Complete Rest Awaits All In Jesus

When you read the Gospels carefully you note that Jesus did some in-your-face things on the Sabbath. For instance, he said nothing when his hungry disciples plucked heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. But that was work and God had strictly forbidden anyone to work on the Sabbath (Exod. 20:9-12). So the proud fundamentalists, the Pharisees, challenged him and his followers. "Hey! your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. They're working!"

Jesus' replied,

"Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." - Mat 12:3-8 ESV 

The David story comes from that time when David and his men had to flee for their lives from the wrath of King Saul. Being hungry and without food, David begged Abimelech the priest for bread. All Abimelech had to give was the so-called "bread of the Presence." This was 12 loaves of bread baked each week and placed on a special gold-inlayed table in the Temple as an offering and memorial before the LORD (Lev. 24:5-9). Only the priests were allowed to eat it, but Abimelech broke that rule by giving it to David and his men.

Beyond that, Jesus continued, if you really want to talk about people not working on the Sabbath, consider the priests. They work every Sabbath, offering sacrifices and leading the congregation in worship in the temple. And yet they are not condemned. Two things were overlooked and rejected by the Pharisees—and the bulk of Israel's religious leaders.

• Something greater than the temple is here. What is at stake here is an understanding of what all the rules and laws about the temple and the worship of God were all about. These were all summarized by the prophet Hosea when he condemned the hypocricy of the priests and their sacrifices. Speaking for the LORD, Hosea said, "For I desire steadfast love (or mercy) and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." - Hosea 6:6 ESV

• Some-One greater than the temple is here. Standing before them was the Son of Man, the promised Messiah, sent by the Father in heaven to bring the mercy of God to all men. He is the One who correctly interprets the meaning of God's command about the Sabbath. From the beginning, the Sabbath day with all its demands to rest pointed to that Day when God would bring final rest to all His children. On that Day God will give His people total and complete rest, rest that includes forgiveness of all sins and the fulfilled promise of a new heaven and a new earth—all because of what Jesus was to accomplish by His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. 

It is to this that the Hebrews letter points. 

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. - Hebrews 4:9-11 ESV 

To strive here does not refer to rushing about trying to prove to God that you are such a righteous and holy person. Absolutely not! Instead it refers to humbly confessing your sins and throwing yourself upon the endless mercy of God now revealed in Jesus. And this you may do with utter confidence.

More about our great High Priest and the grace He brings next time.

Our Radical Need For Rest

The world we live in is filled with anxiety, stress and tension. And we don't know how to get rid of it. As a result so very many of us cannot sleep. And that can indeed be a very, very serious problem. Lack of sleep, even for one night, can reduce your daytime alertness by as much as a third and impair your memory and ability to think. Studies indicate that sleepiness doubles the risk of getting hurt on the job. In the U.S. the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that each year drowsy driving is responsible for 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries and as many as 1,550 fatalities.

Sleep is not an option. Lots of studies support what our bodies tell us. We have to sleep. But there is an even deeper need. The writer to the Hebrews calls it God's Rest ! After pointing out that the first generation descendants of Israel led by Moses out of slavery in Egypt never received it, the writer continues.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, 

"As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest,'" although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 

For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works" (Gen. 2:2). 

And again in this passage he said, "They shall not enter my rest" (Deut. 1:34-35).  

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, 

"Today," saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts" (Ps. 95:7-11). 

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. - Hebrews 4:1-10 ESV

The entire OT points to God's promised Sabbath-rest. We learn from Scriptures that God created the week of seven days and decreed that His people should rest on the seventh as He did. Some Rabbis in days gone by asked if God did anything before He rested on the seventh day. Yes, they replied, He had one more thing to do. Before He could step back to exult and delight in His work of creating, He created peace, joy and happiness. He did this because He wants His children to celebrate with Him the perfect balance and marvelous wonder of all He has created. He wants to bless them with an entire day in which to rejoice and be happy as they ponder upon and celebrate His wisdom and goodness.

This is what the LORD promised Israel when He led them out of slavery under Moses' leadership. In essence He was promising, "Trust Me, follow Me, obey Me and I will bring you into the land I promised to your forefather Abraham. It is a land overflowing with good things, food, drink and all you need for life. I will make you secure. You will become the mightiest nation upon earth and no enemies will ever harm you again. I will put my name upon you and bless you, for you are My children."

