SABBATH!

The other day, a good friend, Dan, emailed me a question about the Sabbath that got me thinking about that whole concept ...

Right after the six days of Creation, Genesis 2:2–3 tells us, God sanctified the seventh day when He rested from His creative work (the word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew root that means “to rest, cease, desist”). God had done it all. Not that God had stopped working; He desisted only from His creative endeavors. Jesus affirmed in John 5:17 that the Father still works. Indeed, it is because God is still working—God’s still doing it all—that the Sabbath found its meaning for the Israelites: if He’s still doing it all, they didn’t need to sweat. So on that day, enshrined as a holy day of rest in the Decalogue, the Israelites were prohibited from gathering manna, working, lighting fires, etc., all at the risk of capital punishment. Here’s the rationale, part of the Ten Commandments:

You shall remember
that you were a slave
in the land of Egypt,
and the LORD your God
brought you out of there
by a mighty hand
and by an outstretched arm;
therefore the LORD your God
commanded you
to observe the sabbath day.
Deuteronomy 5:15

Why the Sabbath? Not only had God created, He had also redeemed the Israelites—once again, God had done it all.

There were other Sabbaths for the Israelites—other than the seventh-day Sabbath, that is. The particularly notable ones were, of course, the Sabbatical Year (every seventh year), and the Year of Jubilee (every fiftieth year, after seven rounds of seven years each) (Leviticus 25). In both of these celebratory years, the Israelites were to abstain from agricultural work—the sole means of livelihood and sustenance in their economy—for the entire year (two consecutive years every 49th and 50th year). How would they survive? Yahweh specifically addresses that fear, assuring His people that He would provide during these years (Leviticus 25:20–22): God would do it all.

So what does this mean for the believer today? Simply this: God has done it all. Not just Creation. Not just redemption from Egypt. Not just provision during years of rest. But something bigger, something grander, something … awesome! God’s (re)Creation of the believer in Christ into a new person, unto a new community, under a new covenant, indwelt in an incredibly new way by the Holy Spirit. God’s Redemption of us from the bondage of sin into liberty in Christ, from the kingdom of darkness into His glorious light, from death to life! God's Provision for all our needs (Matt 6:31–32; Eph 1:3) . That’s what we celebrate especially today, the day of our Lord’s Resurrection. For God has, indeed, done it all! (See me enjoying my “Sabbath”?)

Jesus paid it all,
All to him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
Elvina Hall, 1865

There can be only one response:

Come, let us worship
and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord
our God and Maker.
Psalm 95:6

Therefore the Church—both in the New Testament (Acts 2:4:42; 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) and thereafter—chose Sunday, the day of the Resurrection as the day of worship to commemorate this fact—God has done it all. Let us join the saints of yesteryear and celebrate, not just today, on Easter Sunday, but every day of our lives that blissful and blessed truth. Praise God! He has done it all!

Christ is risen!
He is risen, indeed!