Forgotten Law, Forgotten Purpose
The Sabbath is the commandment the world has forgotten, even most of those claiming somehow to be Israel. This is all the more striking, even ironic, in that it begins with the words, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”1 And no other command in the Law of God receives more explanation than this, or has more prophetic vision attached to it, and which culminates in the stirring words, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land.”2
It is so strange that this most significant command — the very sign of who God’s people are3 — has been forgotten by nearly the entire Christian world for seventeen centuries. And for even longer in the Jewish world it has been detached from all that it pointed to — the Sabbath years and the Year of Jubilee. So significant were these to the God of Israel that He sent His people into exile in Babylon so as to give the land rest — seventy full years of rest.4 That was the number of Sabbath years they did not keep from the time they entered into the land under Joshua.
Whoever Israel is, they will be the keepers of the holiness of the Sabbath.5 Israel keeps the seventh day holy not simply out of respect for the One who commanded it, but because it is so deeply woven into the purpose of Israel to be a light to the world. As history shows, God’s people have not mastered the Sabbath.6 They are either under the Law, worried about how many steps they may lawfully take, or lawless, setting the Sabbath aside to become Gentiles. They must do what is good on that day, desisting from the normal busyness of life, resting in the care their God has for them.
The Sabbath day is in the custody of man. It is something very significant that belongs to him. Man needs the Sabbath. Without a day of rest each week, life soon loses its meaning. This loss of meaning first happened at the fall of man. It remains the condition of all men who don’t know why they are living or what they were created for. Without a purpose to life, we are just breathing air until we die, and life has no meaning.7 Strife and the pursuit of fleeting, selfish pleasures has ever been the sign of who God’s people are not.8 The sign of who they are is found in these words to Israel:
Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: “Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” (Exodus 31:13)
On this day, once a week, they were to remember what He was doing in their lives, which was sanctifying them. When they forgot that He was seeking to make them free from sin, cleansing them from moral corruption, and purifying them from every love of the world, they also forgot to keep the Sabbath. But why should they do so out of mindless ritual? The Sabbath day apart from its meaning is like life without purpose: “Let’s eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”9
The Sign Posts Toppled
There is a simple reason why both old Israel and the early church stopped keeping the Sabbath. Their love for their Maker and for one another grew cold. They forgot that love was the key to everything they did, from God’s point of view:
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40)
It’s amazing: God has entrusted the fulfillment of His word to His people. If only they would love Him! So, the love of God and the love of neighbor were the two signposts, as it were, on which hang all the signs of who God’s people are. Two of those signs were the Sabbath and circumcision. Both of these became mere laws of the Jewish people, outward observances lacking the inner reality. Later, Christians simply rejected them.
What would the Sabbath day matter to God if His people had not love? It would be a charade, a sign signifying nothing. The Sabbath is simply a sign of where God dwells in a people, where He is free to work in their hearts, purifying them. It’s a sign of the people who trust Him enough to rest one day a week.10
The Sabbath (and all the Law) must be Fulfilled
Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon My salvation will come, and My deliverance be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” (Isaiah 56:1-2)
The God of Israel needs keepers of the holiness of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is part of the light Israel was to be to the rest of mankind. It is not just a day of rest that matters; the Sabbath is part of a much larger picture. No part can be taken away from that picture without ruining the whole.
