I can well remember the era when Valium hit the marketplace. Considered a tremendous medical discovery, the drug was used as a muscle relaxant and sedative. Soon, however, it became greatly abused. A pharmacist friend told me that Valium soon became known as ‘the drug of bored housewives’. When I was in high school, the oft-stated cure for stress was to “pop two Valium”. I still get occasional spam e-mails offering me Valium at discount rates. My pharmacist friend told me that Valium alone made R82m in South Africa in 2004, a 14% value increase over 2003.¹

Of course, there are legitimate medical uses for Valium and similar products. However, there is doubtless tremendous abuse of these products, too. In a medicated society eager to escape the stress associated with everyday life, anxiety, panic, worry and fear are easily drowned in antidepressant drugs.

There is, however, a far better way to manage the stress of today’s world. Given to us by God, it takes the form of a weekly sabbatical. The sabbatical was instituted by God when He took such a rest Himself at the conclusion of His six-day creation. This sabbatical became a principle of humanity after the fall and has continued to be ever since. Eventually, it came to be prescribed by law in the Old Testament. Though I do not believe the Sabbath to be legislated in the New Testament, I am convinced that the Sabbath principle is one that we would do well to heed.

The word ‘sabbatical’ or ‘Sabbath’ speaks of a period of time in which someone ceases from their normal routine of labour in order to refresh and thus benefit themselves. No longer is that person producing in the way that he normally does. The word does not speak of cessation from all activity. It speaks, rather, of cessation from a particular type of activity in order to focus on another type of activity.

According to Old Testament law, Israel was to observe, not only a weekly Sabbath, but also a sabbatical year (Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 25:1-7, 18-22). They were permitted to work in their fields for six years but the seventh year was reserved for the land to rest. Should they observe this law, God would provide such abundance in the sixth year that there would be sufficient produce to maintain the society during the seventh and eighth years.²

In a nutshell, we might say that a sabbatical is a time of rest that enables us to be more fruitful.

The concept of a Christian weekly Sabbath has fallen on hard times. There are at least two reasons for this. First, there seems to be an increase in biblical illiteracy and indifference; people do not actually know what the Bible says about the Sabbath, and they have no idea how the Old Testament command applies to the New Testament church. Second, there appears to be a misrepresentation of the Sabbath principle. The Sabbath is seen quite often as a time of fasting and frowning rather than feasting and fellowship. I recently read the story of a Scottish minister in the 1700s who overslept one Sunday morning. In a hurry to get to church, he took a shortcut. Having to cross a river on his way to the church, he would normally travel downstream to the bridge. But it was wintertime, and the river had frozen solid. Seeing his opportunity to speed his journey, he took with him a pair of ice skates, and skated across the river.

When he got to church, some church members were highly upset that he had skated on the Sabbath. For a whole week, the church held meetings to decide whether or not their pastor had sinned by skating on the Sabbath. Initially, they were in two minds, but they eventually concluded that the fundamental question was whether or not he enjoyed skating! If he had enjoyed it then it was wrong; if not then it was okay!³

I would suggest, however, that the Sabbath should be a joyous time of feasting and fellowship as we gather with fellow Christians. As we do so, we step back from weekly activities, worship God, and become refreshed in our desire to be fruitful for our God’s glory in the week ahead.

In this study, my desire is to prove that a weekly sabbatical is essential for the church of God. I do not intend to argue for Sunday as the Christian Sabbath (though, for most Christians, it is most suitable to combine the Lord’s Day and their Sabbath). Nor do I intend to lay down legislation as to what is and what is not permitted on the Lord’s Day (or whichever day you take as your Sabbath). I do intend to point to the great blessing available through the observance of a weekly Sabbath.

The Commencement of the Sabbath

Genesis 1 records God’s six-day creation week. The entire host of heaven and earth has been completed, and now He moves to His day of rest. Moses paints the picture:

¹Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ²And 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. ³And 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 2:1-3)

These verses might literally be rendered thus: “And God completed on the seventh day His work which He had done, and He stopped on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” The word ‘rested’ in Genesis 2:2 is the Hebrew word shabath, from which we derive our English word Sabbath. There are several things to note about God’s rest.