But they blew it. They threw it away. They hardened their hearts, complaining and chasing after idols. And so they all perished in the wilderness. No rest for the wicked. No rest for unbelievers. But . . .

"there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his" (Hebrews 4:9-10 ESV). 

Rest is still waiting for you today! God holds it out: perfect peace, happiness, security, fullness and joy.  It awaits you and you have nothing to do to gain it other than to trust Him. More on this next time.

Time To Step Aside To Rest Awhile

For the past couple years I've made it my goal to publish three posts per week. Requisite research and reading took many hours besides. And that without any breaks.

Now it is time to step aside for a few weeks. In that, I'm following our LORD's advice about rest. Not only did He command the Sabbath, a day of rest each week for prayer and family, but He built into the life of ancient Israel  festival weeks, times when family and friends got together to hear God's Word, worship, praise, celebrate and eat with family and friends.

Here's what we read in Mark's account of Jesus and his disciples after they heard about the murder of John the Baptist.

Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time

Image courtesy of yearintheoffice.wordpress.com

to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. - Mar 6:30-32 NKJV

I am stepping aside for the month of August to be with my wife, to travel, to visit friends and relatives and to rest a while.

See you in September.

The Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit

We've been speaking about praying to the LORD for forgiveness and promising to do the same toward those indebted to us. But is there ever an instance when we must not forgive? Is there any such command in Sacred Scripture? Is there any sin God will not forgive? Listen.

And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. - Mat 12:31-32 ESV

What is this blasphemy against the Spirit?

A man with a withered hand came to a Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath. For unknown reasons his hand was not getting blood to it. Was it gangrene? We don't know. What we do know is that the man desperately wanted to be healed and believed Jesus could do it. But it was the Sabbath and on the Sabbath all true children of Abraham could do no work. And healing a man was work.

Already the Pharisees had condemned Jesus for allowing his disciples to pluck grain heads and eat them. Jesus responded that about a thousand years before King David was given the bread of the Presence or Show-bread (Exod. 25:30; Lev. 24:5-9) by a priest. That sacred bread was to be eaten only by the priests (Exod. 28:32-33). David and his men were fleeing for their lives and in great need of food. So the priest gave them this holy bread, breaking all the rules about it.

Moreover the priests always worked on the Sabbath. In the temple on the Sabbath they had to offer lambs, flour and oil as well as other offerings. And that was surely work. Thus they desecrated the Sabbath and yet were guiltless in God's eyes.

Beyond that, something greater than the temple stood before their eyes. Jesus, the Son of Man to whom the eternal day of rest pointed, the Lord of the Sabbath, stood before them, but they did not see him. They saw only a false prophet. Yet this same Jesus, the true high priest, was to enter into the very presence of God, offering himself as the one, final sacrifice. And so true rest from the guilt of sin and the punishment of death would now be available to all who will receive it in faith.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. - Hebrews 4:14-16 ESV (consider the entire chapter)

With that response Jesus entered the Synagogue where he was confronted by the man with that withered hand. And the Pharisees were waiting. "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" they demanded.

Jesus responded by pointing out that they fed and rescued their sheep on the Sabbath. "Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!" And with that he restored the man's hand to full health.

This brought a firestorm of anger and hatred from the Pharisees. Jesus had to go. They conspired together on how to kill him. But they could not stop him—yet. He kept right on healing still others, even healing a blind and mute man oppressed by a demon. These further deeds caused them to accuse Jesus of being in the service of Satan himself. All this was, of course, blasphemy. This is why Jesus said what he did.

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. - Mat 12:30-32 ESV

From this we conclude that some may—for a time—mock Jesus and be forgiven. But finally, if they reject what the Spirit has spoken in God's Word about Jesus as our High Priest, they commit blasphemy. Jesus has presented the one, final sacrifice for sin. The Spirit calls to us in that Good Word, inviting all to accept Jesus' sacrifice and so be eternally rescued from judgment and death. Turn your back upon that Gospel, join the Pharisees to pronounce Jesus as a servant of Satan, blaspheme the very Spirit of God, and you will not and cannot be forgiven. This is the unforgivable sin!

So humbly and with deepest gratitude we pray, "Our Father in heaven, forgive us our debts for the sake of Jesus, even as we promise to forgive those who are indebted to us."

Pray In Freedom And With Joy

Dear Tim, 

As I told you last week, there are a few words of encouragement I want to pass on to you as a young pastor. This week I want to say something about prayer and as I do, it seems to me that I could go on for days. This is such a huge topic. 

