The Seventh Day

Genesis 2:2-3 – By the seventh day God completed 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 from all His work which God had created and made.
1. What did God do on the seventh day? Rested. rest – in Hebrew is sabat - to come to an end; to put an end; stop; cease; work – in Hebrew is mlaka - duty; deed; craft; service; occupation; labors

2. What did God do to the seventh day? blessed – Hebrew word is barak - give praise; give thanks; extol. God was excited about all He had done the previous six days. He took time on the seventh day to reflect on what He accomplished. Not anxious or planning for the next day.

3. God sanctified/made holy the seventh day. What does that mean? Sanctify - qadas - holy; sacred; consecrated. Set apart by God for God. He anointed the seventh day to be a special day. A day that would be different from the other six. How? A day to perform no labor. A day for resting. A day to enjoy.

4. Did God need to rest? No. Why did He do so? Could God have created the Universe in one day? Yes. Why did He create it across six separate periods of time? To set an example for us to follow. We are to follow the example of our Creator. God has given us six days to do our work. We are not to accomplish every task in one day. As God rested on the seventh day and took joy in the seventh day, so should we. The seventh day is a special day/unique day/set apart from the other days of the week – a day for no labor/work. A day for us to rest from our labors – a day for us to praise and enjoy in – a day that is to be different from the other 6.

God considered observing the seventh day to be so important that He put it in writing that humanity was to observe the seventh day just as he did. It’s number 5 of the 10 commandments. Unfortunately, humanity has a way of taking a simple concept and making it more difficult than what it was intended to be. Many Jews believed God was not specific enough when He gave the Law to Moses. What did God mean by not working? What is work? Over the course of centuries, Jewish religious leaders developed laws and traditions to elaborate and explain what God had written. These man-made laws and traditions had the same authority as the Law/God’s Word. Examples – the Law says that a person is to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy by not working. What qualifies as work? The religious leaders “added” to God’s word by defining what is work – spitting on the ground to make clay, brushing one’s hair, wearing a hairclip, starting or extinguishing a fire, carrying a mat, writing or erasing letters. Items normally used for work could not even be touched on the Sabbath. They were off-limits for fear of "accidental" use. Examples – touching a hammer or looking in a mirror. Sabbath’s day journey – ¾ mile. By Jesus’ day, the Jewish religious leaders had developed 39 categories of work prohibited on the Sabbath. Within these 39 categories, well established by the time of Jesus, came the thousands of specific rules governing each situation and contingency to avoid desecrating the Sabbath. Example of minute detail re: when Sabbath began – the time between the actual sunset and the appearance of three certain stars. If a man performed work after first star, he was forgiven; if he continued after the second star, he was judged guilty of a doubtful transgression and was required to offer a sacrifice; if he continued after the third star appeared, he broke the Sabbath and to offer a sin-offering.

5. Having said all that … how would a Jew living in Jesus day view the Sabbath? A day to praise and enjoy or a burden?

6. What are some activities you were forbidden to do on Sundays?

Read Matthew 11:28-30

7. Who did Jesus invite to come to Him? Weary and burdened. What did He offer them? Rest. People in Jesus’ day wearied and burdened by poverty, disease, Roman oppression, etc. There is one thing that burdened the people that should not have – their religion with its hundreds of thousands of oral laws and traditions. The Jewish faith … their relationship with God had become a heavy load for them to bear. Mouse carrying an elephant. Jesus telling these people to come to Him. Read vs. 29-30. Explain what a yoke is. Commentary – When a farmer wanted to break in a new ox for the purpose of pulling a wagon, he would yoke together an older, well-trained ox with the new ox. The younger ox would have to keep in step with the older ox – not go too fast or too slow, older ox set the pace. Imagery of Jesus and you bearing yoke together. Jesus telling those listening to him burdened by their religion … take upon you my teaching … I am a kind and gentle teacher unlike the Jewish religious leaders … In my teaching you will find true sabat/rest. It is not as heavy as the teachings of the Jewish religious leaders.
If what Jesus said in verse 30 is true, why do so many Christians appear “weary and burdened?” We placed upon ourselves a heavier yoke than God intended. Taken on too many responsibilities. Wear too many hats.