First, though He ceased creative activity, He did not cease all activity. When the Jews accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath law, He said to them, ‘My Father worketh hitherto [i.e. ‘to this point’, ‘until now’], and I work’ (John 17:5). It is clear from this verse that God was still working during Jesus’ earthly ministry. We cannot, therefore, conclude that the Father ceased all activity at His Sabbath rest. But it is clear that God stopped His creative work at that point. Since day six of history, He has created nothing. So what work is He involved in? What activity has He performed since that day? From the viewpoint of His creation, God has worked at sustaining everything He made. Without His sustaining power, the universe would fall apart. But He has prevented anything from destroying that which He made. A Sabbath rest, then, does not speak of complete and absolute cessation of activity. Rather, it speaks of resting from a certain type of activity.

Second, the rest that God took was one of reflection. He was not tired. He did not need to rest in order to rejuvenate. ‘Hast thou now known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?’ (Isaiah 40:28). Rather than resting due to fatigue, the Creator reflected on the perfection of that which He had made.

Third, God’s rest was one of refreshment, satisfaction and interaction. At the close of day six, God had declared all He had made to be ‘very good’. Now, He took the time to reflect in satisfaction on His ‘very good’ creation. Furthermore, He took the time to interact with His creation. He did not sit back and watch it all wind down. Rather, He walked with man in the cool of the day. He spent time in fellowship with Adam and Eve.

Fourth, we notice that God’s rest was open-ended. That is, He is still enjoying His sabbatical. Nowhere in the record of the seventh day do we read that ‘the evening and the morning were the seventh day’ (contrast Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). This is because He is still enjoying His rest from creation. Though He is now involved in sustaining creation and redeeming man, He has produced nothing by fiat for some six thousand years.

Important to note is that Genesis 2:1-3 says nothing about man! We know that ‘the sabbath was made for man’ (Mark 2:27), but man had nothing to do with the original Sabbath. The reason for this is that there was nothing on that day from which man could rest. Adam and Eve had only been created halfway through the preceding day, and they had performed no work and produced nothing to this point. In fact, before sin, though they were to be involved in keeping the garden (Genesis 2:15), they would not produce anything. As we will see a little later, God produced everything in Eden before the Fall; therefore man had no labour from which to rest.

We see also that no command is given to man in these verses. Theologians often talk about the Sabbath as a “creation ordinance”. In one sense, this is correct, for the Sabbath law given in the Ten Commandments clearly links the Sabbath with God’s rest at creation (Exodus 20:8-11). It must, however, be remembered that no command was given for man to rest in the creation account. The Ten Commandments were given some 2,500 years after creation; we must be careful, therefore, of insisting that Adam was required to rest every seventh day in a perfect creation. As long as man remained in perfect harmony with God, he would naturally have experienced Sabbath rest, for the Sabbath rest that we enjoy is simply a picture of that rest that we will forever enjoy in the very presence of God (the same rest that Adam and Eve enjoyed before sin entered the world).

The overriding principle of God’s initial Sabbath is that of God-focused rest in which He ceased to produce any more, and in which He enjoyed that which He had made.

The Constituting of the Sabbath

So why is there a pattern within the human race of working six days and resting one? We know that this pattern was later commanded, and it has remained in place ever since. To be sure, many are privileged to work only five days (or five-and-a-half) and rest for two (or one-and-a-half), but there is nevertheless the general pattern of at least one day rest in a workweek. Why is this?

The Rhythm of Creation

The French Revolution of the 1700s was a godless, antiChristian movement. One of the first things that took place in the Revolution was the abolition of the weekly Sabbath. Rather than a six-day workweek, those in power instituted a ten-day workweek. Within a short period of time, this was reversed, as the authorities came to the realisation that a ten-day workweek would never be successful. There seemed to be a one-day-in-seven-Sabbath principle built into the very fabric of the human race. This Sabbath principle was placed within man at creation.

Though the Sabbath principle seems to be built into man, there is little evidence that man before the fall would have observed this rest. As touched upon earlier, pre-fallen man had nothing to do with production. Though he was to tend the garden in which the Lord placed him, he had nothing to do with the production of food. God produced all that man needed and there was, therefore, no toil from which man must rest. It was only after the fall that God told man he must produce, and that by the sweat of his brow (Genesis 3:17-19). It was at that point, I believe, that Adam and Even began exercising a one-day-in-seven Sabbath, for it was only then that they began to weary.