At the outset I do not want you to  be burdened by guilt for your failures in this regard. I would have to join you there, because quite often during my ministry I failed to pray when I should have. Yet we who follow Jesus do so with joy and freedom and not from fear and guilt. Aware of our failings we return to the bottomless well of love and forgiveness in Christ. I keep going back to what the Apostle taught the Colossians. After reminding them that Christ cancelled the record of debts we owe to God he wrote, 

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. - Col 2:16-17 ESV

In our risen Lord, present in His Word and in the Sacraments we have peace and forgiveness at all times. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of how or when to pray either. The Law does indeed pass judgment upon us in this regard. Our failure to worship and pray is lifted up in the Commandment to remember the Sabbath (Exod. 20:8). Behind the Sabbath laws are all sorts of other laws about when and how to worship and pray to God (Exod. 16:23-27; 31:13-14; Lev. 19:3, 23:3; etc.). These commands rightly judge the old man within us, the old man who wants to get involved in everything but prayer, praise and thanksgiving.

The Jews developed the custom of prayer three times a day. That custom was based upon the three temple services at first light, afternoon and nightfall. In the Psalms, for instance, we read of David observing those three hours.

Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. - Psa 55:17 ESV

The same was true for pious people like Daniel, even though exiled to Babylon. He got down on his knees three times a day and faced toward Jerusalem to pray and gave thanks before God (Dan. 6:10). The early Jewish Christians also observed these hours of prayer. So we hear of Peter and John going to the temple at noon, the hour of prayer (Acts 3:1). Peter's decision to take the Gospel to the Gentiles arose from his vision while praying at that same hour of the day (Acts 10:9-49).

You and I can learn from these and many other examples, as did the early church. Personally, I was never very good at using one of the many prayer books that are available for pastors with prayers and readings. There are many. You may have your own preference. And yet I've always believed in the importance of prayer. Many have written about prayers in the Bible in great detail. I only encourage you to make prayer a vital part of your ministry. In the next part of this letter I'll have more to say about what to pray for. For today let me share a favorite old prayer, Saint Patrick's Breastplate Prayer

Prayer Upon Arising.  Psalm 5 may added.

I bind unto myself today

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever.

By power of faith, Christ's incarnation;

His baptism in the Jordan river;

His death on Cross for my salvation;

His bursting from the spicèd tomb;

His riding up the heavenly way;

His coming at the day of doom;*

I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power

Of the great love of the cherubim;

The sweet 'well done' in judgment hour,

The service of the seraphim,

Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,

The Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,

All good deeds done unto the Lord,

And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today

The virtues of the starlit heaven,

The glorious sun's life-giving ray,

The whiteness of the moon at even,

The flashing of the lightning free,

The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,

The stable earth, the deep salt sea,

Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today

The power of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, His might to stay,

His ear to hearken to my need.

The wisdom of my God to teach,

His hand to guide, His shield to ward,

The word of God to give me speech,

His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,

The vice that gives temptation force,

The natural lusts that war within,

The hostile men that mar my course;

Or few or many, far or nigh,

In every place and in all hours,

Against their fierce hostility,

I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,

Against false words of heresy,

Against the knowledge that defiles,

Against the heart's idolatry,

Against the wizard's evil craft,

Against the death wound and the burning,

The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,

Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity;

By invocation of the same.

The Three in One, and One in Three,

Of Whom all nature hath creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Rest At Last

Three times a year all Jewish men were required to appear before the LORD God at the three great Festivals or Feasts of Unleavened Bread (Passover), Harvest (Pentecost - 50 days after Passover) and Ingathering at the end of the year (Booths). See Exodus 23:14-17; 34:17.

As we return to a study of John 7 we see Jesus finally arriving about at the middle of the weeklong Feast of Booths (Sept.-Oct. in our numbering). He began to teach in the temple and, as usual, people were astounded by his knowledge. However, as had often happened, he was challenged not only for what he taught, but also for what he had done earlier in the year during the Passover Feast. What he had done was to heal a paralyzed man at the pool called Bethesda (John 5:1-16). What got especially the Pharisees so stirred up was not that he had healed the man, but that he had done it on the Sabbath. Not only had he healed the paralytic, he also commanded him to work on the Sabbath by carrying his pallet-bed as he walked for the first time in 38 years! This was a clear violation of the law to do no work on that day.

