God ordained a special Sabbath rest for specific purposes.
But do we really know and experience the kind of rest He envisioned?
The prophet Isaiah was given the opportunity to gaze through the veil of heavenly reality several times. Towards the climax of his book in the Bible God used him to prick mankind’s curiosity by proclaiming profound insights relating to God’s concept of the Sabbath rest. In Isaiah 56:1-8 he related how uniquely “blessed” one would be who “keeps the Sabbath.” He added further in Isaiah 58:13-14 that by participating and delighting in God’s Sabbath one would experience special blessings of freedom and joy! So what did God really have in mind?
Cultures have tried to figure out what God intended for centuries. Growing up in a Conservative Jewish home it meant spending several hours on Saturday morning in a liturgical religious service, then spending the rest of the day doing whatever we found pleasure in. For Christians it seemed to likewise be going to church on Sunday then spending the rest of the day enjoying a day off of work and school.
When I came to faith in Messiah Jesus, Yeshua, back in 1977, I read in the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 4 something that intrigued me and set me on a path of discovery to find real truth and meaning:
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest (katapausis) let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith (pistis) in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed (pisteuo) do enter that rest, as He has said (in Psalm 95:11):
“So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,‘” (Heb: menuchah) although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said (in Psalm 95:8):
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest (sabbatismos) for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
A kind of rest waiting to be found
So God promised a kind of rest that remains to be found and experienced…but there lies a challenge regarding one’s ability and commitment to truly have faith—or place trust in God to partake in it.
The Scripture passage says that God’s chosen people, the Hebrews, could not find God’s rest due to a lack of trusting faith and obedience to God caused by hardened hearts. But what I find more striking is that God’s promise and intent for His covenant people (as represented by Joshua who had led the people into the promised land) includes an even better kind of rest—a sabbatismos. So what is a sabbatismos?
For one thing, the Greek word, sabbatismos, is a derivative of the word, sabbatism—coined to translate the Hebrew concept of Sabbath. So what we see here is inherently a baptism of rest—an immersion into God’s rest!
Wow! It’s about more than a day off or mere religious observance—but a state of being at rest and peace with God! That’s what God intended! It’s what He hopes we find and experience.
Looking at the Hebrew word for rest used in Psalm 95, menuchah, we catch a glimpse of God’s concept of such a rest. Menuchah speaks of a resting place, a time of refreshing and renewal, a state of being at rest in covenant relationship with God. Traditional Judaism, through its Sabbath service expression, understands menuchah as “rest granted in abounding love, a rest born of true faith, a rest of serene peace, tranquility and quietude, a perfect rest in which Thou takest delight” (Siddur: The Traditional Prayer Book).
But there are two other words the Scripture places in the equation: faith (pistis) and believed (pisteuo). Both convey a kind of faith that is beyond mere religion. Pistis speaks of being persuaded, morally convicted based on truths in which to place trust. Pisteuo speaks of being committed to trust. Even further, Biblical faith is about a kind of trusting faith expressed through a covenant relationship that issues through behavior and action.
How does faith connect with the God’s concept of the Sabbath?
Our human nature causes us to view the concept of faith from an intellectual or philosophical perspective, seeing faith as a system of beliefs based on mental assent, practiced through rituals and traditions. Reality is—religious belief and trusting faith are very different!
Biblical faith is more about trust than anything else. You can believe in something intellectually but the degree to which you act and walk out your life is based more on your measure of trust; which is directly connected to truth, and expressed through relationships. How so? You will only trust in something or somebody with which you associate truth. All the Hebrew and Greek words relating to faith convey these very real and relevant concepts:
Old Covenant
aman: to believe, trust; to be true or certain
emunah: faithfulness, truth, firmness
shema: to hearken, discern, consent, witness, obey
New Covenant
pisteuo: to have faith, entrust
pistis: persuasion, credence, moral conviction
peitho: convince, rely, agree, assure, believe, trust
Faith, therefore, is about having firm convictions, trusting what you believe as truth and acting upon it. Since you can only trust those with whom you can relate, the more you relate with God, the greater your level of trust in God.
