A Short Reflection on Sabbath

This week, I began leading a group through the annual reading cycle of the first five books of the Bible. My hope is to help Christians see how the story of the Hebrew Bible is a story about Jesus, and a story incredibly relevant to our lives today (If you’re curious, you can learn more and sign up here).

As I read through the first chapters of Genesis, something stood out to me about the Biblical idea of Sabbath rest.

When most Christians think of Sabbath in the Old Testament, they often focus on God’s instruction for a 24-hour period of rest, and assume the idea of living continually in God’s presence is a New Testament innovation. But is that the case?

I’m sure you’ve heard that any time the Bible repeats itself, you should pay attention. But perhaps equally important are the moments where an established pattern suddenly changes or disappears altogether.

Consider Genesis chapter 1, where a particular phrase is repeated at the conclusion of each day…

And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day. (Gen 1:5)

And there was evening, and there was morning, the second day. (Gen 1:8)

And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day. (Gen 1:13)

And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day. (Gen 1:19)

And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day. (Gen 1:23)

And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. (Gen 1:31)

God contained the first six days within the boundaries of evening and morning, but He made the seventh day distinct.

The seventh day is not defined by time. Instead, God defined the seventh day by the fullness of His presence resting with His creation. 

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. 

Genesis 2:2-3

In a literary sense, the seventh day was intended to have no end.

Living in the rest of God was meant to be a perpetual reality for humanity.

This reflects the New Testament idea that those who believe in God are called to rest in Him continually.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest.... 

Hebrews 4:9-10

From the very beginning, God’s unchanging purpose has been for us to experience endless communion with Him. The Sabbath rest of the Old Testament points us directly to Jesus, whose finished work on the cross restores the possibility of living each moment in the peace and presence of God.