The Sabbath and Israel
The conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees illustrates that the traditions which they held, presumably based on the Law, were very wide of the mark concerning what God intended them to understand. Jesus deliberately challenged them in order to correct the understanding of the common people in attendance. We are dependent on two Old Testament passages for our understanding, together with one or two direct statements of Jesus, to illustrate his attitude to the sabbath law.
This comprehensive outline of the Sabbath law taught the Israelites a number of things.
- That the Sabbath was intended to be a continual reminder that God had separated them for a special purpose relating to their future.
- That it was such a special holy day that any who violated it were to bee put to death.
- That it was to be a perpetual covenant; therefore it was a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness.
- That it had special reference to God resting from His creative activity on the seventh day.
Here we notice the fact that the whole community was involved in observing this cessation of work. Israelites, strangers, servants, beasts and cattle. We may well ask the question, Why such a complete restriction on their activity?
V.15 reminded them of their bondage in Egypt, and that God had delivered then. Therefore God commanded them to keep the Sabbath day. It appears obvious from this that the Sabbath was related to deliverance from bondage.
Suspension of the Curse
From a consideration of these two passages we are able to deduce the following facts:
- If all work was suspended on the seventh day, then it must follow that the curse of Gen.3:17-18 was also suspended. Israel were therefore unique in that God guaranteed them their food one day in seven freed from the toil and labour which had resulted from the curse. The giving of the manna illustrates this point.
- All work was evidence of sin, and testified to the existence of the curse. For the sabbath to be holy all evidence of the curse and of sin was to be absent. Therefore the whole community were involved, even animals which had been pressed into service by men to ease their own toil and labour. Perhaps Rom.8:22 can be seen in this context.
- The violation of the sabbath law was a sin for which there could be no forgiveness; and, in fact, there is no record of a sin-offering on the sabbath day (Num.28:9-10).
Jesus’ Sabbath Work
Jesus obviously understood, and fully observed, the sabbath law. We must therefore look a little closer at his words and his actions relating to it. In John 5 we have the record of the healing of the impotent man, and the hostility of the Pharisees because it was the sabbath day. In v.17 Jesus claims “My Father worketh unceasingly, and so do I” (Weymouth N.T.). Here there seems to be a paradox. The sabbath which commemorated God ceasing from His creative work on the seventh day was nevertheless a day on which God continued to work.
The answer is to be seen in the fact that sin, was nonexistent on this first sabbath. The works of God were still very good. With the introduction of sin, God had the choice of either abandoning His purpose with man, or introducing other means to accomplish it. In His wisdom and foreknowledge, and in love to His own creatures, He chose to bestow His energies on the task of overcoming sin and restoring man to the position he had lost by transgression; until this is achieved, God continues to work, and Jesus saw his role as a partner in it.
The contrast between God’s work and man’s work is very clear and distinct. Man works as a result of living in bondage to sin and subject to the curse (Noah’s father Lamech realised what a heavy burden this was – Gen. 5:29). In addition to toil and labour there was the added problem of sickness and disease associated with a death-stricken nature.
God works to establish His supremacy over sin, and will at length remove it completely. In this context the miracle of Jesus in Luke 13:11-17 is very interesting, especially v.16: “Ought not this woman, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” The sabbath day pointed forward to a time when the earth would be restored to a sinless condition, and man freed from sin’s bondage. It was therefore very fitting on this day to relieve the distress caused by sin, and also fitting to demonstrate God’s power to achieve this purpose.
Every act of healing which Jesus performed established his claim to be Lord of the Sabbath Day. It was he who would deliver the fatal blow to sin’s power (Gen.3:15); and open the way to complete freedom. “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” By the use of the power God had bestowed on him he demonstrated that he was able even to forgive sins (Luke 5:18-24). The miracle of the man born blind in John 9 and the discourse which follows in ch.10 is significant in this context, and well worth reading through.
Summary
To sum up, we make these points: Those who disobeyed the sabbath law failed to believe either that God would provide, or that He would keep His covenant to free them ultimately from the bondage of sin, and bring them to rest and refreshing in His Kingdom (Acts 3:19-21; Heb.3:7-11; 4:1-11). The sabbath was intended to be a foretaste of this happy future when God and man would dwell together in unity and enjoy communion together (Rev.21:3,4).The traditional attitude of the religious rulers of the Jews had made the sabbath a burden rather than a blessing. Jesus told them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.”
This was an assessment based upon the two-fold blessing that the sabbath was designed to achieve for Israel, a weekly blessing of relief from the bondage of sin and a covenant that God would deliver them from sin and all its consequences if only they were faithful. They were expected to share those blessings with all who joined them, whether stranger or servant, and to remember from whence their freedom had come. God expects us, too, to share the hope of the gospel with all who will receive it. We in our day are not bound by the sabbath law, but Jesus demonstrated that God’s work was a seven-days-a-week involvement. this is the labour to which Paul refers:
“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest” (Heb.4:11)
In Matt.6:24-33 Jesus indicates that this is our first duty, and assures us that God will provide for our bodily needs; this together with the promise that God is faithful is surely a worthwhile lesson to learn from the sabbath law.
Daniel The Prophet – (Part 3)