Beyond rationalizing religious doctrines or expressing emotions towards God, Biblical faith is practiced or exercised by forging and cultivating a relationship with God built on trust; trusting in who God is, and relating with Him in terms of His love, faithfulness, grace, mercy and eternal truths.
From God’s perspective, the Sabbath was created to be more than a day off of work and day of pleasure. It is a special appointed time on God’s calendar to energize faith by making contact and relating with His creation—most specifically you and your fellow man!
Experiencing a new dimension of God’s Sabbath rest
The New Testament or New Covenant (as I appreciate it more) concept of God’s rest paints a WHOLE BIGGER PICTURE of God’s kind of rest—if we can see it. It encompasses a special kind of rest through a relationship with Messiah Jesus based on a unique kind of trusting faith.
Truly, God’s intended rest takes on a whole new dimension than what most perceive it to be. It is intended to bring us into a realm of union with God whereby we find a unique rest, refreshing and renewal in His peace and presence.
So what does this mean in practical terms? How can we experience the kind of rest God intended for us to experience? God’s concept of the Sabbath rest in all practicality and simplicity is a time to:
- find a place to rest
- rejoice in God’s revealed love
- appreciate God’s creation and redemption
- engage with God in a time of reconciliation
- engage with others in relationship with God
- come to resolution with worldly/weekly tensions
- find balance between God’s grace and truth
- be refreshed and renewed in God’s presence
How can we experience such a baptism—or immersion into God’s rest? Firstly, we must see and understand that the Sabbath rest is not about religion, rituals, rules or what we have to do; but more importantly what we get to do and can participate in!
For one thing, God created the Sabbath to establish a special way to engage with Him and get to know Him intimately. He designed and ordained it with the intent of being a time to be in touch and relate with the Godhead—Father, Holy Spirit and Son—in a unique way to participate in covenant relationship.
God provided special clues about the Sabbath experience in the way He issued the Ten Commandments. He made two key points about keeping and observing it as a special or holy day.
If you look at how God issued the command concerning the Sabbath in both, Exodus and Deuteronomy, you will see how God meant for the Sabbath to be a special appointed time of getting to know Him as Creator and Redeemer; and likewise seeing Him in the context of His work of creation and redemption. You can clearly see this emphasis in the two versions of the Ten Commandments.
Gaining understanding: seeing what God creates and redeems
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CREATION EMPHASIS |
REDEMPTION EMPHASIS |
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Exodus 20:8-11 “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 the Sabbath of the Lord 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. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
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Deuteronomy 5:12-15 ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord 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 ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
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A time of rest and refreshing, revelation and renewal
The Sabbath truly is a time to rest, be refreshed and reflect on life; and specifically what God has, and is in the process of creating and redeeming. He does this most effectively through the revealing ministry of the Holy Spirit, breathing and stirring the life of God within you. In such a way God reveals Himself—His nature and ways—to you in greater measures; so that your faith and relationship with Him becomes stronger and stronger as you go from “faith to faith” (Romans 1:17) and “glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Keep in mind God is always creating. It’s what He does. At the same time He is always redeeming. He redeems what man messes up! First and foremost He redeems our time. Hence the Sabbath was meant to sanctify time; help us value time as precious.
Think of the Sabbath as a time to reflect on all God created during the week as well as what He is creating during this season of time. It in essence is a time to view and appreciate life from several perspectives: temporal vs. eternal; and physical vs. spiritual.
Physical vs. Spiritual
We live in a physical world and deal with physical people. Yet there is a heavenly realm. There are also heavenly beings—like angels, and yes, demons. Things in life happen for reasons beyond the natural. The supernatural is real. Yes, it takes faith to understand this. The Sabbath is a time when God invites us to see through eyes of faith and pierce through the physical realm to get a glimpse of the heavenly realm. It is a time to get a sense of spiritual reality.
Temporal vs. Eternal
The physical realm operates in real time; a finite measureable time period that is, during our lifetime, temporal in nature. The spiritual realm exists for eternity, and operates over an endless time period. The Sabbath gives us the opportunity to appreciate the physical time we have on earth; the things God has created and relationships He has allowed us to experience during our temporal time of abiding in the earth. You might say the Sabbath gives us moments to preview bits of eternity.
