Sunset to Sunset: God's Sabbath Rest - Messianic Singles Home

8 Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest The Sabbath: In the Beginning
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done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He
rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:2-3).
This day was different from the other days of creation week. God blessed
the seventh day and sanctified it. The word sanctify means to set apart as
holy. God specifically set apart the seventh day, making it holy. We read
three times in these two verses that God did not work on this day. The
emphasis is that this was His day of rest. It was God’s Sabbath rest.
Some people dispute this interpretation, saying this was not the origin of
the commanded day of rest, noting that the word Sabbath isn’t mentioned
here. However, the Hebrew word translated “rested” is a form of shabath,
the root word for “Sabbath.” Shabath means to cease, or rest, and it is from
this that the Sabbath gets its meaning as “a day of rest.” To paraphrase the
account in Genesis 2, “God sabbathed on the seventh day from all His
work.” The Hebrew language is clear and unambiguous in its intent.
God made the Sabbath for humankind
Remarkably, some will still argue that this doesn’t prove the Sabbath
existed from creation week, maintaining that it wasn’t instituted until given
to Israel at Mount Sinai and that it was meant for the physical nation of
Israel alone—and for only a limited time.
However, Jesus Christ Himself dispelled this notion. “The Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath,” He explained to some who
completely misunderstood its intent and purpose (Mark 2:27).
He clarified the great underlying principle of the Sabbath day that so
many have missed through the centuries: The Sabbath, far from enforcing
a tiresome bondage or sanctioning a list of forbidden activities, is something
God made for man! It was sanctified—made holy—when mankind was
made, with God creating Adam and Eve on the sixth day of creation week
and then creating the Sabbath on the following day by setting that day apart
(Genesis 1:26-31; 2:1-3).
To Jesus Christ the Sabbath was positive and beneficial, not the oppressive
burden some religious leaders had made of it in His day. Notice His
choice of words. The Sabbath wasn’t something just for the nation of
Israel; He said it was made for man—for all humanity—and observing
it wasn’t a meaningless practice forced on people to bring only hardship
and difficulty.
The seventh day was made for man, created expressly for mankind’s benefit
and well-being! Several other translations bear this out: “The Sabbath was
made for the good of human beings,” says the Good News Bible. “The Sabbath
was made for the sake of man,” reads the New English Bible. The Williams
New Testament says, “The sabbath was made to serve man.” And the
New Living Translation reads, “The Sabbath was made to benefit people.”
NASA
Jesus understood the purpose of God’s law, including the Sabbath—that
God intended it to be a blessing and benefit to mankind. God, speaking
through Moses, had earlier told Israel to “love the Lor d your God, to walk in
His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments.”
Why? “That you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will
bless you in the land which you go to possess” (Deuteronomy 30:16).
Moses, after leading Israel for
40 years through the wilderness,
summed up the Israelites’ experiences
just before they entered the
Promised Land. He understood
how wonderful the law was that
they had received from God and
how it was unique. “Surely I have
taught you statutes and judgments,
just as the Lor d my God
commanded me . . . ,” he told
This day was different from the other days of creation week.
God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. The word sanctify
means to set apart as holy. God specifically set apart the
seventh day, making it holy.
them. “Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and
your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes,
and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people’
. . . What great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments
as are in all this law which I set before you this day?” (Deuteronomy 4:5-8).
A blessing for all who choose to obey
God clearly intended the Sabbath to be a blessing to those who would
use it as He intended. The actual instructions God gave regarding the day
were brief but give valuable insight into its intent. Let’s look at some of these
instructions.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and
do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lor d your God.
In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your
male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger
who is within your gates. For in six days the Lor d made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore
the Lor d blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11).
On the Sabbath, we see that all members of a household were to rest from