What is the Sabbath?

Question

Dave C: We agree on when the Sabbath is, that was not the question.

Leroy H: I assume you meant to type "Claimed", good answer!

Hogie, as usual you show an appalling lack of scriptural proof and misunderstanding of scripture.

Dave C: Thank you so much for the update.

Answer 1

Gen. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Gen. 2:2 And 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.
Gen. 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

        Some erroneously think that the Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath is only for the Jews. However, as demonstrated above, they don't take into consideration that the Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath was made (created) over 2,000 years before there was even a Hebrew -- much less a Jew. (Abraham was born in 2008 A.H.)

        Note that this is also the reason the Fourth Commandment is stated as "Remember the Sabbath Day; to keep it holy," because this wasn't the first time Mankind had been told to keep the Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath holy. This was God having to remind them because, during the 400 years of their slavery in Egypt, they had forgotten about the Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath -- just as Christianity in general, today, have forgotten about the LORD's Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath.

        God even promises a great blessing upon those whom will keep His Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath holy:

Isaiah 58:13 If 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, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Isaiah 58:14 Then 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.

God bless.

EDIT:
        Not everything I posted is about "when" is the Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath of the LORD. I did post verses and comments which describe "what" is the Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath of the LORD. But, beyond what I've said already, the Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath of the LORD is -- and don't miss any carefully chosen words:

• A memorial of The Creation and The Creator;
• The covenant seal of the Creature's relationship with the Creator and His relationship with the Creature;
• A gift of rest, in the LORD, amidst the turmoil of this world;
• A promise of a future rest, in the LORD, from the turmoil of this world, during the Millennium in Heaven;
• A promise of a future rest, with the LORD, after Sin is destroyed, in the Earth Made New;

• A symbol, in the seventh day, of a day of rest for Man;
• A symbol, in the seventh year, of a year of rest for Man;
• A symbol, in the Jubilee Year after the seventh of seven weeks of years, of the tripled Blessing the LORD pours out (a harvest so bountiful that it lasts for three years) for those whom keep His Sabbaths; and,
• A symbol, in the seventh millennium of years, of a thousand years of rest for Man.

        Note that many are deluded into thinking the Law was done away with when Christ came to fulfill that Law -- and, further, that God's Covenant is not about the Law. Then why does God state that the Law *is* His Covenant with Mankind?

Heb. 8:7 If there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, there would have been no need for a second one.
Heb. 8:8 But God finds fault with his people when he says, "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will draw up a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
Heb. 8:9 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They were not faithful to the covenant I made with them, and so I paid no attention to them.
Heb. 8:10 Now, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

        You see? God's Law didn't change or disappear. Both Covenant's are about the same Law. The difference is that, in the first Covenant, it was Man promising to keep God's Law under Man's own power. The second Covenant is God promising to help us keep His Law by writing that Law upon our Hearts and in our minds.

God bless.

Answer 2

Blessings to you Bill. You say, "Christ is the end of the law", but you ought to study your Greek. :) The word END doesn't mean 'the cessation of': it means GOAL. Christ is the GOAL of the law. He is the purpose and point of the law. Quite a different meaning than Him terminating it; remember he also said He did not come to abolish the law. How could He end it in the manner you say if He did not abolish it? If you are using the NIV, please be aware that you'll miss out on over 200 tidbits of scriptures that were mistranslated.

To the OP: Sabbath is taken from the Hebrew SHABBAT and refers to the seventh day of rest as appointed by Yahweh for all His people, not just Jews, but those aliens and sojourners (called the mixed multitude) and other believers who were grafted in to the root of the Olive Tree of Israel. It's the day Yahweh rested, so should we who follow Him do likewise. Even the land gets to have a sabbath rest!

Answer 3

Hello Lone Ranger.

The Sabbath(Shabbat-Hebrew) denotes rest and cessation from ones work. Shabbat comes from the root word Shavah, which means to be filled, satisfied, or have enough.(Sabbaton-Greek) denotes rest. Sabbaton refers to both physical and spiritual rest.

Lone Ranger you asked "What is the Sabbath?"

1. The Sabbath is a memorial of God's Creation. Evolution does not exist. We owe our existence to a loving Creator who created us in his image. We did not come by blind chance.

2. The Sabbath is a sign of Sanctification. God sets his people apart from the worlld.

3. The Sabbath also reaffirms reconciliation and redemption in our lives through Jesus Christ.

4. The Sabbath is an eternal sign of one's belief in God and God's power.

5. The Sabbath is a day to experience God's blessings(Isaiah 58:13,14).

6. The Sabbath is a gift from God so that man may enjoy the environment which God made especially for man.

7. Last but not least, the Sabbath is a sign of things to come. Real rest will one day come when God gives freedom from the secular things of this world. He gives samples of the life to come if one only looks at the sign. God promises his children that when they die. That at his coming he will take care of them for eternity. Christ says, "Lo I am with you always."

Thanks for this post Lone Ranger and have a "Happy Sabbath".

Take care, and may God bless you.

Answer 4

The seventh, or last day of a weekly cycle of days, erroneously believed by many poor, deceived people to be a commanded day of cessation from work at this time for people who were never commanded to keep the day as such to begin with.

But some people like to have an outward show of their religious conviction, and use it as a badge, declaring to all others they are spiritual, and those who do not do as they do are not spiritual.

This can run the gamut from the style of clothes a person wears, to the observance of days as being holy such as the sabbath or Sunday.

The debate over days reminds me of the story of Gulliver's travels where one group believed an egg should be opened on the tapered end, and the other group believed it should be opened on the larger end -- neither ever realizing that is would be perfectly proper to open the egg in the middle. (i.e. no day at all is required).

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Answer 5

Sabbath is taken from the Hebrew sha·vath′, meaning “rest, cease, desist.” The sabbatical system prescribed in the Mosaic Law included a weekly Sabbath day, a number of additional specified days throughout each year, the seventh year, and the fiftieth year. The weekly Sabbath of the Jews, the seventh day of their calendar week, is from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday. Many professed Christians have traditionally kept Sunday as their day of rest and of worship; others have adhered to the day set aside on the Jewish calendar.

Are Christians under obligation to keep a weekly sabbath day?
Rom. 10:4: “Christ is the end of the Law, so that everyone exercising faith may have righteousness.” (Sabbath keeping was a part of that Law. God used Christ to bring that Law to its end. Our having a righteous standing with God depends on faith in Christ, not on keeping a weekly sabbath.)

Answer 6

Was it not a day of rest ? a Saturday ?
It my memory serves me correct was not the seventh year also a year of rest for farm land also ? Did not the farmers have to leave a paddock fallow every 7 years ?

Answer 7

The Sabbath is a sign between God and us...

Exd 31:13 Speak 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.

Answer 8

The sabbath is the seventh day the haloes day of rest given to us by God so that there is a nice break from work.

Answer 9

The Sabbath (or Sabbat) is a weekly day of rest and/or worship that is observed in the Judeo-Christian faiths.

Answer 10

The day of the Lord. We use the day Sunday as a day of rest and praising the Lord and attending a Church of your choice.

It is a day of respect to our Creator and He expects it. He understands if you must work on this day. But worship Him when you get home.