No 6

(The Sabbath)

A Jewish mother tells her children: “Hurry, get into your nice things, the sun is almost set, the Sabbath is about to begin”. In Jewish homes once the Sabbath begins and the two Sabbath candles are lit, no work is permitted; everything the family needs for the next 24 hours must be ready. The Sabbath was given by God to His people as a gift and it has been revered, over the centuries. It has sustained and preserved the Jewish people throughout the ages. One Jewish rabbi once said, “More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews.” In modern families this tradition stills goes on – the Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday and terminates at sunset on Saturday. The Hebrew word “Shabbat” means rest or cease. In the Bible, the Sabbath speaks primarily of the seventh day of the week, the day on which God rested from His creation – “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” (Genesis 2: 2,3). There are other Sabbaths in the Bible – the seventh day of the week (Exod 20:11); the first day of the seventh month (Lev 23:23-25); every seven years the land was to have a Sabbath or rest (Lev25: 3,4); every seven cycles of seven years was to be followed by a Jubilee (Lev 25:8-11). Finally, all the major feasts are characterized by a Sabbath day also. There are three purposes for the Sabbath: 1) A day of rest (Deut 5:13, 14) 2) A sign between God and the Jews (Exod 31:13) 3) A day of remembering their physical redemption out of Egypt (Deut 5:15). God has used the Sabbath in another special way. In the New Testament, Jesus did much of His teaching and performed many miracles on the Sabbath day. It was not because Jesus was anti-Sabbath, in fact, the Bible records that it was “His custom” to attend synagogue (Luke 4:16). Of course, when Jesus healed the blind man in John 9 on the Sabbath, the Pharisees responded –”Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day.” (v16). In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was strictly observed but in the New Testament, especially in the book of Acts, the Sabbath was no longer an obligation. Paul often used it to preach the Gospel but it was because the Jews were gathered in one place and not because Christians are obliged. Jesus abolished the Sabbath when He said: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28