rather than lamenting all the things we can't do. The Sabbath represents the coming Kingdom of God. It is a preview of God's Kingdom, a day at the end of each week when we have the privilege of resting and spending time in God's presence!

Heb. 4:9 tells us, "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God." The Greek word translated "rest" is sabbatismos (Strong's #4520) and means, according to Thayer's Greek Lexicon, "to keep the Sabbath." This verse, then, literally means, "There remains therefore a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God," or, "It remains therefore for the people of God to keep the Sabbath!"

Heb. 4:4 quotes Gen. 2:2 as follows: "For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: 'And God rested on the seventh day from all His works....'" Clearly, the Sabbath-keeping that was spoken of involves the seventh-day Sabbath! However, it is not the main point.

The context of Heb. 4 establishes that the ultimate Sabbath-rest is God's Kingdom. Heb. 4:1 says, "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it." Heb. 4:11 adds, "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience."

Therefore, we keep the seventh-day Sabbath in anticipation of the ultimate Sabbath-rest, God's Kingdom. We keep the Sabbath, even as Jesus and His disciples did, in anticipation of Christ's return to this earth. We keep the Sabbath in anticipation of that day when, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Rev. 21:4).

There will be no more war, no more oppression, no more injustice, no more crime. There will be no hunger, no miscarriages, no poverty.

"'The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,' says the LORD" (Isa. 65:25). "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9).

If the thought of that day isn't something to rejoice in, then what is? How, then, can anyone hate the Sabbath, the day that pictures that day? How could anyone refuse to keep the Sabbath? What is wrong with the Sabbath?

And how do we keep the Sabbath? By ceasing from our works, "as God did from His" (Heb. 4:10). Isa. 58:13-14 further tells us, "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Let us therefore keep the Sabbath-day holy as God commanded us and rejoice in His presence, as we eagerly await the ultimate and eternal Sabbath of His coming Kingdom!