The Origin of the Sabbath
The seventh-day Sabbath is a part of God's creative genius. His creative acts are reported in Genesis 1, from the creation of light on day one through His ultimate creation of humanity on day six. Genesis 2:1-3 describes the origin of our seven-day week and how God established the seventh-day Sabbath:
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
This brief text tells us two important facts. First, our seven-day week, which is still observed, came into existence at Creation. The seven-day weekly cycle has continued throughout the centuries and it is the standard of time for the entire civilized world.
Second, God treated the seventh day differently than the first six days of the week. On days one through six, God engaged in the work of creating the "vast array" (v. 1) of everything He made. In contrast to this, "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work" (v. 2).
This is the origin of the Sabbath day. By His own example of rest from creating, God instituted the Sabbath on the seventh day of Creation Week. The Sabbath was not just a remedy for weariness. The first full day in the life of Adam and Eve (the first man and woman) was the first Sabbath. They had opportunity to enjoy the day with God before they became weary from work and the pursuit of their own interests.
This agrees with the concept expressed in Leviticus 23:3 that the Sabbath was not only for rest but also for sacred assembly. According to Isaiah 58:13, the Sabbath is a time of delight focusing our attention on the joy of knowing the Lord.
The words of Jesus verify this thinking: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). In other words, the seventh-day Sabbath is a blessed gift from God to mankind, not just for rest, but for fellowship with God and His people.
Meaning of the Sabbath
The seventh day of the week differs significantly from the other six days. First, it alone is specifically identified as the Sabbath.
Without biblical sanction, one may voluntarily treat another day of the week like a Sabbath, but the only weekly Sabbath inaugurated by God is the seventh day of the week. The Bible never refers to any other day of the week as the weekly Sabbath. This point is repeated in the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:10).
Second, the commandment is not that "one day in seven" must be a Sabbath to God. The seventh day is the only day of the week that the Bible calls the Sabbath. This specific identification does not allow the familiar "one day in seven" argument, which would permit us to choose the day we honor as the Sabbath.
God did three things on the seventh day of the week that made it, and it alone, the Sabbath:
1. God rested from His work of creating (Genesis 2:2). The word sabbath means "to break off" or "desist," indicating that its original intent was a time of cessation from work. He did not make the Sabbath for the purpose of athletics, house and yard work, or shopping. He rested to exemplify the Sabbath as a day of physical rest from our daily labors and pursuits.
This meaning is clearly expressed in the origin and continuation of the weekly Sabbath:
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested (v. 2).
The seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work (Exodus 20:10).
2. By blessing the seventh day, God made it an object of His special favor. Throughout the Creation account of Genesis 1, God viewed the objects of His creative acts as "very good" (v. 31). But at the end of each of the six days of creation, no blessing of any sort was pronounced on the day itself.
However, in verse 22 God blessed living creatures, and in verse 28 He blessed humanity, created in His own image. Each blessing denotes how they were to be blessed: "Be fruitful and increase in number." Thus, God's blessing on all living things was for their ongoing reproduction, prosperity, and well-being. These blessings were essential to their perpetuity. Likewise, God's blessing the seventh day was essential to the perpetuity of the Sabbath.
3. God made the seventh day holy. He sanctified it, or set it apart, from all other days. This act must be viewed as having two important results.
First, it makes the seventh day of the week unlike any other day of the week. The seventh day alone is holy! "The LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy" (Exodus 20:11). Some claim that every day is holy unto the Lord, but that concept would be self-contradictory. The basic idea of something being "holy" or "sanctified" is that it is set apart from others of its kind. If all days of the week were "set apart," then we must ask, "Set apart from what?" The net result is to make no day special, no day holy or "set apart."
We may think that we should regard every day alike. Not so! God says:
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. . . . Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Exodus 20:9-11).
God did not call any other day of the week "my holy day." The seventh day of the week holds a place in the mind of God that no other day can claim, because He made it holy. We cannot nullify God's act of sanctifying the seventh day of the week.
