The Sabbath

Being a Christian for any length of time, you will eventually hear about the Sabbath, and the importance of keeping the Sabbath. What day of the week is the Sabbath? What was the purpose of the Sabbath? Are we as followers of Christ supposed to keep the Sabbath?

To begin, we start with the fourth commandment:

Exodus 20.08-11 “8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”

We see this command repeated in Leviticus 23.03 and Deuteronomy 05.12-15.

The Hebrew word for “sabbath” is (H7676) tbv shabbath shab-bawth’ and literally means, “to rest”.

Keeping the Sabbath was so important, that if a Jew dishonored the day it meant death (Numbers 15.32-36).

What day of the week is the Sabbath on?

The Sabbath day is on the seventh day of the week, our Saturday. Many Christians throughout history have referred to Sunday as the Sabbath, but technically they are wrong, as the Sabbath is on Saturday, not Sunday.

What was the purpose of the Sabbath?

God gave the Sabbath to the nation of Israel for three reasons:

01. Provided needed rest (Sabbath) and refreshment for the people, farm animals, and land.

02. Reminded the Jews that God is their Creator, and just as He rested on the seventh day, so too are they to rest (Genesis 02.01-03).

03. It was a special sign between God and the Jews, because no one else did it. According to others, why not work and get more money if you can (Exodus 31.12-17)!

Nehemiah dealt with this worldly attitude after he rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 13.15-22)

Are we as followers of Christ supposed to keep the Sabbath?

We read in Psalm 147.19-20 that the Law was never given to the Gentile nations.

This is the only commandment that is not repeated in the New Testament as a commandment for us today.

In fact, the reason that we now worship on Sunday is because it was on a Sunday that Jesus rose from the dead (Matthew 28.01-08)!

In the early church we see that they gathered together to worship on the first day of the week, which is Sunday (Acts 20.07).

Paul talks about taking an offering for the poor saints on the first day (Sunday) of every week (1Corinthians 16.01-02).

Paul does mention though that it really doesn’t matter what day we worship on! In fact we should daily worship Jesus, no matter what day of the week it is (Romans 14.05-06; Colossians 02.16-17).