The Old Testament's Establishment of Sabbath & Rest

By Preston Rhodes, Resonate Missoula

Introduction   

In the last few years, I’ve become more and more convinced that our understanding of the Sabbath is crucial in our fight to work and rest well for the Kingdom of God. We all likely agree that the Sabbath is a vital part of the Christian life, but what if I told you there is a chance that how you practice the Sabbath actually inhibits your experience of true rest? For many of us, it seems, our understanding of the Sabbath has been more informed by Christian self-care culture than biblical revelation. Phrases like “I didn’t get to Sabbath today” or “I can’t on Saturday, that’s my Sabbath” indicate that, though our intentions are healthy, we are misunderstanding the Sabbath command in the New Covenant. 

In order to understand the Sabbath and its modern application, we must understand it in it’s historical, Old Testament context. Then, with its origin in mind, we can see how the coming of Jesus changes the Sabbath practice as it changes all of the Old Testament practices. Before we begin, we must commit to letting Scripture guide our belief in and practice of the Sabbath, not popular Christian trends or personal experiences. Though these worldly trends are wrapped in the lies of comfort and healing, they actually lead to more anxiety and shame and leave us weary and discouraged in our Sabbath practice. 

The Institution and Purpose of the Old Testament Sabbath

The Sabbath first appears in Exodus 16:23-26. The Israelites, recently freed from their captivity in Egypt, are commanded “Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD...six days you shall gather, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” (Exodus 16:23a, 26). The Hebrew word for Sabbath, shabbat, means “rest or cease”. The Sabbath was a complete cessation of labor on the seventh day of every week. 

The Sabbath commandment was a remembrance of two distinct events in Israelite history. First, the Sabbath remembered God’s rest in Creation (Genesis 2:1-3 , Exodus 20:8-11), a promise that despite the entrance of sin into the world, He is restoring what was lost in creation by establishing the new creation through the coming Messiah (Genesis 3:15). Second, the Sabbath remembered God’s work of Salvation in the Exodus from Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:12-15, Exodus 16:21-26 , Ezekiel 20:10), which is a foreshadow to the salvation to come in Christ (Isaiah 49-55).  In these two ways, the Sabbath typified and pointed forward to a greater “rest” to come. 

With the establishment of the Old Testament Law, the Jews were constantly “laboring” to make themselves acceptable to God. Their labors included rigorous obedience to the ceremonial laws, civil laws, Temple laws, etc. The Israelites could not possibly keep all these laws because, as Paul makes clear in Romans 3:20, the purpose of the law was not justification, but knowledge of sin. Therefore, God provided an array of sin offerings and sacrifices so the Jews could temporarily restore fellowship with Him. Just as the Jews resumed their physical labors after a one-day Sabbath rest, so too did they have to resume offering sacrifices again and again for their sins. The weekly Sabbath pattern, just like the sacrificial system, was a temporary institution that pointed toward a future and eternal fulfillment. 

Rest, From Creation To Eternity

Before we look at the New Testament, we must understand how the theme of “rest” progresses through the Old Testament. In the culmination of the creation week, God rests after six days of work (Genesis 2:1-3). 

There are three important things to note about God’s rest on the seventh day. First, this day is not called a “Sabbath” day. Remember, that term first appears 2500 years later in Exodus 16. Second, there is no indication that Adam and Eve are to imitate God in this pattern or observe any rest one day out of seven. Third, and most importantly, each of the previous six days ended with the phrase “and there was evening and there was morning”, indicating that the day has closed. There is no “evening and morning” conclusion regarding the seventh day. 

This is important because we often think God worked for six days, rested for one day, and then went back to work on the eighth day. This idea, however, is foreign to Scripture. When God entered His “rest” on the seventh day, he entered into a permanent covenant enjoyment of His creation, with His creation. Adam and Eve were invited into this permanent covenant rest with their Creator. God created us for Himself, and our ultimate purpose is to be in covenant relationship with Him, reigning with Him over a glorious creation (Genesis 1:26). God did not just intend this rest for the seventh day, but also the eighth and ninth and forever since. 

Of course, this great rest did not last us long. Adam — our covenant representative — disobeyed God and brought sin and death into the world (Genesis 2:15-3:19, Romans 5:12-14). He refused the covenant relationship and thus failed to enter God’s rest. From that moment on, God has been in “rest” and man has been in “labor”. Thankfully, in the midst of the curse, God promised to restore “rest” by the provision of a coming Redeemer (Genesis 3:15). As the “Last Adam”, this Redeemer will fulfill all that the first Adam failed to accomplish (Romans 5:15-21). As God’s redemptive plan unfolds throughout history, it becomes clear that the covenant “rest” that is recovered in the institution of the Sabbath and in the Israelite deliverance into the Promised Land (Joshua 21:43-45) is incomplete. 

The New Testament keys to understanding the incompleteness of the rest found in the Promised Land and in the Sabbath lie in Hebrews 3:16-4:8  and in Colossians 2:16-17, respectively. The author of Hebrews uses Psalm 95 to argue that the true rest that was typified in the Promised Land was never fully realized. Because of their sin, the Israelites were forbidden from fully entering God’s rest. In Colossians 2, Paul makes it clear that the Sabbath was not a permanent solution, but simply a shadow. A shadow is not the substance but a marker or placeholder of something. God’s rest in creation—lost in the Fall and partially restored in the Old Testament—looked forward to a future Messiah, no longer a shadow, to be our “Sabbath rest.” 

Conclusion

In this first part of this blog series, we have established:

1. The popular understanding of Sabbath actually inhibits true rest and produces anxiety and shame.

2. The Sabbath commandment was a remembrance of God’s rest in Creation and God’s work of Salvation.

3. Eternal rest was lost in the Fall and partially restored in the Old Testament, which points to a future complete restoration.  

In the second part, we will examine the New Testament fulfillment of the Sabbath and begin to discuss how we apply this biblical understanding to our lives. If you have any questions regarding anything I’ve written, please either leave a comment below or email blog@resonate.net and I will address your question in the final part of this blog series!