But they missed the entire point of the Sabbath commandment. This day was not only a day to rest, pray and be with one's family. It also pointed forward to the ultimate rest promised to God's people. When Messiah came God would bring to His people eternal rest, peace and security. Jesus pointed to the fact that he was that Messiah. In him all God's promises were to be fulfilled. He speaks about this as he says,

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." - Matt 11:28-30 ESV

In Christ we have rest from all fear of punishment for our sins. Jesus' healing on the Sabbath points to that, especially among people who were taught that illness was a result of specific sins on the part of those who were sick (John 9:2). Again and again Jesus makes his point by healing people on the Sabbath. Examples include his

• healing a man's deformed hand (Mark 3:1-5)
• casting out a demon from a man in the Capernaum synagogue (Luke 4:33-36)
• healing a woman crippled for 18 years (Luke 13:11-17)
• healing a man suffering from dropsy (Luke 14:1-6)

The Sabbath always foreshadowed the Rest of God, the return to paradise (the experience of

Adam and Eve in the original Garden of Eden). When that blessed Rest comes, all the children

of God will dwell with Jesus in God’s eternal Seventh Day. Jesus made this promise to the

believing thief who died beside him on the cross just prior to the Passover Sabbath. “I tell you the

truth,” Jesus said, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). The same promise holds

true for all believers.

The Sabbath was always the ultimate sign, pointing to Jesus as the promised Messiah and Lord of the Sabbath. He came to bring all men that mercy of God foreshadowed by the Sabbath. Mercy is what God is all about. That was why Jesus permitted his disciples to pluck heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. That was why, a thousand years before Jesus, David and his men, fleeing for their lives, ate the showbread from the Tabernacle. That was why priests serving in the temple on the Sabbath were guiltless. Jesus emphasized again and again that the Jews rescued their sheep that had fallen into a pit and watered their cattle on the Sabbath. Surely then men were of greater value than sheep or cattle.

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. - Hbr 4:9-10 ESV

This is also why the church no longer observes the Old Covenant Sabbath. What it pointed toward is now fulfilled. The Rest-Giver has come. He has offered Himself as the sacrifice for all men's sins. He has returned from death on the third day. He is now among us in His Supper. This is what we celebrate.  So we observe the commandment by gathering to worship and praise the risen Christ on His day, the Eighth Day, the day pointing toward the great Day of His return when we will have perfect rest and peace forever.

The Early Church's View of the Sabbath

The Day of Rest
________________________
Biblical Teaching About Time

—An online book about rest and worship—
By Dr. Al Franzmeier

Chapter 7

The Sabbath And The Early Church
_________________________

After Jesus ascended, the newly formed church began to reach out, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. As she did so, she struggled to understand the implications of what Jesus had done. Initially, even the Apostles themselves did not grasp the full meaning of Jesus’ work. Some, like Peter, insisted that the church continue to make full use of the Old Covenant rituals and seasons. Gradually, however, they came to realize that the church was the new Israel and she must now live in the freedom won for her by the life, death and resurrection of her Lord. Ultimately, the church expressed this new teaching by replacing worship on the seventh day with worship on the eighth or first day, the day upon which Jesus rose. Thus Sunday became the great symbol of the church that worships the risen Christ on the day of his resurrection.

Missionary work among the Jews

With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem during the Jewish Festival of Pentecost (fifty days after the Passover, during which Jesus had been crucified), the church grew rapidly. Soon thousands of Jews openly confessed their faith in Jesus as the promised Messiah and risen Savior. With such growth came new responsibilities to care for widows and other needy people, as Jesus had instructed. Among the team of seven chosen to lead up this work was a man named Stephen. Stephen was a remarkable person, described by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles as “a man full of God’s grace and power.” Through him God did signs and wonders, the same as through the Apostles. Because of this, Stephen soon found himself challenged by members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen, former Jewish slaves from North Africa and Asia Minor. They accused him of speaking blasphemy, denouncing both the temple and the Torah and of saying that Jesus would return to destroy the temple and change the traditional customs of Moses (Acts 6:8).

None of that was true. The charges were false and trumped up. The Apostles taught nothing like that. The charges were pulled out from something Jesus had said something about the temple’s destruction. Early in his public ministry, during the Passover Festival, Jesus found merchants selling cattle, sheep and doves for the various required sacrifices in the courts of the temple. Moneychangers also had booths for exchanging Roman money into the Jewish currency accepted by the temple authorities. That was when he drove them out and scattered their coins (John 2:12-25).