Second, being made holy or set apart describes the nature of the Sabbath beyond ceasing from our labors and resting. The Sabbath has a religious purpose as well: It is a holy day!
The seventh day is God's day. He gave us the first six days of the week for our own work and pursuits. But God consecrated the seventh day of the week to Himself; it belongs to Him.
We find the following instruction given to Israel in regard to the seventh-day Sabbath:
There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. . . . It is a Sabbath to the LORD (Leviticus 23:3).
The Sabbath is a day for corporate worship of God. The fourth commandment supports this, for it recalls that our sanctification of the Sabbath as a day of rest honors the God of creation:
Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy. . . . For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day (Exodus 20:8, 11).
Therefore, the Lord, as Creator and Provider of life and all it consists of, is honored by our Sabbath rest and worship.
The Sabbath is a day to rest and reflect upon God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Savior (Isaiah 58:13, 14). It can be properly appreciated only when it is made a delightful day of fellowship, physical rest, and worship of God.
The seventh-day Sabbath clearly has its beginning in the creation of the universe. Its origin and sanctity are found in the act of God himself resting from His work on the seventh day of the week, then blessing it and declaring it holy.
The Universal Nature of the Sabbath
Some refer to the Sabbath as "a Jewish Sabbath" and rob the day of its universality. This limited application to only specific people or a time of the past calls into question the relevance of the Sabbath for Christians today. The Scriptures, however, present the Sabbath in its universal context in both the Old and New Testaments. The Sabbath is not presented in Scripture solely as a Jewish institution. Both circumstantial and direct evidence support its universal nature.
Circumstantial Evidence
There is circumstantial evidence that men and women of God knew of and observed the Sabbath before it was given to Moses and the people of Israel at Mount Sinai within the context of the Ten Commandments. We cite the following examples as support for our claim:
1. The lack of any reference to the Sabbath between Genesis 2 and Exodus 16 is not proof that the Sabbath was not observed during that time. This absence of reference may be explained by the purpose of Genesis: As its name implies, it presents beginnings or origins. It identifies the origin of the universe, of the earth, and of the Sabbath. Unlike Genesis, Exodus contains the "Law of God" as a written code. Therefore, Exodus includes numerous references to the Sabbath as God revealed His moral law.
2. While the Ten Commandments may not have been written and formally stated by God until Mount Sinai, there is evidence that the content of the Decalogue was known before that time. In Genesis 4 Cain was judged by God for the murder of his brother Abel. Genesis 39:6-9 tells that Joseph refused to be enticed to commit adultery with Potiphar's wife. He said, "How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"
In Genesis 26:5 God commended Abraham for his obedience to His laws: "Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees, and my laws."
3. Genesis refers to the interval of seven days in the context of several events. This could easily imply the recognition of the seven-day week, which would include the Sabbath. The Flood account refers to an interval of seven days on four occasions (Genesis 7:4, 10; 8:10, 12). Jacob's marriage festivities lasted a week (Genesis 29:27). In Genesis 50:10 Joseph mourns the death of his father, Jacob, for seven days.
The friends of Job (who may have been a contemporary with Abraham) sat with him in silent mourning over his troubles for "seven days and seven nights" (Job 2:13).
If these periods are references to the seven-day weekly cycle, they obviously included a seventh day: the Sabbath.
4. Exodus 16 identifies the seven-day week, which ended with the Sabbath. God's instruction for gathering manna identifies the first six days of the week as work days, but the seventh day as the Sabbath. It is noteworthy that these instructions regarding the gathering of manna and Sabbath observance predate God's giving the Decalogue at Sinai. Israel was just coming out of an extended period of slavery in Egypt when this incident occurred; therefore, it may be viewed from two perspectives.
First, God may have given the instruction regarding manna as the means of reestablishing Sabbath observance among people who were denied that privilege for a long time.
Second, and more likely, God gave this instruction to reinforce Sabbath observance among a people who knew about it but had become careless in its observance. God said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?" (Exodus 16:28). "How long will you refuse . . . ?" does not seem warranted from a single occurrence of Sabbath-breaking.