Read Matthew 12:1-8

Explain what disciples were doing.

8. What did the Pharisees accuse disciples of doing? Pharisees were the teachers of the Law. Keepers of the law and tradition. Accused disciples of breaking the Sabbath. Harvesting grain on the Sabbath.

9. What was Jesus’ response? Presented two illustrations. A) David – who was he? How did the Jews regard David? Up there with Abraham and Moses. Running for his life from Saul. Sought sanctuary in the Temple. Extremely hungry. Asked priest for food. Only food available was consecrated bread to be eaten only by priests as commanded by the Law. What was the priest to do? Observe the Law at the expense of human’s need or show mercy? The priest chose mercy. B) The priests broke the Sabbath every week. How? By performing sacrifices.

10. According to Jesus - what’s more important, meeting needs/showing compassion on the Sabbath or strict observance of rules and traditions? Just as the Pharisees accused Jesus of being a Law breaker, Jesus accuses them of disobeying God’s word. He quotes Hosea 6:6

11. vs. 8 – What is Jesus telling the Pharisees? I make the rules regarding the Sabbath not you. Mark writes about the same event – Jesus tells the Pharisees the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. God made the Sabbath for man. Man did not make the Sabbath for man. When it comes to observing the Sabbath, God already made the rule – rest. What activities have you been told to avoid on Sunday? God gave us common sense to determine the difference between rest and work. There should be no need for a long set of guidelines to explain what is work and what is rest. Unfortunately, the Pharisees made the Sabbath a day of thou shalts and thou shalt nots in order to prove how religious they were. We need to be careful not to do the same.

God’s Sabbath - Day of rest and worship that honors God. Not observing it to show how religious you are or for sake of tradition. Doing it out of acknowledgment that God is Lord. Sign/perpetual agreement between God and His people. Exodus 31.

Legalist Sabbath - Day of rest and worship that honors self. Ritual, tradition, memorize words/songs. Observing it to show how religious you are or for sake of tradition

12. Why do Christians observe the Sabbath on the first day of the week and not the seventh? Luke 24:1; Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:2; Revelation 1:10.

Early days of church Jewish Christians continued to observe the Sabbath on Sat. (go to synagogue and worship). Also celebrated the Lord’s Day on Sunday (Day of Jesus’ resurrection) along with Gentile Christians. Break bread, collect offerings, prayer, singing, etc. Division within the early Church on when to observe the Sabbath. Traditional Jewish Christians believed all Christians should observe Sat. Don’t, you’re not a true believer. Paul had to deal with it. Romans 14: 5-8; Colossians 2: 16-17.
Jewish Christian continued to observe Sat. as Sabbath until tensions between Mosaic Jews and Jewish Christians reached breaking point. Persecutions. Jewish Christians no longer welcomed in synagogues. Also fewer Jews accepting the Gospel. Church becoming more Gentile. Observed Sabbath on Sunday.

List advantages to observing a sabbath rest.

1) Physical and mental refreshment. Put world with its projects, deadlines, exams, etc. behind us and be refreshed for the nest 6 days. No stress/worries/anxieties.
2) Spiritual refreshment. Worship God individually and as a body of believers. Renewed spiritual strength to take on the world/the Enemy the next 6 days.

Notes on Sabbath from Disciple’s Study Bible:

Once each week a significant day calls us to remember God in His holiness. We are to fill the seventh day with significance through rest while we fill the other six with meaningful work. In so doing, we imitate God’s first acts in history.

Weekly worship indicates our recognition of the Lord as Lord of creation and is a celebration of His resurrection.

Keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship is not an arbitrary selfish rule God set up to test and judge us. It is a pattern of needed rest for people enduring stress. When we refuse to set a side one day for God, we endanger our own lives.