6. Scriptural Guidelines on How to Observe the Sabbath

God anticipated a time when people from all over the world would keep His Sabbath. “‘And it shall come to pass that … from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,’ says the Lord” (Isa. 66:23). The “sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the LORD” will keep “from defiling the Sabbath” and will hold fast to God’s covenant (Is. 56:6). As a result, “Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer” (v. 7). God’s goal is that on every Sabbath day “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (v. 7).

If you aspire to enter fully into God’s blessings spelled out in that chapter, you need to know how to keep the Sabbath. Faithfulness in Sabbath keeping ushers in the greatest blessings known to man. The God who cannot lie promises, “If you turn away your foot [i.e., dominion, of which the “foot” is a symbol] from the Sabbath, from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isa. 58:13-14).

The remainder of this booklet is devoted to giving you practical guidelines for what Sabbath observance means. These guidelines are taken from two sermons I preached, so they have a more informal character. Point A is the outline of a sermon series and Point B is the transcript of a sermon. May God bless you as you seek to honor Him on this best of all days.

Guidelines from Jeremiah 17:19-23

How To Sanctify or Set Aside the Sabbath

  1. God Commands The People: “hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers” (v. 22,24,27). How do we hallow or sanctify the day?
    1. By reverencing God’s house (Lev. 19:30; 26:2).
      1. A time when God’s people gather together (Ex. 12:16; Lev. 23:3; 2 Kings 4:23; Neh. 8; Is. 56:6-8; Heb. 10:25).
      2. Worship (Neh. 8:6; Is. 66:23; Ezek. 46:1-3).
      3. Teaching (Neh. 8:1-12; Acts 15:21; Mark 6:2; Luke 4:16,31; Luke 6:6; 13:10; Acts 13:14ff; 13:44; 17:2; 18:4).
      4. Prayer (Isa. 56:6-7; Acts 16:13).
      5. Bringing in the offerings (Mal. Lev. 23:38; 2 Chron. 8:13; Deut. 12:4-6,11-12,17-19; Mal. 3:8-12; 1 Cor. 16:1-3).
      6. Praise (Jer. 17:26, etc.).
    2. By relinquishing our own personal preferences in the activities, pleasures, and conversation to be engaged in (Isa. 58:13) and taking delight in ministering to God and others (Isa. 58:13-14; Matt. 12:10-13; Luke 13:10-17).
    3. By making the Sabbath a sheer delight (“sacrifices of praise” v. 26; Neh. 8:8-12; Is. 58:13; Psa. 118:24; Lam. 1:7; Hos. 2:11).
      1. Every Sabbath is to be a feast day (Lev. 23:2-3).

        1) Therefore, mourning and sadness were inappropriate and ruined the Sabbath (Neh. 8:8-12).

        2) The people had to make a promise before the Lord that they had not eaten the sacrament while in mourning (Deut. 26:14).

        3) They were commanded to rejoice (Deut. 12:7,12; 16:11,14-15).

      2. Spend time rejoicing over food with God’s people (Neh. 8:8-12). To “delight in God,” you must spend time with Him. To delight in God’s people, you must spend quality time with them as well.
      3. Look for ways in which your family can look forward to Sunday as the best day of the week.
    4. By treating it differently from other days (“sanctify”).
    5. By thinking ahead in our planning (Ex. 16:22-30). The day before the Sabbath was known as “Preparation Day.” (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31).
    6. By sanctifying the whole day (24 hours - Lev. 23:32)
    7. By attending church services (Isa. 56-108; 66:23; Ezek. 46:1-3; 2 Chron. 31:3; Ps. 5:3; Mark 6:2; Luke 4:16,31; Luke 6:6; 13:10; Acts 13:14)
    8. By seeking out opportunities to help others enjoy the Sabbath (Matt. 12:9-13; Luke 13:10-16; Neh. 13:15-22). (Healing, pulling out of a ditch, giving food, inviting to your house, etc.)
    9. By resting from our work.
      1. Don’t carry or transport a burden (Jer. 17:21) or do any dominion work (Gen. 1:26-28 with Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11; 35:1-3; Deut. 5:12-15; Neh. 13:15-22; Jer. 17:21-27).

        1) Exception: if necessary work arises on the Sabbath (John 5:8-12).

        2) Exception: any work mandated by God which was not intended to be postponed to the next day should be done (John 7:23).

        3) Exception: unavoidable emergencies (Matt. 12:11-12; Luke 13:15).

        4) Exception: works of necessity and mercy (Matt. 12:9-13; Luke 13:10-16).

        5) Exception: because of the importance that food plays in making the Sabbath special, cooking was allowed53 (Ex. 12:16; 16:23;54 Lev. 24:7-9; Neh. 5:18; 8:9-12; Matt. 12:1-5; Luke 6:1-4; 14:1; 24:29-30;55 and refers to the “love feast” that accompanied the Lord’s Supper - 1 Cor. 11:17-34; Acts 20:6-12; Jude 12; 2 Pet. 2:13).

