The Sabbath Day

When and how did God create the Sabbath day?

Gen 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.
2 And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done;
and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He
rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Notice that God established the Sabbath day at creation. He established the
Sabbath day before sin entered the world. He also blessed the Sabbath day
and sanctified it - or set it aside for a holy purpose. Marriage is the only other
institution recorded in the Bible that God established before man's fall into
sin.

After God delivered the Israelites out of in Egypt, what lesson did he
teach them even before he gave them the Ten Commandments on Mount
Sinai?

Exod 16:4-5, 22-30

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for
you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I
may test them, whether or not they will walk in My commandments .
5 "And it will come about on the sixth day, when they prepare what they
bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily."
22 Now it came about on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread,
two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and
told Moses,
23 then he said to them, "This is what the LORD meant: tomorrow is a
sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake
and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until
morning."
24 So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not
become foul, nor was there any worm in it.
25 And Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today
you will not find it in the field.
26 "Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath,
there will be none."
27 And it came about on the seventh day that some of the people went
out to gather, but they found none.
28 Then the LORD said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My
commandments and My instructions?
29 "See, the LORD has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you
bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no
man go out of his place on the seventh day."
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

Notice that God used the Sabbath issue as a test to see if the Israelites would
keep His commandments. Note that this was before God gave the Ten
Commandments on Mount Sinai. Notice also that the Israelites did not have
the option of picking which day they would observe as the Sabbath. The
manna miracle only applied to the seventh day, the day that God had blessed
and hallowed at creation.

Is there anything distinctive about the Sabbath commandment among the

Ten Commandments?

Exod 20:8-11
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.

Remember that the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God on
tablets of stone, in contrast with the Mosaic laws, which were written by
Moses on scrolls. The Sabbath commandment is the fourth commandment. It
is one of only two commandments that is written in positive terms as opposed
to beginning with, "Thou shalt not Y" It is the last commandment of the first
half of the Decalogue, which deals with expressing love to God. The last six
commandments deal with expressing love to our fellow man. The Sabbath
commandment begins with 'remember', perhaps implying that at some time we
would forget. The fourth commandment is also the longest, and most detailed,
of the commandments.

How did Jesus summarize the Ten Commandments?

Matt 22:36-40
36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"
37 And He said to him,"' You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.
39 "The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
As we noted before, the first four of the Ten Commandments pertain to our
relationship with God. The last six commandments pertain to our relationship
with our fellow man.

Can we know for certain which day of the week that the Bible refers to
when it talks about the Sabbath?

Mark 16:1-2
1 And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the
{mother} of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and
anoint Him.
2 And very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb
when the sun had risen.

The two women came to anoint Jesus' body in the tomb on the first day of the
week. All Christendom knows that Jesus rose on Easter Sunday. This verse
identifies the Sabbath as the day before Easter Sunday, or Saturday. Saturday
is the Sabbath! This can also be confirmed by the fact that the entire Jewish
nation has observed the Sabbath on Saturday for thousands of years. Virtually
no Christian leader denies that the Bible speaks about Saturday as the
Sabbath. Ask your pastor. The Bible only names two days. Friday is the
preparation day, and Saturday is the Sabbath. The rest of the days were
referred to by number, i.e. the first day of the week, second, third, etc.

Did Jesus' followers keep the Saturday Sabbath?

Luke 23:50-24:3
50 And behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a
good and righteous man
51 (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a
city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God;
52 this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
53 And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a
tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.
54 And it was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
55 Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed after,
and saw the tomb and how His body was laid.
56 And they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the
Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb,
bringing the spices which they had prepared.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

Here again, we see the sequence of events - Jesus was crucified on Friday, the
preparation day; He rested in the tomb on Sabbath; and He arose on Sunday,
the first day of the week. Notice that the women wouldn't even break the
Sabbath in order to anoint Jesus' body! Instead, they rested in obedience to
the commandment.
Did Jesus keep the Sabbath?

Luke 4:16
16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was
His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath , and stood up to
read.

Mark 1:21-22
21 And they went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath He
entered the synagogue and began to teach.

Luke 13:10
10 And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

Mark 2:28
28 "Consequently, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Not only was it Jesus' custom to keep the Sabbath during His lifetime, but
Jesus actually rested in the grave from His work of salvation on the Sabbath
day. Jesus even identified Himself as Lord of the Sabbath. If Jesus is our
example, shouldn't we honor the Sabbath as He did?

Did Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, keep the Sabbath? Did he teach just
Jews on the Sabbath, or did he teach Gentiles as well?

Acts 13:13-14
13 Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to
Perga in Pamphylia; and John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
14 But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the
Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

Acts 13:42-48
42 And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that
these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.
43 Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the
Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who,
speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.
44 And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the
word of God.
45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and
began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.
46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, "It was necessary that
the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and
judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the
Gentiles.
47 "For thus the Lord has commanded us, 'I have placed You as a light for
the Gentiles, that you should bring salvation to the end of the earth.'"
48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying
the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life
believed.
Acts 17:1-4
1 Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they
came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2 And according to Paul's custom, he went to them, and for three
Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
3 explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again
from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the
Christ."
4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with
a great multitude of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading
women.

Acts 16:11-14
11 Therefore putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to
Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis;
12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of
Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days.
13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside,
where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we
sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.
14 And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of
purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her
heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.

Acts 18:4
4 And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to
persuade Jews and Greeks.

The truth is, Paul observed every Sabbath of his entire life, before and after
his conversion to Christianity. These Bible passages record several instances
during which Paul kept the Sabbath. Yet there is not a single scripture that
depicts Paul observing the first day of the week, Sunday, with the reverence of
the Sabbath. Only once does the Bible mention that Paul even worshipped on
Sunday. On that occasion he took a long journey immediately after the
worship service - an act which would in itself violate the sanctity of the
Sabbath. The scriptures show that it was Paul's custom to observe the
Sabbath, and that He taught both Jews and Gentiles on the Sabbath day.

Did Jesus foresee His followers keeping the Sabbath after His death?

Matt 24:15-22
15 "Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was
spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader
understand),
16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains;
17 let him who is on the housetop not go down to get the things out that are
in his house;
18 and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak.
19 "But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in
those days!
20 "But pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath;
21 for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since
the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall.
22 "And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been
saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.

There are two possible interpretations of Jesus' prophecy here. He is either

talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, or about His second
coming. In either event, Jesus clearly expected His followers to be observing
the Sabbath a long time after His death.

Will we keep the Sabbath in Heaven?

Isa 66:22-23
22 "For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will
endure before Me," declares the LORD, "So your offspring and your name
will endure.
23 "And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to
Sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before me," says the LORD.

To summarize, God instituted the Sabbath at creation - before man's fall into
sin. He reiterated the importance of the Sabbath when He inscribed it in the
heart of His holy Ten Commandment law. Jesus kept the Sabbath holy. Paul
kept the Sabbath holy. Jesus foresaw His followers observing the Sabbath
many years after His death. And God showed the prophet Isaiah that we
would be keeping the Sabbath in Heaven for all eternity. Saturday was, is, and
always will be the Sabbath day. Shouldn't we also "Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy?"