Previously: The Sabbath, part five
We were supposed to look at the question this week, “Are we no longer to adhere to a written code, now that the Holy Spirit indwells our hearts,” and this is proving to be a fascinating question. I am in the middle of working on it; it is going to be a multiple part answer (aren’t they all, LOL) so I hope to be able to begin posting it next week. In the mean time, I thought I might share what I have learned about Sabbath observance for those who are already convinced that believers should be celebrating a day of rest along with obedience to the rest of the Ten Commandments.
The Sabbath was hallowed — made holy — by God as a day of rest since the creation of the world, which was about 2500 years before the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai.
The Hebrew word for “hallowed” (Strongs H6942) means that it is set apart and separated, and if we are talking about a hallowed day, then that means it is set apart and separated from the rest of the (common, ordinary, or profane) days.
The Ten Commandments did not inaugurate a day of rest; the command was to remember to keep the day of rest — which had already been inaugurated — holy (hallowed, set apart from the common). The Hebrew word for “keep” (Strongs H8104) means to observe or celebrate, to guard, to preserve, and to give heed to.
In the Old Testament, the Sabbath day was always the seventh day. As a matter of fact, the definition of “Sabbath” in Hebrew (a word which is solely a Hebrew word; forms of it in other languages are always transliterations from the Hebrew word) means the seventh day. It would be like saying that the definition of Tuesday s the third day of the week. The Lord mentions this aspect of the Sabbath day even more than the prohibition of work on it.
Another interesting thing that I learned about the Sabbath is that the Lord calls it a perpetual covenant among His people. Perpetual means “continuing forever, everlasting, valid for all time, or occurring continually.” That is from Webster’s; the Hebrew word for “perpetual” is the same word which is used to describe God as eternal or everlasting throughout the Word!
There is much more the Word of God has to say about the Sabbath; more on this to come …
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Update: continued in In His presence there is fullness of joy
Yes, it is interesting when people say, "oh, we have our seventh day on the first day", or "we have our seventh day on the sixth day"…. It is quite simple really… God rested on the seventh day, He commanded that the seventh day be kept separate…… and now I can have no rest without the Creator of the Sabbath….. who Himself said that the Sabbath was made for the man not the man made for the Sabbath… of course here it is absolutely worshiped and has become idolatrous….
Hi short, If you see this comment, I was wondering what you meant by "here it is absolutely worshiped and has become idolatrous," I got lost on which nouns the pronouns "here" and "it" were referring to. Thank you — Love, Christine
Sorry for not making myself more clear. Here = Israel. It = the Sabbath Day. 🙂
I could write a whole post on how my Orthodox family worship the seventh day…..