Sabbath, Creation, and 7

The Sabbath helps us understand Scripture

In the Bible, especially the Old Testament, the Sabbath is nor merely an event or a day, but it is both a tool used to help us understand God and Scripture as well as a destination.

Everyone in scripture is trying to get to the Sabbath. We as readers want to know why?

The Sabbath is also a tool which helps us understand the rest of the Bible.

Tonight we will look at three components of the Sabbath:

Origin of Sabbath

Creation Story and Sabbath

The number 7

Origin of Sabbath

The word Sabbath appears first in

Genesis 2:2 ESV

2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

Sabot means to cease or stop.

Though this is the first place that the actual word Sabbath appears in the Bible, the concept of Sabbath appears much sooner in the creation story.

Before we go there, we will go to two places that talk about how we should keep the Sabbath.

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

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 to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and 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.

In this passage it is not simply a day to do no work, it is a day to stop from your daily activity and participate in God’s presence.

In essence, we are called to stop doing and start being for one day a week.

Exodus 20:

It is an intrusive break to come into God’s presence.

The Sabbath affects all.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 ESV

12 “ ‘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 a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Deuteronomy

In this passage, the Sabbath is about applying the Sabbath to people around you. So if you had slaves or servants, when you rested on the Sabbath, they would rest too.

Don’t think of Sabbath=no work. Think Sabbath=stop normal living for the one opportunity to live as if you were in heaven.

Sabbath is the only chance we get to experience what living in the garden of eden must have been like.

Other Sabbaths

Year of Jubilee

7th year of release

All of these Sabbaths are pointing towards liberty and freedom, not restriction.

When we celebrate Sabbath, we are acknowledging that God is in control of everything and we love Him for it.

God is the master of all time. Everything we have tried to accomplish throughout the week is minimal in comparison to God’s plans.

Throughout the week we are slaves to:

time

work

schedules

school

people

But on Sabbath God tells us to stop from all of that and focus on what really matters. Our relationships. Now, today, on this 7th day you are free from all of that for 24 hours.

Number 7