The Ruin of Creation

At the fall, the struggle began. Effort to produce now ensued. Suddenly, man must labour and exert effort in order to produce. He now faced distraction from his worship. Before the fall, Adam had no need of an alarm clock with a snooze button. There was no temptation for him to sleep in and neglect his early morning fellowship with his Creator. Suddenly, however, he began experiencing things that he had never before faced. And from that point on, I believe, Adam began observing the Sabbath principle that God later inscripturated.

My point is simply that we need a weekly sabbatical, a time in which we can set aside our normal weekly concerns, and not be as focused on producing as we are during the other six days of the week. This will enable us to rest physically, spiritually and emotionally, in order that we might be productive in the week ahead.

Whilst I am not sure that I can state a weekly Sabbath as the key to overcoming stress, it certainly is a key, and a major one at that. As the week wears on, you can look forward to your sabbatical, which will refresh you for another week of productivity for the glory of God. There is no good reason to fight the Sabbath principle. In fact, it is foolish to do so. Rather, we ought to admit that we need time to rest – spiritually, physically and mentally – so that we might focus upon our great God.

The Commanding of the Sabbath

There is probably little doubt that man from Genesis 3 on began observing a Sabbath day. He would have naturally realised that his body needed rest. But it was not until much later that the Sabbath rest was actually prescribed by God.

The Revelation of the Sabbath

The first time that the word ‘sabbath’ is mentioned in our English Bible is in Exodus 16, where we read of Israel’s complaint that the Lord had not provided food for them in the wilderness. The Lord responds by giving them manna from heaven, and gives them very specific commands regarding the gathering of the manna:

⁴Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. ⁵And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.

(Exodus 16:4-5)

Of course, some of the people chose to ignore the Lord’s explicit commands, and they soon found out that failure to observe the Sabbath would have dire consequences:

²²And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. ²³And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. ²⁴And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. ²⁵And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to day ye shall not find it in the field. ²⁶Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. ²⁷And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. ²⁸And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? ²⁹See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. ³⁰So the people rested on the seventh day.

(Exodus 16:22-30)

These verses give the first explicit mention of people resting one day in seven. The events recorded in Exodus 16 take place, as has been mentioned, some 2,500 years after creation. This does not mean, of course, that no one before this point ever rested one day in seven. Again, I personally think that man already observed the Sabbath principle since the time of the fall. But this is the first time that we see God giving explicit commands concerning activity on the rest day. “You are My people,” the Lord seems to say, “and you will live differently, both for your benefit and for My glory.” For the first time, the people hear explicitly from God that the Sabbath should be to them a delight (see Isaiah 58:13).

The Regulation of the Sabbath

The Sabbath command, though practised for centuries and specifically revealed just a few chapters earlier, is finally codified in the Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment reads:

⁸Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: ¹⁰But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: ¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

(Exodus 20:8-11)

We should note at this point that more words are given concerning the Sabbath Day than any of the other commands in the Decalogue. Surely that tells us something of its importance? Now that the Sabbath is codified, we find it increasingly regulated throughout the Old Testament.

Though God regulates the Sabbath command by laying down laws to protect it, we must understand that it was not ultimately given to make the people miserable! Once again, it was given for man’s benefit and God’s glory. Great theologians throughout the ages have recognised the great blessing that accompanies obedience to the Ten Commandments. Some recent authors have added their voices to this conclusion. Michael S. Horton, for instance, has written a commentary on the Commandments entitled, The Law of Perfect Freedom. R. Kent Hughes’ commentary on the Decalogue is entitled Disciplines of Grace, in which he refers to the Commandments as God’s ten “words of grace”.

God’s law was given out of His love. He desired the best for us, and He thus revealed the best way for us to glorify Him and thus live a meaningful existence on this earth. The Sabbath law was not given so that we could apply the “did-you-enjoy-skating-over-the-river?” principle. God loves us and desires the best for us. He knows how foolish we are and that, left to our own, we would destroy ourselves. Thus, He gave us His law in order to help us glorify Him as we live joyfully.