      2. Don’t engage in unnecessary travel (Ex. 16:29; Acts 1:12 with John 11:18).

        1) Exception: if travel is for the purpose of fellowship, worship, and other Sabbath activities, it is appropriate (Matt. 12:1; Neh. 8:10,12; John 5:9).

      3. Don’t sell on the Sabbath (Neh. 13:15-22).
      4. Don’t buy groceries or goods on the Sabbath (Neh. 10:31; 13:15-22).
      5. Rest even with the time pressure of plowing and harvest (Ex. 34:21).
      6. Don’t even do mental planning for the coming workweek (Amos 8:5). Instead, devote the day to God with your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
    10. What should employees (and children) do if their bosses (parents) won’t let them keep Sunday as a Sabbath?
      1. God holds the one in authority responsible for making his employees (children) break the Sabbath (Ex. 20:10; Deut. 5:14). A child’s position would be similar to a slave’s (Gal. 4:1-3).
      2. However, this unwilling breaking of the Sabbath should still trouble the servant (child). The one under authority should cry out to God for justice and for a Sabbath deliverance much like the unwilling slaves in Egypt did (Exodus 3:7,18; 23:9-13; Deut. 5:14; cf. Job 31:13-15).
      3. If a person is able to get part or all of Sunday off from his employer, then he is responsible to do so. Paul said, “Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it.” (1 Cor. 7:21) One reason God freed Israel from Egypt was so that Israel could keep the Sabbath (Ex. 3:18; 4:23; 5:1,3; 7:16,25; 8:1; 10:8-9; 12:16-17; 23:9-13; Deut. 5:14-15; Hos. 2:10-14; Ex. 15:23-27; 16:1ff; 19:1,11; 12:18).
  2. All Levels of Society Are Required To Sanctify the Day (Jer. 17:19-27).
    1. Civil government (“kings” “princes” - Jer. 17:20,25-26).
    2. Business (vv. 19-24; cf. Neh. 13:15-22).
    3. Believers (“all Judah”; Neh. 10:31; Isa. 56:1-8).
    4. Everyone (“all inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.” cf. Exodus 20:10; Deut. 5:14).

Laying Claim to the Promises of the Sabbath

  1. Blessings upon the Nation (v. 25)
    1. Kings, Princes will find God’s blessings and protection.
    2. Men of Judah will be blessed.
    3. This City will be blessed.
  2. Blessings upon the Church (v. 26).
    1. Evangelism – Others attracted to God’s People.
    2. Prosperity of the church.

Avoiding the Curses of Breaking the Sabbath

  1. Covenant Judgments (v. 27; cf. Ezek. 20:21,24-26).
  2. To break the Sabbath was to repudiate God’s covenant since the Sabbath was the sign of covenant loyalty (Ex. 32:13; 31:16-17; Ezek. 20:12,20; Isa. 56:5-6). Thus all Sabbath breaking was serious.

Guidelines from Genesis 2:1-3: The Day God Blessed

(Transcript of a Sermon Preached at Dominion Covenant Church)

God Rested on a Literal Day

I hope you have come to a new appreciation for chapter 1 of Genesis. It is a passage that has stood against all of the attacks of unbelievers as well as compromising Christians. And far from being opposed to true science, we have seen that it has been the foundation from which awesome discoveries are being made in the Creationist community. We are living in exciting times as experiment after experiment has illustrated the total trustworthiness of the Biblical account.

One last argument that compromisers have often taken on the Creation Account comes from this passage. And this is how the argument goes: First, they say that the word “rest” has to be defined by what was rested from. Verse 1 makes clear that the work was the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in those two things. God did not rest by way of providence, but only by way of creation.

But then they go on to say that this is the only day where there is no concluding remark that the evening and the morning were the seventh day. It just mentions God’s rest and goes on. They claim that this obviously means that the day itself has had no end. The Sabbath being referred to is God’s eternal rest from creation which will never end: it wasn’t a literal day on earth. And that is why there is no mention of “the evening and the morning were the seventh day.” Ergo, the word “day” can mean an age, or it can just be symbolic. Do you see the significance of their argument? If they can prove that the seventh day is not a literal day, then all of the first six days can be symbolic of ages as well. And you can fit 15 billion years of history into chapter 1. Now we have already seen that there is no need to fit that kind of time into the passage, and it’s impossible to fit that kind of time into the passage. But this is perhaps the best argument that the day-agers and the framework hypothesizers can produce, so we better deal with it. To respond to these issues, let me give you seven reasons why the seventh day is a literal day and to say otherwise is twisting the Scriptures.

