Why the Sabbath?

 

Why did God create the Sabbath? Was it to burden us with rest? Was it just because He wanted to see us relax each seventh day, or because He wanted to see us sit in church for a couple hours on that day?

Mind you, there's nothing wrong with those things. There's nothing wrong with relaxing or going to church; God wants us to do those things! But physical rest is not the biggest purpose of the Sabbath.

God wants us to keep the Sabbath both physically and spiritually. Everything that God commanded us to do in His Word has a spiritual reason for it.

As we saw in a previous post on this subject, Heb. 4 shows us that the Sabbath represents God's Kingdom. Heb. 4:9 tells us, in a more literal translation, "It remains therefore for the people of God to keep the Sabbath." Heb. 4:4 reiterates that the Sabbath is the seventh day: "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.'" The remainder of the passage shows that the Sabbath represents God's Kingdom, as we see in v. 11: "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience."

Because God created the Sabbath to be a picture of His Kingdom, He made it holy: "Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it" (Ex. 20:11). Knowing this, what then is the purpose of the weekly Sabbath? Is it to spend the day indulging in the things of this world? A day to watch sports? To worry about work? To do homework or study for upcoming exams? No! None of this is keeping the Sabbath holy. None of this is keeping the Sabbath spiritually or with a loyal heart toward God.

The Sabbath is not a day to indulge in the things of this world, or a day to mingle with those who do not keep the Sabbath. It's a day to "'Come out from among them and be separate,' says the LORD" (Isa. 52:11; 2 Cor. 6:17). It's God's holy day, a day to come out of the world and focus on His Kingdom.

For this reason, God's people were forbidden to do business (buy or sell) on the Sabbath day: "If the peoples of the land brought wares or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath" (Neh. 10:31). It's part of coming out from the world and being separate!

So as we can see, keeping the Sabbath has much to do with our mindset and our focus. Keeping the Sabbath holy means keeping it spiritually and mentally, as well as physically. This is honoring not only God's Sabbath, but His Kingdom that it represents.

Happy Sabbath, brethren!