There are at least four things that we must briefly note about the Sabbath law as given in the Decalogue. First, no religious observance is commanded (or mentioned) in the Sabbath law. The command was not for the people to gather at the Tabernacle on the Sabbath for worship. The emphasis, at least in the Ten Commandments, is that of rest, of ceasing from labour. That is, the command was more about resting from one’s labour than it was about going to church. Second, the basis for the command is given as Genesis 2:1-3. Man was commanded to rest on the seventh day because that is what God did. He was permitted a six day workweek, but he must rest one day in seven. Third, the command was all inclusive. The rest was commanded for all: for fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, male and female servants, guests in the home, and even animals. Fourth, the command focused on cessation of labour, not cessation of all activity.

We might summarise it thus, “After six days, God produced all that He would produce; thus He rested from that production. After your six days – that is, after all you are have produced – rest! Be satisfied, reflect, and enjoy the fruit of your labour!” Obviously, the intention is that we might reflect on the One who gave us the ability to produce: God! The rest is sweet in proportion to the labour that is exerted. Thus, the rest is to be constructive.

The Reinforcement of the Sabbath

There is nothing new under the sun. In the same way that man today rebels against the Sabbath principle, so man under the old covenant rebelled against God’s Sabbath commands. And so God warns of the consequences of disobedience:

¹²And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ¹³Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. ¹⁴Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. ¹⁶Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. ¹⁷It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

(Exodus 31:12-17)

In Genesis 2, God sets the example by resting Himself. In Exodus 16, He explicitly reveals the concept of the Sabbath, before actually codifying it in Exodus 20. Now, He reinforces just how serious He is about Sabbath observance. It is apparent that the people had not taken the matter as seriously as they ought to have taken it. Thus, in Exodus 31, the Lord shows them just how serious a matter it is: if they do not obey, they are to be put to death! The Sabbath is shown to be, quite literally, a matter of life and death!

God did not threaten death to make the Sabbath Day more burdensome for His people. Rather, He warned them against disobedience because He knew how beneficial the Day was for them. He was concerned for their good and His own glory.

The Restating of the Sabbath

The Lord had given the Sabbath command to His people at Sinai. In Numbers 13, the people refuse to go into the Promised Land, despite the fact that God has promised them victory. As judgement, He causes the people to wander in the wilderness for forty years, during which time all those under the age of twenty – with the exceptions of Joshua and Caleb – would die. An entirely new generation would enter the Land. By the time we come to Deuteronomy, the disobedient generation is dead. A new generation has arisen, and the time has again come for the people to take the Promised Land. But before they enter, Moses recites the law of God for them, warning them that disobedience will have the same results that it did for their parents. Deuteronomy, thus, is a restating of the law, and the Sabbath is included in this restatement:

¹²Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. ¹³Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: ¹⁴But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. ¹⁵And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

(Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

In the restating of the Sabbath, we see something that we have not previously seen. Initially, the Sabbath command found its basis in creation, in God’s Sabbath rest. Now, however, the rationale for the command is given as Israel’s redemption from Egypt. And so we have a twofold basis for the Sabbath: (1) it is based upon God’s rest at creation, and (2) it is based upon God’s deliverance of His people. On the Sabbath, then, God’s people are to reflect on their productivity by the grace of God, and on their redemption by the grace of God. That is, the Sabbath focuses us both upon physical rest and upon spiritual rest. The Israelites were to remember the toil that they had been delivered from unto the rest that God had provided. They had been redeemed, thus their rest was rooted in reverent remembrance.

Of course, all this was for God’s people living under the old covenant. But, for us under the new covenant, we have some sort of a clue as to the nature of as weekly sabbatical: it is restorative, reflective, redemptive and reverent. During our weekly Sabbath, we have opportunity to step back from the pressures of daily life and reflect, in an intensive way, on our redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no way that we can intensely focus on our redemption at work and still fulfil the duties for which we receive a salary. It would be irresponsible for us to spend all our time at work praying and reading Scripture (unless that is what we are paid to do!). But reflection is precisely the purpose of our weekly Sabbath.