First of all, for the argument to have much force, the seventh day needs to be parallel to the first six days. But verse 3 contradicts that when it says God sanctified or set this day apart from the others. It is a different day, and is therefore discussed differently. God doesn’t use parallel language because the seventh day is not part of the six days of creation; it is His rest day.

Second, this argument can only work by assuming what they are trying to disprove: that the first six days were literal. If “evening and morning” is metaphorical (as they say it is), then the presence or absence of the term is meaningless to the length of the seventh day. If it is not metaphorical, then the days are all literal. Their argument starts with a logical fallacy. It’s a huge logical flaw.

Third, even if it was not a fallacious argument, it would prove too much. If the absence of the phrase “evening and morning” proves that the day has not ended, then it also proves that the day never began. (It is not just the “morning” which is missing, but also the “evening” which began each day.) So again, it proves too much and defeats their argument. If the absence of the phrase “evening and morning” proves that the day never ended, then it proves that the day never began. And of course nobody believes that. So that is another logical flaw.

But there are major exegetical flaws as well. Here is the fourth point. Look at the middle of verse 2. Notice that the text does not say “and He is resting [present tense] on the seventh day” but that He “rested on the seventh day.” And you see the same past tense used in verse 3. The Hebrew is the Qal, perfect tense, third, masculine singular indicating a completed action. In other words, God rested and He is back at work again. And that’s exactly how the rest of the Bible portrays God’s work. Every time there is a baby conceived in the womb, Scripture indicates that a new spirit is created: “This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD (Psa. 102:18). He says, “Yet to be created.” God is not in His Sabbath rest right now. The Hebrew word used there is bara, which means to create out of nothing. Isaiah 42:5 compares God’s creation of the world to the giving of a new spirit to a man. Isaiah 42:5 says,

Thus says God the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it.

Just as God created the heavens and earth, Isaiah says God gives man a spirit. And there are several passages related to the creation of man’s spirit. Jeremiah 31:22 says about the incarnation of Christ, “For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth – a woman shall encompass a man.” And that is why during the Sabbath controversy with Jesus, Christ said, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” (John 5:17). They knew He was claiming to be God. They tried to kill Him. God rested on a literal seventh day, and when that day was over He not only blessed the day for others, but He also started creating things again. God alone can create a new heart (Psa. 51:10), and because of that new heart, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says we are a new creation. Christ created wine in John 2. It is simply not true to say that God’s seventh day was an eternal Sabbath rest. The text says that God rested (past, finished tense) implying that He is back at work again.

Fifth, God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day after He rested in verse 2. Verses 2-3 state,

And on the seventh day God ended 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 [past tense] from all His works which God had created and made.

Exodus 20:10-11 (the fourth commandment) shows the same sequence: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested [past tense] the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” He blessed it because of having rested on it. So not only the lexical terms, but also the syntax makes it clear that this is not a never ending day.

Sixth, Exodus 20:10-11 and Exodus 31:17 make clear that the Sabbath day God blessed and sanctified in Genesis 2:3 is of the same order of Sabbath day that we observe, and we work six days because God set that pattern for us. Those two passages make clear that God’s work days were the same kind of days that we have and that His Sabbath day was the same kind of day that we have.

Seventh, it distorts the meaning of the word “blessed” if it refers to the whole age of sin that we live in. In what sense would the thousands of years of history subsequent to Adam be “blessed” when God speaks of the curse that came upon history in chapter 3 and speaks of warfare in the heavenlies in later chapters. You could not get a more stark contrast than the blessing of the Sabbath day and the cursing of history in chapter 3.

Therefore I do not think that this objection has a leg to stand on. But it’s not enough to know what the passage does not mean. Let’s look at its true significance. We can understand the value and blessing of the Sabbath if we look at what it meant to God.

The Significance of God’s Sabbath

To God the Sabbath meant a completion of His Work

To God, the Sabbath meant first, a completion of His work. Verses 1-2a say, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work He had done…”

God didn’t stretch His work-week beyond six days to six and a half. God completed His work within the previous six literal 24 hour days, and we ought to imitate Him.

Secondly, the Sabbath points not only to the value of rest, but also to the value placed upon the work that was done on the other six days. The last verse of chapter 1 shows that all God’s work was very good. And this chapter shows that the Sabbath was blessed. We find the most significance and goodness in our work when we honor God’s Sabbath. But the less we enter into the blessings of the Sabbath, the less good and attractive will our work-week be. I think there is an obvious correlation between the goodness of the work in the previous chapter and the blessing of the Sabbath. Non-Sabbatarians are very frequently not dominion oriented. Many will say that we should treat every day as holy rather than just the one. But I think the minister was right who said that “an attempt to equalize all seven days never results in the elevation of the other six. Only of the degradation of the seventh.” Your view of Sabbath will affect your view of work, and vice versa.