Direct Evidence
Direct evidence of the universal nature of the Sabbath is found in the Decalogue itself. The Ten Commandments were spoken by God to the people of Israel, whom He had just delivered from Egyptian slavery. He addressed the commandments primarily to Israel; however, God's unusual treatment of them casts them in a class apart from all other pronouncements God has given to humanity. God's special treatment of the Decalogue gives its moral precepts timeless, and universal application.
The Decalogue provides evidence that the Sabbath is universal in its nature and purpose.
1. God himself spoke the text of the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai to the people. Exodus 20:1 says "God spoke all these words." Deuteronomy 5:22 reports "These are the commandments the LORD proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more." God never spoke to His people in this manner before, nor has He since. Additionally, unlike any other instruction given to humanity by God, "He wrote them [the Ten Commandments] on two stone tablets and gave them to me [Moses]" (v. 22). Exodus 31:18 relates how the Ten Commandments were inscribed on tablets of stone: "When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God."
That God first spoke His universal moral code, the Ten Commandments, and then personally inscribed them on tablets of stone, sets them apart from all other revelations God has made of Himself and of His will for humanity's behavior.
2. The contents of the Decalogue are universal in nature, revealing God's everlasting righteousness. What exactly do the Ten Commandments instruct us to do?
i. You shall have no other gods before me.
ii. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.
iii. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
iv. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
v. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
vi. You shall not murder.
vii. You shall not commit adultery.
viii. You shall not steal.
ix. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
x. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor (Exodus 20:3-17).
Most Christians teach the moral precepts of the Ten Commandments, but many ignore the Sabbath command or give it a different application, such as "observe one day in seven." Or they transfer the principles of Sabbath observance to the first day of the week.
All ten of these moral precepts are the means of raising our consciousness to sin: "through the law we become conscious of sin" (Romans 3:20b). Some deny that observing the fourth commandment is a matter of morality, but it is immoral to desecrate what God has made holy.
3. The very purpose cited in the fourth commandment speaks of the universal nature of Sabbath observance (Exodus 20:8, 11). The Sabbath day as a memorial to the creation of the universe is a universal truth, not a "Jewish" truth.
This commandment specifies the time for humanity to follow God's example of rest on the seventh day of the week. We are to rest on this day from our own labor and pursuits to honor God. When we remember the Sabbath, we recognize God as our Creator. This precious truth has been all but lost to a world that believes the universe "happened" and that humanity "evolved" from some lower life form.
If the Sabbath had been observed faithfully by everyone over the centuries, there would be no one in the world today who would not have heard that God was Creator. As it is throughout much of the Christian world, God is no longer regarded as Creator, partly because Christendom has disregarded the memorial to Creation: God's holy Sabbath.
Jesus and the Sabbath
Jesus' observance of the Sabbath set an example for us. Luke writes "On the Sabbath day he [Jesus] went into the synagogue, as was his custom" (Luke 4:16). Luke 13:10 reports "On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. . . ." It is significant that Luke reports Jesus beginning His ministry - after His baptism, desert fast, and temptation - on the Sabbath in Nazareth:
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." . . . And he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (4:16-19, 21).
What a declaration! The life and ministry of Jesus Christ find their fulfillment in the freedom and release we experience from guilt, sin, and its consequence, through faith in Him. Hence, Jesus' invitation is "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
Jesus' observance of the Sabbath reinforces the practice of Sabbath observance for the New Testament church. The Christian church at large attaches great importance to the New Testament ordinances that Jesus' example and instruction established. For instance, when Jesus went to the Jordan River to be baptized, it was to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15).
Most Christians agree that Jesus' example of baptism and His instruction to go into all the world to make disciples, baptizing them in His name for the forgiveness of sins, clearly established the doctrine and practice of water baptism in the Christian church.
In a similar manner, the Christian church considers the communion service one of the most sacred of all Christian ordinances. Jesus introduced this blessed memorial service before the Cross. Communion has been perpetuated by the church through the ages as a memorial to His death. His instructions before the Cross regarding divorce, love of enemies, returning good for evil, are considered valid for our times.
