Shabbat - Heart of Wisdom

The peaceand delightof thepresentSabbath is aforetaste, ananticipationof theexpectedmessianicpeace anddelight.crete assurance of a happy and abundant life. Thepsalmist declares: “The Lord has commanded theblessing, life for evermore” (Psalm 133:3). Beingthe symbol of God’s gift of abundant life, whenEden was lost, the Sabbath remained as God’s assurancethat he would restore life to his creatures.This can be seen in the Old Testament by how therest and liberation of the weekly and annual Sabbathsserved to nourish the hope of Messianic redemption.The Sabbath Rest. In Old Testament times,the rest and peace of the Sabbath was viewed notonly as a physical benefit (Exodus 20:10; Leviticus23:3), but also as the symbol of the messianic age.The Messiah was expected to bring to the peoplethe rest and peace experienced on the Sabbath. Theprophet Isaiah, for example, describes the messianicage (66:11) by using the same words “delight” and“honor” which he employs for the Sabbath (58:13).The implication is that the peace and delight of thepresent Sabbath is a foretaste, an anticipation of theexpected messianic peace and delight.The messianic function of the Sabbath rest isvery explicit in Jewish literature. The BabylonianTalmud, for example, teaches: “At the conclusionof the Sabbath the son of David will come.” ARabbi demurred: “but so many Sabbaths havepassed, yet he has not come.” Not only was theMessiah expected to come on a Sabbath, but Hewas also expected to bring to the people the blessingof the Sabbath rest and peace. A Jewish workof the first century A.D. known as 2 Baruch describes“the time of my Messiah” as the time when“joy shall be revealed and rest shall appear” (29:3).Another Jewish work, known as The Book of Adamand Eve, admonishes to “mourn not for the deadmore than six days, for the seventh day is a signof the resurrection and the rest of the age tocome” (51:1-2). The Mishna Tamid, describes“the time of salvation” as “wholly Sabbath rest”(7:4). Examples such as these show that the Sabbathrest served to nourish the hope for the restand peace to be brought by the Messiah.The Sabbath Liberation. The liberation fromthe oppression and pressure of work which theweekly and annual Sabbaths provided to everymember of the Hebrew society could effectivelysymbolize both the past and future divine deliverance.The link between the Sabbath and deliveranceis explicitly found in Deuteronomy 5:15:“You shall remember that you were a servant inthe land of Egypt, and the Lord your Godbrought you out thence with a mighty hand andan outstretched arm; therefore the Lord yourGod commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”The reason given in this text for observing theSabbath is to remember the past exodus deliverance.Being a symbol of past deliverance, the Sabbathcould fittingly express and nourish the hope offuture Messianic redemption. The latter was accomplishedparticularly through the Sabbath year.The Sabbatical year which occurred every sevenyears (Leviticus 25:2-5) and the jubilee year whichoccurred every 49 years (Leviticus 25:8) were, in asense, an intensification of the weekly Sabbath(Leviticus 25:2, 4). At these annual institutions, theSabbath truly became the liberator of land, slaves,debtors, and property. The land was to lie fallow,slaves were to be emancipated, debts were to becancelled, and property was to be restored to theoriginal owner. The restoration offered by theannual Sabbaths served to announce the futurerestoration to be brought about by the Messiah.Not only the rest and liberation of the Sabbath,but also the sabbatical (septanary) structureof time is used in the Bible to announce the messianicredemption. A noteworthy example is foundin Daniel 9. The first part of the chapter refers tothe seventy years prophecy of Jeremiah (Daniel 9:2;Jeremiah 29:10) which predicted the national restorationof the Jews. The second part of the chapterspeaks of “seventy weeks” or “seventy sabbaticalcycles” until the messianic restoration: “to the comingof the anointed one . . . to finish the transgression,to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity”(Daniel 9:24-25). The vision of the release of theSabbath years is here utilized to announce both thenational and the Messianic liberation.The Sabbath and Redemption in the NewTestament. The fact that the Sabbath served tonourish the hope of Messianic redemption in OldTestament times helps us appreciate the relationshipbetween the Sabbath and the Savior in the NewTestament. It was on a Sabbath day that Jesus, accordingto Luke, inaugurated his publicministry by quoting the Sabbatical passageof Isaiah 61:1-2 (Luke 4:18-19). WeCOMPLETE YOUR THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION BY DIRECTED STUDYBIBLICAL LIFE COLLEGE AND SEMINARYnoted earlier that in this passage Isaiah announcesthe mission of the MessiahFOR A FREE BROCHURE DETAILING OUR CURRICULUMthrough the imagery of the liberation ofWRITE US:the Sabbath years (Leviticus 25:10). The1350 SPUR DR., SUITE 270Lord undoubtedly must have startled theMARSHFIELD, MISSOURI 65706-2399congregation when he briefly but emphaticallyclaimed to be the fulfillment ofPHONE: (417) 859-0881 FAX: (417) 859-0883the messianic redemption promised by26 RESTORE!