The Reinstatement of the Sabbath

If you are familiar with Scripture, you will well know how God’s people refused to obey His Sabbath commands. Not only did they refuse to properly observe the weekly Sabbath, but they also refused to heed the sabbatical year, which ultimately led to exile in Babylon. We are given some indication as to their lack of concern for God’s Sabbath command in Isaiah 58:13-14:

¹³If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: ¹⁴Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

(Isaiah 58:13-14)

After the return from exile, the people again struggle with the Sabbath command. In Nehemiah 9-10 and 13 we see Nehemiah’s passionate concern for the holiness of the Sabbath Day. When God’s people were properly focused on worship, Sabbath observance was forthcoming; when they lost sight of God, the Sabbath was sorely neglected.

And so we see in the Old Testament that the command with regard to the Sabbath was for man’s benefit. Young children do not understand that parents want them to nap for their own benefit (of course, if you are a mother, you probably want them to take a nap for your benefit, too!). In the same way, we fight against Sabbath observance to our own peril, for God gave it from the beginning for man’s benefit. But that was under the old covenant. The question remains, do we require a Sabbath under the new covenant? Is the weekly Sabbath required for the church of Jesus Christ in the 21st century? The next chapter will seek to give an answer.

The Continuation of the Sabbath

There certainly seems to be a continuation of the Sabbath principle into the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ faced more controversy over the Sabbath question than any other issue in His ministry. The Pharisees were forever accusing the Lord of breaking the Sabbath (when He was, in fact, only performing deeds of necessity and mercy). One such confrontation is seen in Mark 2:23-28:

²³And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. ²⁴And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? ²⁵And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him? ²⁶How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? ²⁷And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: ²⁸Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

(Mark 2:23-28)

The New Testament affirms the truth that ‘the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath’. The Sabbath principle still stands for our benefit and for God’s glory. Christ spent a large part of His ministry seeking to break down the walls of superficial Sabbath observance and reinstitute true observance. I have little doubt that such biblical Sabbath observance is still called for today, with certain differences.

Perhaps the most important difference is with regards to the day of Sabbath observance. In the Old Testament, Israel observed the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week: Saturday. Jews still observe Saturday as their Sabbath today. I am of the firm conviction that Saturday is no longer the only day on which we can observe the Sabbath principle. I am of the equally firm conviction that Sunday has not replaced Saturday as ‘the Christian Sabbath’. Sunday has great significance for a Christian, but not necessarily as his or her Sabbath.

The New Testament warns against being too legislative concerning the day of the Sabbath. Paul was grieved that the Galatian believers were too strict to ‘observe days, and months, and times, and years’ (Galatians 4:10-11). To the Colossian saints, the apostle wrote that, in the cross, Christ did away with the ceremonial law of the Old Testament, and drew this application: ‘Let no man therefore judge you…in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days’ (Colossians 2:16). Again, the apostle wrote to the church in Rome:

⁵One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. ⁶He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

(Romans 14:5-6)

In light of these passages, we ought to be very careful of legislating a specific day as the day on which Christians are to observe their Sabbath. The principle for the Christian is that he is to work six days and to rest one. If he works five days and rests two, that is also fine. But there must be at least one day of rest in every seven. I observe my own Sabbath on a Monday: I finish preparations for the Sunday worship on Saturday, and I am involved in the work of the gospel on Sunday. Monday is my day off, the day on which I set aside my weekly concerns, rest, and reflect further on God’s grace in my life. If you live in Saudi Arabia, your Sabbath will be Friday. If you live in Israel, your Sabbath will be Saturday. It really doesn’t matter which day you use to rest – just as long as you use one in seven.

But what about the Lord’s Day? If the Lord’s Day is not simply a ‘Christian Sabbath’, then what is its purpose? Biblically, the Lord’s Day (Sunday) is the day for corporate Christian worship. It is often argued that, when it comes to the gathering of the church for worship, we should find the day best suited to worship in our culture and use that day for the gathering of the church. I am not entirely sure that this mindset will stand up under Scriptural scrutiny. How did the apostles approach the question of church worship? Did they simply worship on the day best suited for gathering in their culture? No. They lived in a Jewish culture, in which Saturday was the day of rest and, therefore, the most ‘convenient’ day to gather. Yet they still gathered on Sunday for worship (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; cf. Revelation 1:10)! They could well have chosen to gather on Saturday, reasoning that it was most conducive to such gathering. But they opted for Sunday, for that is the day on which the Lord rose from the dead.

