Better Bible Study #5

One Thing that has Helped Me Understand the Bible so Much Better is:

Seeing it as a Unified Story that Leads to Jesus

You’ll Find Many Rules and Facts in the Bible

But the Bible is Not a Rule Book or a Book of Facts

The Bible is a Story

God’s Story

Our Story

And When We Recognize the Bible as a Story…

We Will Understand its Messages to Us Much More Clearly

One of the Best Ways to Recognize the Bible as a Unified Story is

To Recognize its Major Themes

There are Many Themes in the Bible

Many People, Places, Things, and Ideas that Continue to Pop Up and Play a Major Part in the Narrative

We are Spending a Few Weeks Looking at Different Themes

We’ve Already Looked at:

The Tree of Life

Babylon

Tonight We are Looking at…

Sabbath

What is “Sabbath”?

Sabbath is a Hebrew Word

When You Say “Sabbath” You are Speaking Hebrew (at Least Pretty Close to it)

It Comes From the Word that Means “to cease, stop, put an end to, rest”

The Sabbath is a Day When You Cease, Stop, Put an End to, Rest

The First Time We See this Day Being Referred to is Genesis 2:1-3

Genesis 2:1–3 (NASB)

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 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. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

We Get Important Information From this Passage

First, that the Day God Rested/Stopped Working was the 7th Day

Second, He Sanctified/Set it Apart From the Other Days

In What Way was this 7th Day Made Holy?

We Learn in the Law of Moses

Exodus 20:8–11 (NASB)

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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.

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.”

It was Set Apart/Sanctified/Made Holy to Be a Day of Rest

It Wasn’t Just a Day for God to Stop Working and Rest

He Made it a Day Set Apart for All People to Stop Working and Rest

This Wasn’t Just a Suggestion By God

People Would Be Put to Death if They Worked On the Seventh/Sabbath Day

Exodus 31:14–17 (NASB)

‘Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.

‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’

“It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”

The Sabbath Rest was a Part of God’s Covenant with Israel

It was a Day to Celebrate that Covenant Relationship

It was a Sign of Those Who Faithfully Belonged to God

The Rainbow was a Sign of the Covenant Between Noah and God

Circumcision was a Sign of the Covenant Between Abraham (and His Descendants) and God

And the Sabbath Day was a Sign of the Mosaic Covenant Between Israel and God

Just as God Stopped Working and Rested on the 7th Day and was Refreshed…

His People Were to Stop Working and Rest on the 7th Day and Be Refreshed

God Wanted His People (Even Commanded) His People to Rest

The First Time We See “Sabbath” in the Bible is Not Actually in the 10 Commandments (in Exodus 20)

It’s Actually in Exodus 16:22-30 When God Provided for the Israelites in the Wilderness Manna to Eat

Exodus 16:22–30 (NASB)

Now 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, 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.”

So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.”

It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? 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.” So the people rested on the seventh day.

They Were Not to Gather Manna on the 7th Day

Why?

Because God Provided Them with What They Needed for the 7th Day on the 6th Day

They Were to Rest,Celebrate, and Enjoy What God had Already Done for Them

It Takes Faith to Set Aside a Sabbath Day of Rest

You Must Trust that God Will and Has Already Provided for You

And You Can Only Truly Rest When You Truly Trust

Lack of Trust Produces Fear and Fear Produces Work

We Work in Fear Because We Believe We Must Provide for Ourselves

But True Faith Trusts that God Will and Already Has Provided

But the Sabbath Day Wasn’t the Only Sabbath Israel was to Keep Holy and Celebrate

There Were Also 7 Festivals that Israel was Commanded to Celebrate Every Year

Leviticus 23 Tells Us in Order What Each of the 7 Feasts/Festivals Are:

The Sabbath Day

Practiced Every 7th Day

Must Stop Working, Rest, and Worship

Reminder of God’s Rest After Creation

The Passover

Practiced on the 14th Day of the 1st Month

Then the Feast of Unleavened Bread for 7 Days

Must Stop Working and Worship

Reminder of Israel’s Protection and Salvation By God in Egypt, Freeing Them From Their Slavery/Work

The Feast of Firstfruits

Practiced After the Sabbath of the Week of Unleavened Bread

A Dedication and Celebration of the Harvest as a Blessing From God to His People

No Working

The Feast of Weeks

Practiced 7 Fulls Weeks and a Day After the Feast of Firstfruits (50 Days - Also Known as Pentecost)

Worship and Sacrifices Were to Be Made

The Edges of Fields Were to Be Left for the Poor and Sojourner to Glean From

No Working

The Feast of Trumpets

Practiced on the 1st Day of the 7th Month

Celebrated as the End of the Agricultural Year (Later as New Year’s to the Jewish People)

A Loud Trumpet Would Be Blown and Offerings Were to Be Made

No Working

The Day of Atonement

Practiced on the 10th Day of the 7th Month

Fasting, Mourning Over Sin, and Prayer Were to be Practiced

The High Priest Will Enter the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle and Make Atonement for Israel’s Sins

No Working

The Feast of Booths

Practiced for 7 Days Beginning on the 15th Day of the 7th Month

They Were to Stay in Tents to Remind Them of How God Provided for and Lead the Israelites Through the Wilderness

No Working

Each of These Festivals Were to Remind the Israelites of God’s Providential Care

They Were to Celebrate, Worship, and Renew Their Allegiance to God on These Days and Weeks

But Sabbath Rest and the Number 7 Continues to Dominate the Jewish Calendar

In Leviticus 25 We Learn About the Sabbath Year

Every 7th Year, the Israelite People Were Forbidden to Do Any Agricultural Activities

They Were to Let the Land Rest and Trust in God to Provide for Them

2 Chronicles 36:21 (NASB)

to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.