Likewise, the church needs to seriously consider that Jesus, by His own practices and instruction prior to His crucifixion, exemplified what He continues to expect of His followers. Jesus' example and teachings regarding proper Sabbath observance should carry the same weight as His instruction on baptism, communion, prayer, worship, and obedience to the Word of God. Jesus gave us a clear example of worship, in a place of worship, on the Sabbath day. It was His custom to do so!
Additionally, Jesus gave us some clear instruction how Christians are to regard the Sabbath. This instruction would have been of little value or consequence if Jesus had intended the Sabbath to be discontinued immediately after His crucifixion.
The Sabbath is God's gift to man: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). This means that God has bestowed His blessing on man by providing a regular, established time to rest and to experience spiritual renewal through worship.
Jesus affirmed that "it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:12). He taught this principle in response to those who accused Him of unlawful activity because He healed on the Sabbath. They frequently accused Jesus of showing disregard for the Sabbath by breaking it (John 5:18).
Did Jesus ever violate the spirit and intent of the Sabbath? The answer to that is emphatically no! "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). The Scriptures testify Jesus was "tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
Jesus was accused by the Pharisees of breaking the Sabbath by healing. What law did Jesus break by healing on the Sabbath? It was the oral law, the tradition of the Jews, that forbade Sabbath healings. This tradition identified healing as work that would break the Sabbath.
This Pharasaic attitude may be observed in Luke 13:14:
Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."
did not break the Sabbath; but by His example of "doing good," He freed it from the restrictive abuses of Jewish tradition and restored it to its original intent and rightful purpose. Isaiah says the Sabbath is to be a delight and honorable, not a burden (Isaiah 58:13). The Sabbath was made for man!
Finally, Jesus claimed ownership of the Sabbath. "The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28). This is an important statement for at least two reasons. Jesus knew from Creation how the Sabbath was intended to be observed. He made it! "By him all things were created" (Colossians 1:16). When Jesus performed humanitarian service, when He attended the synagogue, when He preached and taught on Sabbath, His action reflected the manner in which the Sabbath was intended to be observed.
Jesus' lordship of the Sabbath, His example of its observance, and His pronouncements regarding its purpose support the Sabbath's ongoing sanctity for the Christian era. In exercising His lordship over the Sabbath, Jesus denounced the hypocrisy with which the Jews of His time observed it (Luke 13:14-16). He never devalued the Sabbath as a blessing to man. In His lordship, Jesus claimed it and promoted its blessedness.
The Apostolic Church and the Sabbath
The New Testament church left us a powerful precedent for Sabbath observance. The book of Acts reports that the early Christians were still meeting on the Sabbath for worship and Bible teaching many years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Without instructions to do otherwise, Jewish converts might have been expected to keep the Sabbath tradition alive; but the church's Sabbath assemblies included Gentile converts as well.
Sabbath worship in a synagogue is mentioned four times in Acts 13. Three of these references state that Jews and Gentile converts were present. In verse 14 Paul and his companions went to a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, where Paul preached the gospel of Christ to "Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God" (v. 16). These "Gentiles who worshipped God" commonly joined in synagogue worship where the words of the prophets were read every Sabbath (v. 27). Those who became Christians continued to join in synagogue activities until rejected by the synagogue rulers.
Verses 42 and 44 report "As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. . . . On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord."
In addressing the elders in Jerusalem concerning the matter of how Gentile converts should be received into the fellowship of the church (Acts 15), James refers to the Sabbath.
Acts 16:13-15 gives the account of a Sabbath gathering when Lydia, a Gentile woman, was converted.
Paul's custom was to go to a synagogue on the Sabbath day regardless where he traveled. Acts 17:1-4 relates that Paul attended the synagogue service in Thessalonica three Sabbath days and that his preaching brought results: "Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women" (v. 4).