In Acts 20, Paul conducts a church worship service. The Bible tells us that he ‘continued his speech until midnight’ (Acts 20:7). Preachers have often joked, using this text, that Paul was a longwinded preacher. The truth is, the meeting probably did not start until close to 10:00 pm! Keep in mind that 80% of the early church was composed of salves, who would have been working all day Sunday. Many of them would have to work until late, for their masters would require their services throughout suppertime, probably until they retired for the night. In order to get the entire church together at the same time, the church leaders would have had to wait until late at night. Thus, church services in the New Testament took place about 10:00 pm on Sunday!⁴ The point is, even though it required late night meetings, the early church gathered on Sunday, rather than simply the best day suited to gathering.

The New Testament nowhere expects Christians to observe Sunday as their Sabbath. Nowhere are early Christians rebuked for working on Sunday. On the contrary, they are commanded to obey their masters in all things (Ephesians 6:5-8; Colossians 3:22-24). But, despite the fact that most church members worked all day Sunday, that was the day on which the church gathered.

So, what about today? What about Christian churches in Israel and Saudi Arabia? Should they simply use the most convenient day for their gatherings, or ought they to gather on Sunday? Based on what I understand of Scripture, if I pastored a Christian church in Israel, I would gather with believers on Sunday, for that is the Lord’s Day, the day on which the apostles chose to gather (and we are, after all, built on the foundation of the apostles – Ephesians 2:20). I would gather early in the morning or late in the evening, at least for a short time of study and prayer. I would certainly use Saturday as a day for gathering for a more ‘formal’ service, but Sunday seems to be the day that the New Testament demands for church worship.

The apostles gathered on Sunday, but they still used Saturday as a time to reach out to others with the gospel. When the word ‘Sabbath’ is found in Acts, we most often see an apostle in the local synagogue preaching the gospel. In Israel, Saturday is doubtless the best day to minister the gospel to unbelievers who might attend a church service. To gather on Saturday is a wonderful ministry opportunity. But to gather on Sunday is a tremendous opportunity to proclaim boldly to the world, “Jesus Christ is Lord of this day!” Every Sunday is a resurrection Sunday.

Sunday is the Lord’s Day, the day on which believers should gather for corporate worship. But that does not necessarily make the day the Christian Sabbath. Sunday is the day of worship; the day of rest can fall any day of the week – just as long as it is one in seven. In God’s providence, most reading this are able to combine the two days together. For most, Sunday is both a day of rest and a day of corporate worship.

It is interesting to note that, throughout history, when the gospel has gained a foothold in a particular country and become dominant there, Sunday has become significant in that culture. When the gospel conquers a country, that country moves toward Sunday as its rest day. That is the case in South Africa, and probably in most countries where this is being read.

So the principle that continues in the new covenant era is that one day in seven is to be set aside as a day of rest. The question, then, remains as to how we are to conduct ourselves on our Sabbath Day. Having laid the doctrinal foundation for the Sabbath, allow me now to set forth some practical considerations for the day of rest.

The Conduct of the Sabbath

So how are we to conduct ourselves on our weekly sabbatical? Since most Christians enjoy their Sabbath on the Lord’s Day, I will assume from this point that this is the case for the reader (even if that is not the case, what follows will still help the reader to call the Sabbath a delight). Permit me, then, to suggest four things that will make our Sabbath the pleasure that it ought to be.

We Should Rest Restoratively

Whatever day we use as our Sabbath, we ought to use it as a means of rejuvenation. There is nothing wrong with having a nap on your Sabbath Day. I have heard and read well-meaning people argue that we should not sleep away our Sabbath. I understand that to a point, but if taking a nap helps to rejuvenate you, then take a nap!