He did it again early in the Passover week in which he was crucified (Matthew 21:11-13) It seems that as soon as he left that first time, the merchants set up shop again, of course with permission from the temple authorities. The first time the Jews demanded he show them some sign to prove he had authority to do what he did. The second time they openly plotted to kill him.

In the same chapter in which he recorded this incident at the temple, John recorded the very first sign that pointed to Jesus as God’s long awaited Messiah. That sign was Jesus turning about a hundred twenty gallons of water into the best wine anyone had ever tasted. This was a sign that the Bridegroom had come to cleanse his bride and present her to his heavenly Father, without stain or blemish, as the Apostle Paul later taught (Ephesians 5:25-28). The thing about signs and wonders (miracles, following the lead of the Latin translation of the Bible) is that when God does them they are not seen as such without faith in him. In this case, Jesus did give them a sign that did not come to pass until later.

His resurrection on the third day was that great sign. He said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John pointed out that Jesus’ disciples did not understand this until he was raised from the dead. Then they recalled what he had said and gained insight into the Scripture that had foretold his resurrection (John 2:20-22).

The Scripture referred to is Psalm 16:9-11. In it God says he will not let his Holy One see decay. Instead he will enjoy eternal pleasures at God’s right hand.

But let’s get back to why those charges of blasphemy were laid on Stephen. At Jesus’ trial he was accused of plotting to destroy the temple, based upon what he had said years before (Matthew 26:57-68). The plot worked then and so later, when Stephen insisted that Jesus was the risen Messiah, the Jews of the Synagogue of the Freedmen decided to use it again (Acts 6:8-15).

They were successful this time. Stephen and all Christian teachers among them were now labeled as heretics, out to destroy everything that the Covenant stood for. These Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah; consequently they had to reject any teaching that saw him as the fulfillment of the Sabbath, the sacrifices and the other festivals.

Undeterred, the Apostles continued to proclaim the risen Christ. In turn, the Jewish leaders attempted to stop them with imprisonment and threats. They could not and thousands more joined the ranks of believers.

Likewise, the Apostle Paul, on his missionary journeys, following the example of Jesus, chose the Sabbath as the day upon which to challenge the unbelief of the Jews and proclaim the Gospel. For instance, Luke writes that in Corinth every Sabbath Paul “reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18:3-5). This was the best approach, because that was the day when Jews assembled to worship and study the Scriptures.

Sunday became the day of worship
Some years after Jesus returned to heaven Christians started to worship on Sunday. Initially in Jerusalem they were so excited about what had happened and what it meant that they gathered daily, both in the temple and in one another’s homes (Acts 2:42-47). At this stage, they also observed Sabbath as the day of worship. It was not until much later that we read of believers gathering for worship and Bible study “on the first day of the week” in the Roman colony town of Troas (formerly Troy) in Asia Minor (Acts 20:6-8).

That was the time that Paul kept on preaching and teaching so long into the night that a young man fell asleep in the window and dropped from the third story to his death. The young man’s name was Eutychus, a name that means ‘fortunate.’ He was indeed fortunate, for we also read that he was restored to life when Paul put his arms around him. Some Sunday worship service!

Paul taught his mission churches to meet for worship on Sundays. In his instructions to the churches about raising money for persecuted believers in Jerusalem, Paul wrote in a circulating letter, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made” (1 Corinthians 16:1-3). That first day was now seen as the Lord’s Day, the day on which to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection, as well as his promise to return. He closed that same letter with an Aramaic phrase Marana tha, which means “Our Lord come” (1 Corinthians 16:22). Some early church fathers saw this rather as Maran atha, which means “Our Lord has come." Still other scholars translate the phrase as “Our Lord is coming." Perhaps the Apostle intended all three. In any event, the coming of Christ and his promised second coming were now celebrated on the day that came to be known as the Lord’s Day.

As the first century ended, the Apostle John closed his great revelation with these words: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” Revelation 22:20). John had received this revelation when he was “in the Spirit” on the Lord’s Day (Revelation 1:10). The Greek term for the Lord’s Day is Hemera Kyriakè. The word Kyriakè means “belonging to the Lord.” It designates something as particularly belonging to or pertaining to the Lord. Here it refers to Sunday as “the Lord’s day.” The Apostle Paul also used it in 1 Corinthians 11:20 to speak about the “Lord’s Supper” as the central act of Christian worship. Kyriakè differs from the word Paul used to speak about the day when the Lord will return (1 Thessalonians 5:2), the Day of the Lord (Hemera Kyriou).

