The New Testament Sabbath

18 Aug The New Testament Sabbath

Like so many concepts in the Bible, they begin as something physical.   Then, as the scripture proceeds, the Lord uses that physical thing as a symbol for a greater reality.

For example the physical temple of the Old Testament becomes a spiritual temple.  No longer do we need to physically be present in Jerusalem, but we are the Body of Christ, His temple, and He dwells within us.  We can now worship the Lord anywhere.

Or what about Zion, which begins as an actual mountain, one of the hills of Jerusalem.  It too grows to represent in meaning the people of God.  The writer of Hebrews said, “you have not come to a mountain which can be touched,” which means this isn’t a physical thing.  He proceeds, “but you have come to Mt Zion,” which he then defines saying it is, “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly.”  Zion too becomes a symbol for God’s people both in Heaven and on Earth.

There are many examples such as with words like Israel, concepts like circumcision and more.  Even the ten commandments began as physical laws on stone which later becomes the law of the Lord written on the hearts of God’s people.

The sabbath is an interesting case in point because it also is a physical thing, but was itself listed on those ten commandments in stone.  Because it was a commandment, it has become harder for some people to see it as anything other than a rule that must be physically kept.

While the Sabbath does begin as an actual day of physical resting, the concept of rest (ie sabbath) extends beyond resting the body to a place where it means having faith in God.  Jesus of course said ‘Come to me, and I will give you rest.’ (Matt 11:28)  He is offering sabbath to us.  No longer do you or I have to strive (ie work) to be good enough, but we come to Him, place our trust in Him and receive righteousness as a gift.  In doing so, we have entered into rest and in that sense have found our sabbath.

The Israelites in Hebrews 4:11 failed to enter into rest because they failed to trust God, they didn’t believe.  Of course, this was a physical example because by failing to trust God in the desert, He did not allow them to enter into the promised land. This is clearly seen in the last verses of the previous chapter

Hebrews 3:16–19: ‘Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.’

So the Israelites didn’t believe God and as a result didn’t enter the promised land. The illustration is that if we don’t have faith (ie trust in God) we won’t enter our rest, which is our salvation. Sabbath then is most interestingly a picture of our salvation.

The Lord is very cool in His way of teaching us. He uses something we are very familiar with (ie temples, or days of rest) and uses it to point to something we might never have understand without the physical example. He is so thoughtful!!