Time and Space: a Perspective of Spiritual Reality
Since our nature is to focus on the physical world around us we place emphasis on the material things we come in contact with and have an opportunity to possess and enjoy. The Sabbath gives us the opportunity to realize our soul belongs to God. It enables us to separate and detach ourselves from the physical and material things of this world and strengthen our attachment to God.
The greater reality of such a perspective of these dynamics—the physical and spiritual plus temporal and eternal—brings us to truly valuing time and space: the juncture where the physical and spiritual meet; and temporary and eternal meet. This, in essence, is what philosophers, theologians and scientists have sought to piece together and grasp hold of for centuries! Grasping hold of this concept helps us come to a sense of value—and focusing on the things of greater eternal value.
What might those things be? That’s our quest! The more you experience the reality of the Lord’s Sabbath and see the dynamics of His grace/mercy and truth play out, the more you will come to know and appreciate the things of greater eternal value!
A time to relieve tension
People don’t easily realize it but God created mankind with a built-in need to be in a synchronized alignment with Creator God. When we are in such alignment we have inner peace. Otherwise we live with forms of tension that issue in levels of anxiety, stress and depression. God created the Sabbath as a type of reset button to bring us back into alignment with Him. The world, however, brings us into contention with such natural—or in reality—supernatural mode of reset and refreshing.
Look at it as types of goals or motivations. God created us with intentional purposes. He set divine goals for us. People throughout the ages have called it divine providence. Our humanity, on the other hand, is conditioned to desire and be bent on achieving our own set of goals. Such things, in reality, are the vain imaginations or “high things that exalt itself against the knowledge of God”
(2 Corinthians 10:5).
Tension exists when we strive to do what is “right in our own eyes” to satisfy desires and achieve and live out goals contrary to God’s. Yes, God created man with free will and agency; and gives us grace when we fail or miss the mark. He desires, though, that we find truth; which is why Jesus emphasized we pray that God’s will be done in earth as He has designed and willed it in heaven.
Consider the contrast between human and God values and goals below. Meditate on how your human nature might be at odds with God’s nature, will and ways. Yes, it would behoove you to take Shabbat (Hebrew for Sabbath) time to reflect on these issues! It will truly change your relationship with God and outlook on life!
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Human values and goals |
God’s values and goals |
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pursue vain images and desires to glorify self |
experience God’s ways, life, purposes and power |
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push, pull and compete to preserve or exalt self |
flow, function and align with heavenly purpose |
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indulge in worldly interests to feel good about self |
steward, share and sow into others |
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control life: time, space, stuff and others |
experience righteousness, justice, grace, truth |
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master life: acquire stuff and rule in a race of time |
relate with God and others to experience love |
A time to truly enter into His rest
Understanding how the Sabbath was created to help you cease from work and creative energy helps you depend more on God than on the toil of your work. It brings work and the purpose of work into a more balanced perspective. It also helps us see how God brings into view the means vs. the ends.
Our human nature causes us to focus on the ends over the means— fulfilling our desires and achieving our goals, doing whatever it takes—whether morally right or wrong. The Sabbath brings us to understand and appreciate God’s values and ways, and appreciate what God desires of us as well as how and why we should do what we do—so that we be found pleasing in His eyes.
A time to be in harmony with God
Our human nature enjoys times of celebration. The Sabbath provides time to celebrate various aspects of life. As we’ve been discussing, the Sabbath allows time to celebrate God’s order of creation, revelation and redemption. More than just things God has created, however, the Sabbath brings us to worship God as Creator—and place emphasis on our Creator above His creations.
Paul emphasized this, speaking of those who “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). As we worship God in spirit and truth, the Sabbath brings us into a focus that offers a sense of spiritual reality that changes the way we engage with God. It brings us into a mode of praise, and not petition. It, therefore, gives us the opportunity to shift our focus from self to God.
All in all, the Sabbath truly brings us into a harmony and cadence with God. Consider these concepts in terms of music. Harmony is about the arrangement of tones and sounds that when blended in a certain order brings something pleasing to the ear; even more, heart and soul. It brings a sense of congruity: multi-dimensional agreement.