I’m pointing out that the Greek word for Lord—Kyrios—has two different ways of saying ‘of the Lord.’ When Kyrios ends with a feminine genitive (genitive means ‘belonging to’), it refers to the day of the week that particularly belongs to the Lord, Sunday. When it ends with a masculine genitive it refers to that final day when the Lord will return. That day is also his, of course.

That Day of the Lord, the day of judgment when time as we now know it will end, will come as a thief in the night. However, for now, each Sunday is the Lord’s Day, the day when the church openly gathers to celebrate his first coming, to be blessed by his present coming in the Word and the Supper and to anticipate the Day of the Lord when he will return to complete the great work of salvation. On Sunday the church receives a foretaste of the marriage feast that is yet to come (Luke 13:28-30).

Shortly after the first century ended, in a short book called The Didache or Doctrine of the Apostles, we find these words: “On the Lord’s own day gather together and break bread and give thanks, having first confessed your sins, so that your sacrifice may be pure.”

It may therefore be said that the Lord’s Day constitutes the Church. It may also be said that those who think it their duty to abandon Sunday to keep the Sabbath instead, are in effect, denying the Messiah-ship of Jesus and the New Covenant in Him. The New Testament Church never transfers the Sabbath laws from the Old Covenant (Colossians 2:13-22). In the days of the Old Covenant some mistakenly came to believe that they were gaining God’s favor by observing certain days or seasons. To slip back into such thinking, the Apostle Paul said, made them slaves again. They were not living, acting and believing as adopted children of God. They had not even learned the basic ABC’s about God’s great work in Christ. True children are free in Christ from all such rules, regulations, days and seasons. Those things served a valid purpose at one time, but now that Christ himself has come, they are free to live in him and to serve him with heart and soul.

Nevertheless, for the Jewish believer, it must have been sad to lose the Sabbath. It was a wonderful time each week for the family to gather, to rest and relax, to pray and to hear God’s Word. And think about those other big festivals, Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Those were great times, like vacations and big family gatherings, as well as wonderful worship times.

Of course, the early Christians knew that we still need times to celebrate God’s great acts of mercy, be together and be with family. That’s why Sunday became their Sabbath and over the years other Christian festivals replaced the Old Covenant ones. Today we Christians have three major festival seasons and a number of minor ones, built around the work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We’re talking about Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. We’ll get to that, all in due time.

Observing The Sabbath - According to Jesus

The Day of Rest
________________________
Biblical Teaching About Time

—An online book about rest and worship—
By Dr. Al Franzmeier

Chapter 6

The Sabbath And The New Testament
_________________________

“Had any good Sabbath rests lately?” I asked a young visitor, as she settled into the easy chair in my office.

“Matter of fact,” she replied, “last Saturday was very, very busy. My Aunt Grace is coming to visit with us for a few days next week and Mom gets all worked up about having the house clean. She was ordering us around all day.”

I smiled knowingly. “Happens at our house too. My wife worries about the relatives finding some dust.”

“Mom too and she has to plan meals for every day and buy groceries. She’s taking a couple days vacation while Aunt Grace is here so the two of them can go antiquing.”

“Should be fun. I gather that your weekend was pretty busy.”

“Right. The only rest we had was the couple hours we spent at church last Sunday.”

That piece of a conversation leads into this chapter’s discussion about the meaning of the Sabbath for the believers in New Testament times. In an earlier chapter I pointed out that the rules and regulations about the Old Covenant Sabbath, as well as the other feasts and festivals, no longer apply since they all pointed to Jesus. He is the long awaited Messiah, come as foretold by the prophets. The feasts of the Old Covenant are now fulfilled. What they pointed to is present in Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God. To continue to observe them would signify a falling back into the Old Covenant, as if the Messiah (Christ) had never come.

“Wait a minute,” you may be saying. “It almost sounds like Christians only need nine commandments. The one about remembering the Sabbath no longer applies.”

I am not saying that, although that’s exactly how many Christians act when they claim their freedom in Christ and ignore what the Third Commandment is all about. As we open this up a bit more you’ll be able to get a better grasp on the New Testament teaching.