Restore yourself with fellowship. Use your Sabbath as an opportunity to fellowship with the saints. Spend time with the people of God, reflecting together on the great God whom you serve. Those who combine their Sabbath with the Lord’s Day should particularly understand the importance of this. The church gathers on Sunday: use the fellowship of the saints as a means of restoration!

On the Sabbath, use your mind in a different way. Every year before our World Outreach Celebration (Missions Conference), I am given a weeklong sabbatical by my fellow elders. It is a time in which I stay away from my study at the office, and spend time preparing for the Celebration. I do not preach the Sunday before the Celebration, and so there is no pressure to prepare for that. I am still studying to teach God’s Word (during the Celebration), but I am able to rest from the pressure of having to prepare for the coming Lord’s Day. There is no pressure to have a sermon prepared for Sunday, and I find this restorative.

You may use part of your Sabbath to jog, if you find that relaxing. You may spend time in the garden, if you find that relaxing. You may spend time reading, if you find that relaxing. Whatever you do, make sure that it reinvigorates you for the week ahead.

We Should Rest Reflectively

On your Sabbath, take time to assess what you produced in the past week. Ask yourself, “What did I accomplish this week?” “Did I live for God as I should have?” “Could I perhaps have fulfilled my daily duties in a more Christ-honouring way?” Think about such things and spend time reflecting on what you have produced for the glory of God. On God’s Sabbath, He spent time reflecting on what He had done in the preceding six days; let us do the same.

We Should Rest Redemptively

Use your rest time to consider Christ. Rejoice in so great salvation. Repent of sin where that is necessary. Recommit yourself to living for Him in the week ahead. Remember what He has done for you. Over the past few years, I have become increasingly committed to ensuring that what I preach on the Lord’s Day is Christ-centred and redemptive. I understand that those in attendance, who are enjoying their Sabbath, have need of focusing their attention on Christ. When we gather on the Lord’s Day (and, for many, the Sabbath), we must reflect on the great redemption that we have experienced from the Egypt of our sin.

We Should Rest Reverently

Here we find the foundation of our rest. Your Sabbath is perhaps the best time you have to worship God intently. Pray to your heavenly Father. Study God’s Word. Listen to the preaching of the Word. Spend time in the Word that you might be reoriented for the week to come. Read good Christian literature and biographies of godly men and women. If your Sabbath is on the Lord’s Day, make sure that you exert every effort to gather with the church for corporate worship. Spend time reverently responding to God’s self-revelation in His Word.

The Commitment to the Sabbath

We will never enjoy a fruitful Sabbath if we are not wholeheartedly committed to it. At least two things must be seen in our commitment to a weekly sabbatical.

Prioritise the Sabbath

A weekly Sabbath will not happen if it is not a priority. We often speak of “finding more time” for that which we must do. But we will never find more time. Rather, we must be committed to making more of the time we have. I remember a funeral in our church for a long-standing church member. This man worked shift work for as long as I knew him, most often at night. During the funeral, his son recalled during the eulogy how his father took leave every year during the World Outreach Celebration to make sure he could attend. It had never actually occurred to me that the man did this; I just took it for granted that he was always in attendance at the Celebration. It suddenly struck me during that eulogy: missions was a priority to him. He made time to attend the Celebration because it was a priority to him. He could have chosen not to attend. He could have chosen to go to work instead, and take leave during a more relaxing time of the year. But his behaviour manifested his priority.

In much the same way, we ought to prioritise our lives around our weekly sabbatical. Our priority ought to be the remembrance of our redemption, the rest of our mind and body, and reorientation through reverent worship. Our entire week ought to revolve around these things. Of course, this requires that we protect these priorities. We must guard against distractions. Perhaps the best way to take our focus off the Lord on our Sabbath is to switch the television on! The television will never help us to reflect on our redemption. We must guard against the trivial on our Sabbath.

Prepare for the Sabbath

If we will rest well on our Sabbath, and reflect fruitfully on our God, there must be a degree of preparation for it. R. Kent Hughes offers some good advice for Sabbath preparation (again, assuming that the reader combines the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day). First, he says, make sure that you have a good night’s rest before your Sabbath. Our family recently took a holiday down at the coast. The day before we left, we were up later than usual, rushing around for last-minute preparations. Needless to say, the first day of our holiday was not the most restful time we have ever experienced together! We were tired, which made us rather irritable with one another. Let us then make sure that we are well-rested for our Sabbath. This is perhaps particularly important if your Sabbath falls on the Lord’s Day (and even if your Sabbath does not fall on the Lord’s Day, this is good advice for that Day!). You will never be able to focus on worship if you are too tired. Do not stay up late on Saturday night watching movies. When we gather with the church, we ought to ‘arrive alive’!