Cadence, on the other hand, is about rhythm; a pattern of chords that concludes a section or piece of music—a rest. It brings a sense of closure and resolution. When harmony and cadence work together, it brings a real peace; and that is the uniqueness of our Creator’s purpose of music. It, in reality, helps us enjoy our real freedom and relationship with God and one another.
Truly, God built man to yearn for and search for God as a plant yearns for light and water. That’s why one way or another all will seek after gods and pursue vain images and desires or the true living Creator-Redeemer God of the universe.
For all these reasons God spoke a variety of words of encouragement through the prophet Isaiah (in Isaiah 56:1-8), “blessed” is the one who “keeps the Sabbath.” He added further (in Isaiah 58:13-14) that such participation and delighting in His Sabbath over the indulgences of the flesh would bring special blessings of freedom and joy!
This is why God ordained the Sabbath as a “sign of the covenant…throughout you generations” (Exodus 31:12-17). It is a distinguished way of being identified in covenant relationship with God.
A time to anticipate and experience the reality of the Kingdom of God
Isaiah had recorded (Isaiah 9:6-7) God’s prophecy of a time when a Son of David would come in the fullness of God’s authority, wisdom and power, and inaugurate the Messianic era.
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
The Messiah in whose days peace will increase upon us. (The Targum; Aramaic Bible)
7 Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Daniel too had a revelation of Messiah and His kingdom that would be manifested in the earth. The Holy Spirit revealed that “to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom”…one which “would not pass away” (Daniel 7:14).
In as much as we were wired to seek God’s true inner peace and fulfillment, God ordained for mankind to have a Messianic hope; the hope of knowing the Eternal Savior—Son of God and Son of man—“full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Why? “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15) and “in Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11).
The Messiah—Jesus Christ—came in the fullness of God’s power. He was acknowledged by the masses of Jewish people as the “Son of David” (Matthew 9:27). He declared in more ways than one, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). He spoke in many parables to describe various aspects of the Kingdom of God. He revealed the Father and released the Holy Spirit to indwell hearts of faith, manifest His presence and grace gifts, and provide a guarantee of our eternal inheritance (Ephesians 1:14).
To those with eyes of faith He made tangible the intangible image and nature of God. He connected the soul of mortal humanity with immortality. He made heaven and a relationship with God a tangible reality for those who will receive His life through grace by trusting faith. He came to manifest the reality, and provide a preview of the Kingdom of God in the earth. The Sabbath time, therefore, is a time to partake in His love and anticipate eternity in His presence.
In another sense, the Sabbath encompasses what Jesus spoke of in the phrase included in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Two concepts are in view here: being at peace individually; and making peace with others.
Being at peace is about yielding to God and being surrendered to His will and ways. It is, in essence, experiencing the fullness of the Hebrew term, shalom—wholeness. Shalom in its full meaning constitutes a state of well-being; health, prosperity, welfare, safety and rest—all which speak of being at peace with God; the reality of the kingdom of God being manifested in the individual.
In the other sense, making peace constitutes bringing about such wholeness and well-being with others. This can convey two things: either those individuals not at peace with God, or alienated from God; or those not at peace with you.
In the greater sense being a peacemaker, therefore, speaks of actively seeking to bring about harmony and reconciliation—which makes for a healthy state of being—with God and one another. It, therefore, speaks of relationships—with God and others.
Paul had this concept in mind in speaking of the ministry of reconciliation.
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
Paul understood the greater concept of shalom, and therefore connected it with the concept of being reconciled with God and one another. This he saw as the reality of the Kingdom of God coming—or being expressed and manifested in the earth as it is in heaven.
In a greater sense, this is the very heart of the gospel message! Messiah Jesus came to bring this kind of peace to earth, and in such a way, express and manifest the reality of the Kingdom of God. It happens as God’s love is dispersed abroad (2 Corinthians 9:9 and Psalm 112:9); received individually and expressed outwardly towards others. It happens when Messiah Jesus is Lord—of you individually, and in the midst of people.
May God’s will be done in earth as it is in heaven! May He draw you by His Spirit unto Himself, immerse and bless you in His true rest and peace, that you be His salt and light in the earth—for His glory!