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The Sabbath Rest

	The first verse of the fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews contains a warning that summarizes the point of the previous chapter. – Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it (verse 1). In chapter three we saw the Israelites condemned by God to die in the wilderness because of their unbelief. Here in verse one we are being told not to follow their example. There is much at stake. We cannot inherit eternal life unless we obey God’s plan of redemption. For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them:…		Video Version - The Sabbath Rest

How was the Gospel preached to them before Jesus actually came and died for our sins? The purpose of the Gospel is to give us rest from our labors. That is, through faith in the atonement we have rest. Our salvation is not contingent on our frail abilities to keep all of God’s commandments perfectly all of our lives; especially when we consider that the tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet” deals with the heart and our thought lives.      Jesus is the only one who did keep God’s commandments perfectly and His righteousness is imparted to us. God receives us as He receives His own Son. Therefore we do not have to work for our salvation, it is a Divine gift, and Jesus gives us rest from that labor. - Come to Me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).     That rest is foreshadowed in the fourth commandment. God commanded His people to rest on the seventh day, as God also rested after He finished creation (Genesis 2:2). Thus this scenario shows us God’s plan of redemption through the Messiah. In Jesus we rest from our own works and rely on His work for us. So the Gospel was preached in a form through the fourth commandment. There would be a rest from our works. This is the principle the writer of Hebrews is communicating to us. …but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it (verse 2). Faith is the ingredient that applies salvation to our hearts. Like many today who hear the Gospel and reject it, they are lacking the simple child-like faith God requires to enter His kingdom. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, ‘As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest:’ although the works were finished from the foundation of the world (verse 3). God’s plan of redemption for the human race was established “before the foundation of the world.” Here the writer is again referring to Psalm 95, specifically verses ten and and eleven. – Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways: Unto whom I swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest (Psalm 95:10,11). God provided for His people in the wilderness a similitude and a foreshadow of the Gospel through the establishment of the Sabbath rest, which was instigated from the foundation of the world, - because Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works (verse 4 from Genesis 2:2, Exodus 20:11, 31:17). God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and obviously does not need to rest physically. The Sabbath was instigated to benefit man. Besides being a foreshadow of the Gospel, it was also designed to be a day of physical rest and contemplation of God. As Jesus said, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). Frail human beings need physical rest, and God is setting the example for the benefit of His children. He has set aside time to rest our bodies and commune with Him. At the same time we are shown the application to rest from our labors or self-effort in trying to obtain our salvation or establish our own righteousness. Again - the purpose of the Sabbath in the Old Testament is the preparation for our rest in Jesus. The Sabbath is described as a “sign” in Exodus 31:17. And in this place again, If they shall enter into My rest (verse 5). “If” they shall enter. It is a free choice, and this divine rest cannot be obtained unless it is entered by faith. Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief (verse 6). We have a vivid picture in our minds of multitudes of carcasses strewn across a desert wilderness because of a lack of faith in the promises of God. Again, the writer is warning his audience of the consequences of rejecting the only eternal rest that is found in the Messiah alone, our Sabbath rest. For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His (verse 10). Again, the Sabbath is the similitude of the Gospel, the rest we have in Jesus who obtained our salvation for us. We can rest from our own efforts; our salvation has been imparted to us through faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is the rest that has been prophesied in the Old Testament symbolically though the Sabbath as we have been shown.     We can look back on those fallen carcasses in the wilderness and leave them far behind us as we follow Jesus onto the Promised Land of eternal life.     There are many today who observe the Sabbath or go to church on Saturday, the seventh day, instead of “The Lord’s day” on Sunday. There is nothing wrong with attending worship services on Saturday, but sadly many who follow this practice do so without fully recognizing the significance of that day. They fail to recognize that the Sabbath is symbolic of the Gospel, and view Saturday worship as merely fulfilling one of the Ten Commandments. Many also make the mistake of making Saturday worship a requirement of salvation, thus negating its true meaning and violating the principle of salvation by grace.     The Apostle Paul dealt with this issue. – But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days, and months, and times, and years (Galatians 4:9,10). Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ (Colossians 2:16,17).

	Notice that Paul refers to the Sabbath “days” as plural. That is because there was more than one Sabbath day in the Old Testament. The “eighth day,” Sunday, was also a Sabbath. Acts 20:7 clearly says that the church came together on the first day of the week which they called “The Lord’s day” (Rev. 1:10).      The epistle of Barnabas, Paul’s traveling companion, was held in very high regard by the early Christians and was actually included in the canon for many years. It was found as part of one of the oldest manuscripts, Codex Sinaiticus and was cited by Jerome, Origen and many others.      In his epistle Barnabas says, Lastly, He says to them: ‘your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot bear them’ (Barnabas is quoting from Isaiah 58) - Consider what He means by it; the Sabbaths, says He, which you now keep are not acceptable to Me, but those which I have made; when resting from all things I shall begin the eighth day, that is: the beginning of the other world for which cause we observe the eighth day with gladness, in which Jesus rose from the dead; and having manifested Himself to His disciples, ascended into heaven (The Epistle of Barnabas, Chapter 12: 9,10). The early church came together on Sunday to acknowledge the New Covenant and make a clear distinction between the Sabbath of the Old Covenant and the rest that God has chosen; the rest we have in Messiah Jesus, which brings us rest and liberty from legalistic law keeping for our redemption.     The eighth day is mentioned in Leviticus as a foreshadow of the rest to come. There were actually two Sabbaths observed during certain occasions. Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath (Leviticus 23:39). On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly: you shall do no servile work therein (Numbers 29:35).			The Eighth Day Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Jeremiah 31:31 We rest in our tents on this seventh day, As our God has commanded (Exodus 16:29-30) This is a day of physical rest, of literal rejuvenation. So we wait in the silence of this testament, Quietly contemplating God and His reasons why. Then morning comes, a new awakening. We open the door of our tents To behold a stone rolled away and an empty tomb. We joyfully step over the threshold And celebrate the victory of The Eighth Day – another Sabbath And the dawn of a New Covenant where Our souls rest for eternity. We have made the transition from Our outward rest, into the miracle of the gift of Eternal life and inner transformation.

We can see how the Apostle Paul and the other Apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit, were moved to understand the prophetic significance of the eighth day in the Old Testament Scriptures and applied it to the celebration of Jesus’ victory as the day of their assembling in the New Covenant.      The transition from justification by law to salvation by grace was quite an adjustment for the Hebrew believers. Thus grace needed to be reemphasized, as it does for us today when legalism threatens to enter through the door of any church. Our “labor” of entering into our promised rest is a labor or work of faith alone. It is the continuous work of holding onto our faith in the Messiah’s work for us. Copyright 2019 by H. D. Shively This is an excerpt from our book,"Understanding the Book of Hebrews for You Today" Related Content - The Antichrist and Seventh Day Adventism Hebrew Roots | Return to Bible Bites | Cafe Logos Homepage