The Babylonian Exile Lasted 70 Years to Allow the Land to Rest for All the Sabbath Years Israel Never Practiced

Also in Leviticus 25 We Learn of the Year of Jubilee

After Every 7 Times 7 (49) Years, the Next Year Will Be the Year of Jubilee

It is a Year of Release and Liberty

People are to Return to Their Ancestral Land Possessions

Israelites Who Sold Themselves to Indentured Servitude are to Be Released

And the Land is to Have Another Sabbath Year

Everything is Forgiven and Restored in the Year of Jubilee

So God Commanded His People to Celebrate, Worship, and Rest Every 7th Day

He Commanded Them to Rest 7 Times a Year When They Practice Their 7 Festivals Every Year

He Commanded Them to Let the Land Rest Every 7 Years

He Commanded Them to Celebrate the Year of Jubilee (The Ultimate Year of Rest) Every 7 Times 7 Years

Sabbath Rest and the Number 7 (Number of Completeness) are Extremely Important in the Old Testament

They Remind Us :

God’s Rest After Creation

That God is in Control and that We Need to Trust in His Providential Care

To Devote Ourselves to and Worship God

And Ultimately, to Remind Us of the Future Day of Ultimate Rest

When You Go Back to Genesis 1, You See a Common Phrase Repeated

“There was evening and there was morning”

After Each Day of Creation this Phrase is Spoken…

Except When You Get to Day 7

Each Day is Said to End Except for Day 7, the Day of Rest

When God Finished His Creation, Humans and Animals Lives in a Perfect World

They Experienced True Rest

Physical, Spiritual, Emotional

But After Sin, Corruption, and Death Took Over…

There was No More Rest

No Physical Rest

Humans and Animals Then Had to Work, Fight, and Kill for Their Food, Clothing, and Shelter

No Spiritual Rest

We Were Separated From God and Covered in Sin and Guilt

No Emotional Rest

Worries, Fears, Anxieties, Stress, Anger, Sadness, and Depression Now Plague Us Daily

But Ever Since that Day…

The Day Rest Ended…

God has Been Working His Plan to Bring Eternal Rest Back to Us

All of the Sabbath Days, Festivals, and Years Were Meant to Be a Little Piece of Rest for God’s People and Creation

But the True Rest was Yet to Come

God Promised Rest to the Wandering Israelites When They Entered the Promised Land

Exodus 33:14 (NASB)

And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”

But that First Generation was Unfaithful

Psalm 95:8–11 (NASB)

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”

After Joshua Led the Israelites into the Promised Land, We Read:

Joshua 21:44–45 (NASB)

And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.

But We Know What Happens After Joshua…

Judges - One of the Most Dark, Horrific, and Brutal Times in Israel’s History

God’s Perfect Sabbath Rest is Not Yet Here

But Then Jesus Enters the Story

And He Comes Teaching the People the Truth About the Sabbath

By this Time, the Jewish Religious Leaders Had Added So Many Rules Onto the Sabbath Command

One Day His Disciples Began Picking Heads of Grain and Eating Them as They Walked Through a Field on a Sabbath Day

The Pharisees Said that was Unlawful

Mark 2:27–28 (NASB)

Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Jesus Tells Them that the Sabbath was Meant to Serve Us, Not Us Serve the Sabbath

The Sabbath was Meant to Be a Gracious Gift From God to Humans

Not a Way to Condemn Us

Jesus Calls Himself the Lord of the Sabbath

And He Tells the World:

Matthew 11:28–30 (NASB)

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Those Who Submit Themselves to Jesus as Their Lord and Obey His Teachings Will Receive True Rest

This is What Hebrews Tells Us as Well

Hebrews 3 Quotes Pslam 95 Where God Swore to the Disobedient Generation that They Wouldn’t Enter His Rest

The Writer Quotes this Psalm to Encourage His Listeners to Remain Faithfully Obedient to Christ…

Unlike the Wandering Israelites

That Leads Us to Hebrews 4

Hebrews 4:1 (NASB)

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

There Still Remains a Promise of Entering God’s Rest

But, Like the Wandering Israelites, We Could Miss Out on it

Hebrews 4:2 (NASB)

For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

We Have Heard the Good News of God’s Promises to His Faithful People

So Did the Wandering Israelites

But They Were Still Lost and Never Entered God’s Promised Rest

Why?

Because They Didn’t Accept Their Good News with Faith

They Didn’t Trust God’s Promises

Hebrews 4:3–7 (NASB)

For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.”

Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”

Some of that can Be Difficult to Understand on a Quick Read-Through

But What the Writer is Saying is Simple

God’s Rest From the 7th Day of Creation is Still Open

It’s Still Available to Those Who Will Place Their Trust in Him

Humanity Once Lost Had But Lost True Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Rest

But it is Still Available to Receive

Even “Today” it is Still Available to Enter into

Hebrews 4:8–9 (NASB)

For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Rest is Still Available if We Will Only Trust in God to Provide it Through Jesus

So Much of the Kingdom of God is “Already and Not Yet”

We are Already Saved, But Not Yet in the Sense that Ultimate Salvation Will Come When Jesus Returns

We are Already Reconciled to God, But Not Yet in the Way that We Will Be When Jesus Returns

We are Already a New Creation, But Not Yet Like We will Be with Our New Resurrected Bodies

The Same is True with Sabbath Rest in Christ

In Christ We Can Have Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Rest Already

Life is So Much Better After Placing Trust in Jesus

Though Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Rest is Already Available to Christians

It’s Not Yet to the Amazing Extent that it Will Be When Jesus Returns

Listen to Jesus’ Words:

“Come to Me…and I will give you rest.”