According to Acts 18:4-8, in Corinth Paul went to the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to persuade Jews and Gentiles that Jesus is the Christ. As opposition arose, Paul and his interested listeners had to leave the synagogue and move to a house next door to hold services. Verse 11 reports that Paul stayed in Corinth "for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God."
These accounts illustrate that Paul and the first century church made the Sabbath the principal day to congregate for worship and preaching of the Word of God. While evangelism and Bible teaching occurred other days of the week, the New Testament church honored the Sabbath day as their regular day of assembly.
There is no record of the first century church honoring any other day of the week for assembly and worship as they did the Sabbath. Neither is there biblical instruction to honor any other day in the manner the Sabbath was observed in the New Testament. The biblical record shows continuity of the church's Sabbath observance and regular assembly on the Sabbath after the resurrection of Jesus.
Few doctrines and practices are as well documented in the Bible as that of the Sabbath, its manner of observance, and its purpose. Jesus' own example of Sabbath observance and His teaching regarding it were to strengthen and preserve the Sabbath for the Christian era.
If the Sabbath had not been important to Jesus, He would not have aroused so much animosity toward Himself by correcting the traditional practices of the Jews' Sabbath observance. His actions were not intended to revoke the Sabbath, but to give proper perspective to its observance.
The Sabbath and Redemption
Deuteronomy assigns an interesting and most appropriate meaning to the Sabbath. In Deuteronomy 5:12-15, the wording of the fourth commandment differs slightly from the Exodus 20 version:
Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
Unlike the Exodus version of the fourth commandment, that made the Sabbath a perpetual memorial to Creation, here the Sabbath served to remind Israel of a more recent event in their own generation and experience: liberation. Sabbath reminded them of God's redemptive act of delivering them from Egyptian slavery.
Hebrews 4 makes a similar application, inseparably linking the redemptive work of Jesus Christ to Sabbath rest. In this chapter, rest is referred to at least four ways: 1) the rest of God after the days of creation (vv. 4, 10); 2) rest for the Hebrews in the Promised Land after their escape from Egyptian slavery (v. 5; also 3:16-19); 3) the rest now experienced by those who are in Christ by faith (v. 3a, and implied by "Today" in v. 7; see also Matthew 11:28, 29); 4) future rest of God's coming kingdom (vv. 9, 11). Until Christians arrive at the day of Christ's coming and the great consummation, we may remember the Sabbath also as a type of the final rest still to come.
The statement "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9) contains a wonderful truth. God's rest is still available to all men for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. In light of this truth, every Sabbath should be a celebration not only of our creation but also of our re-creation through conversion in Jesus Christ unto salvation.
When we as Christians gather on the Sabbath in worship, prayer, praise, and Bible study, when the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, we are reminded that we are God's creation, and that in our own generation, we have had a personal encounter with God's redemptive love.
Therefore, every Sabbath provides us the opportunity to rest and reflect on God's redemptive work in our lives. Our redemption brought rest from the slavery of sin. The Sabbath is a reminder of our redemption, as it was a reminder to Israel so long ago of their redemption from slavery in Egypt. We celebrate our creation by God and our re-creation (salvation) in Jesus Christ by our Sabbath rest and worship.
Conclusion
Should Christians observe the seventh-day Sabbath in the Christian era? A strong, consistent body of evidence throughout the Scriptures supports Sabbath observance by Christians. In this booklet we have reviewed from the Bible the origin of the Sabbath and its special place in the mind of God. We have shown the meaning of Sabbath observance: first as a memorial to Creation and then - in the Christian era - as a reminder of our liberation from sin, or our redemption. We have presented evidence that the Sabbath has been known and observed by the people of God from ancient times through the first century of the Christian era.
Finally, we have demonstrated from the Scriptures that no other day of the week has been made holy by God to be observed as a weekly Sabbath. The Scriptures do not contain instructions or example for weekly worship on any other day than the Sabbath. Therefore, the seventh-day Sabbath stands alone as the day God has set aside for rest and worship with His gracious, loving invitation: "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy" (Exodus 20:8).
1The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. V, (Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1939), pp. 2944B, 2945.
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