A second area of advice offered by R. Kent Hughes is that of planning ahead. Again, let us assume that your Sabbath falls on a Sunday. Plan on Saturday what you will wear to church the following day. If you have children, lay out their clothes on Saturday night, so that there is no rush on Sunday morning to find something to wear. My wife and I have five daughters and three bathrooms in the house. Our daughters quite literally book a time for the bathroom for Sunday morning. We are informed by them to wake them at a certain time so they can be ready for their allocated time!

Third, let us guard against temptations on the Lord’s Day. It is doubtless true that we are tempted to argue more on that Day than any other day of the week. I leave home for the office at 6:30 am on Sunday morning. Of course, with five daughters (and only three bathrooms), there is more than one reason for this! But a major reason is that I want to guard against the temptation to argue on the way to church, which will do great harm to the worship spirit that Day!

My point is that we should take whatever practical steps possible to prepare for our weekly Sabbath. Though my Sabbath is personally on a Monday, our family’s Sabbath is Sunday. My wife and I recently decided that we will seek to gather as a family at 7:30 pm on a Saturday evening to begin preparing for our weekly Sabbath. We spend time together as a family talking about the things of the Lord and praying for the following day, that it might be a time of fruitful rest and worship. The Jewish Sabbath runs from 6:00 pm on Friday to 6:00 pm on Saturday. That way, they are able to begin preparing for the Sabbath before they retire on the Friday. There is a great deal of merit in this approach, and we would do well to learn from this.

We must consider what is at stake: a revived, refreshed, reverent perspective on life. The Sabbath (Sunday?) can be a powerful day, with wonderful fruit produced in the rest of the week. We have no right to legislate particular behaviour for others on the Sabbath. John Calvin preached on Sunday morning, and then spent the afternoon playing skittles with his family. No doubt, he found this a refreshing practice, one which he could enjoy fruitfully and restfully with his family on their Sabbath. The Sabbath is not a time of fasting and frowning. Rather, it is a time in which we should feast and fellowship with our family as we focus on the Father. I can think of no better way to reinvigorate us for the week ahead.

The Completion of the Sabbath

There is coming a day for each of us when the Sabbath rest will be brought to completion. That day is either at our death, or at the return of the Lord. At that point, we which have found our rest in Christ, will be returned to that perfect state in which Adam and Eve were created. We will enjoy a perpetual Sabbath, which we will cease forever from our works. And then we will perfectly enjoy the worship of God in its absolute fullness. Until then, a biblical observance of the Sabbath principle can give us a little taste of heaven on earth! The Sabbaths that we enjoy on earth are not perfect. But, in heaven, we will enjoy eternity of perfect fellowship and worship around the throne of God.

The Cost of the Sabbath

The perfect Sabbath to which we look forward, which is pictured in our weekly Sabbaths, was purchased with a price. The author of the letter to the Hebrews points to this fact: ‘⁹There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. ¹⁰For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his’ (Hebrews 4:9-10). The author’s point is that, just as God (the Father) rested from His creative works, so did Christ cease from His own recreative works and enter into His rest. On the cross, Jesus cried, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30), and His complete work was proven by His resurrection. He then entered into His rest at the right hand of His Father. And, because of the cross of Christ, we can have rest with Him. Our rest, then, was bought with the blood of Christ. It was costly indeed!

If we would take seriously the weekly sabbatical principle, we would perhaps be on the verge of a great breakthrough in our relationship with Christ. Whenever there has been a neglect of the Sabbath principle throughout church history, there has been a decline in what the Puritans called “true religion”. But whenever Christians have returned to the principle, there has been a rise in the same “true religion”. May God grant us the grace to take a weekly sabbatical that we may find our rest afresh in Jesus Christ alone!