Third, Adam and Eve didn’t end their week with a Sabbath. They began their week with a Sabbath. Isn’t that interesting? They were supposed to rest first in God’s instructions, the things God had modeled, and only after resting were they to go out and take dominion as He had. Though Adam named the animals on day 6, and though he got Eve just before day six ended, mankind’s first full day on earth – their first evening and morning sequence, was the Sabbath. That is the ideal. But the fall distorted that, and put off rest to the future. And so they began their week with rest here; after the fall the constant reference is to rest only at the end of the week. In chapter 4:3 it says, “at the end of the days” Cain and Abel came to worship. And that was the pattern until Christ came and made all things new. Christ restored the pattern. He finished His work of redemption and we rest in His grace and then go out to take dominion.

To God the Sabbath meant a Rest

But what does it mean to rest? Some people don’t want to observe the Sabbath because they say they don’t need rest. They aren’t tired. But neither was God, and we are to imitate God. Verse 2a says, “and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” It cannot mean that God had grown tired. Isa. 40:8 says, “the Everlasting God, the LORD, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.” His rest was his setting aside one activity to spend time with His people, as we will see.

We have a hint of what it means in Exodus 31:17 which says, “for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” This refreshment can mean nothing less than the delight and satisfaction that God had in His creation and especially the creatures that He had made. This was a time when the angels and man himself fellowshipped together in worship. Job 38:7 says that “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” When Psalm 104 looks at this time of creation it says, “let the LORD be glad in His creation” (v. 31).

You see, the Sabbath is not just a time for us to rejoice in God, but it is a time in which God delights in us. We bring God pleasure by our Sabbath observance, and our worship times. Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The LORD your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” That’s incredible to think about: that God exults and rejoices over us with shouts of joy. So don’t think only of what you can get out of the Sabbath, but think of what you can give to God. We need to cultivate time with him, and He declares in Isaiah 58 that that the Sabbath should not be only for our pleasure, but for God’s pleasure as well. This resting of God was God’s satisfaction and delight in His creatures. God shared the Sabbath with man – that’s what Christ was getting at when He said that Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He indicated that the Sabbath was intended to bring delight to man and to benefit man. But the flip side is true as well - man shared the Sabbath with God. God refreshes Himself in us as we refresh ourselves in Him.

The significance of Man’s Sabbath

Before the Fall

But there is more that is said about the Sabbath in verse 3. Verse 3 says, “Then God blessed the seventh day…” Point after point you can see the pleasure that God has in the Sabbath. It means a lot to Him. “Then God blessed the seventh day.” In chapter 1:22 God had blessed the animals and it had its desired effect. In chapter 1:28 God blessed man, and it had its desired effect. But here God blesses the day. The dictionary says, “God’s blessing is accompanied with that virtue which renders his blessing effectual.” This is true of any blessing God gives. Let me read that again. “God’s blessing is accompanied with that virtue which renders his blessing effectual.” When God blesses the day, it guarantees that from that time forward, the Sabbath will be an instrument of blessing. This means that right from the , God guaranteed that the virtue of blessing would flow from this day so that those who honored it would find blessing and those who didn’t would be to that degree deprived. Let me just read you a few of the blessings that God associates with this day. Isaiah 58 says,

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

That speaks of spiritual delight, spiritual growth, advancement, satisfaction. Other passages tie in victory, joy, and other blessings with the Sabbath. Is it any wonder that the period in history that has had the most disregard for the Sabbath is the period in which the church looks most like the world and is weak, ineffectual, joyless, and lacks dominion victory? God guaranteed right from the beginning that to honor the Sabbath would bring blessing. It is a blessed day, and those who lay hold of it find blessing in abundance.

But he not only blessed the day. Verse 3 says, “and sanctified it…” The word for sanctified means to be set apart to God. The blessing only comes as we devote the day to God. As the passage from Isaiah 58 says,

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words…

That’s what it means to have the day sanctified or set apart to God. And that’s when the blessings flow. In previous sermons I have shown the blessings of the day on animals’ work productivity and health, on man’s health, on cultures. It truly is the day that God blessed and God’s blessings continue to flow.

But you know, there will always be some like Esau who despise their blessing, who despise their birthright. He was willing to give up the blessing for a mere bowl of food. Then later he cries about it. But because of his lack of value for God’s blessing, other things came first. The degree to which we desire God’s blessing will be the degree to which we lay hold of the Sabbath. And if we allow little things to make us break the Sabbath, it shows how much we despise the day. I think the words of Hebrews 12:16-17 are so sad. It speaks of

Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

It is my prayer that the American Church would not be rejected by God because it has disdained the day God has blessed. Let’s pray for the evangelical church worldwide to enter into its covenant blessings by laying hold of its covenant day. Amen.

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