Jesus observed and fulfilled the Sabbath 

Until His resurrection, the Lord Jesus faithfully observed the Jewish festivals and days of worship. Look at a few examples. During the final days of his life Jesus went with his disciples to Jerusalem to observe the Passover. While there, he gave specific instructions on how and where to prepare for the great Passover festival. During that particular festive gathering he initiated the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:17-30).


Luke tells us that it was Jesus’ custom to observe the Sabbath by teaching in the synagogue. Once when teaching in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth on a particular Sabbath, he was nearly killed by the residents of the town. Many of the folks gathered that day were even related to him. After reading a lesson from the prophet Isaiah about the Jubilee Year he said he was the one sent to usher Jubilee in. That really got them angry, because they couldn’t think of him as anything but the son of a carpenter by the name of Joseph. They chased him out of the synagogue and out of town, even threatening to throw him off a cliff. That’s probably why he moved his headquarters to Capernaum, Peter’s hometown (Luke 4:14-30).

Early in his public ministry, in the fall, Jesus went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. You may recall that this was the time when everyone camped out for a week, eating, celebrating and remembering how the Lord brought their forefathers through the wilderness to the land in which they now lived. During that week Jesus got into a big argument with the Pharisees and temple priests who condemned him for healing a a paralyzed man by the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath. In their eyes, he had broken the commandment by working—by healing.

In response, Jesus pointed out that the Jews circumcised on the Sabbath in accordance with the strict Law of Moses. The Torah specifically said that a boy baby must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. If that day landed on the Sabbath, the Rabbis taught that the baby must be circumcised. In other words, the circumcision law preceded and overruled the Sabbath command to rest (John 7:1-24).

They had a point, however. Jesus could have waited until the day after the Sabbath to heal the blind man, but he wanted to make a point of his own. Again and again he chose the Sabbath as the day for his healing miracles in order to direct the people toward the full meaning of Sabbath. He was Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:13-17), sent by his Father, even though his own hometown people had rejected the idea. By returning to his Father after suffering on the cross, he would be ushering in the eternal Sabbath, the eternal day of rest to which the Seventh Day had always pointed. They who put their faith and trust in the mercy and forgiving love of the Lord would finally enter the eternal Sabbath-rest longed for in the weekly Sabbaths. Jesus, by his healing miracles, was giving them signs of what that rest would mean.

The Chief Priests and their crowd didn’t get it. As a result of this very hot argument, they tried to arrest Jesus, but were afraid to see it through. John writes that at the time Jesus was very popular with the people and his time had not yet come.

On the eighth day, the last and greatest of the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests led a procession from the Pool of Siloam to the Jewish temple. In the temple they poured out water on the main altar to represent the water that the Lord had provided their forefathers in the Exodus wilderness journey. At that very moment Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John wrote that by this Jesus meant the Holy Spirit whom believers were later to receive (John 7:37-39).

Jesus came to fulfill all the feasts and festivals of the Old Covenant. His healing miracles on the Sabbath served to emphasize that. The Greek verb ‘to fulfill’ (plerein) means to bring to pass (the prophecies of old). Examples of fulfilled prophecies abound, For instance, when Mary gave birth to Jesus she fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel ”(Matthew 1:22-23).

Again, when Mary and Joseph went to Egypt they fulfilled what the prophet Hosea had said about God calling His Son out of Egypt. Hosea’s prophecy was initially about the infant nation of Israel being led out of bondage in Egypt. Now Jesus, standing in for all the children of God, was leading them out of the bondage of sin by way of the cross (Matthew 2:13-15).

Jesus chose to heal on the Sabbath 

Jesus chose to heal on the Sabbath to emphasize that he was the promised Messiah. There are numerous examples. He healed a man’s deformed hand on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:9-14). He cast out a demon from a man in the synagogue of Capernaum on the Sabbath (Mark 1:21-28).

In Galilee on the Sabbath he healed a woman crippled for eighteen years. For this he was strongly criticized. They used the same old argument about working on the Sabbath. The synagogue ruler, cold as nails, said, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” This stirred up Jesus. He answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water?”

They did, of course. Then Jesus went on to drive his point home. “Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

His opponents were humiliated and the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing (Luke 13:9-11).

Another time, while eating in the home of a prominent Pharisee on the Sabbath, he healed a man suffering from dropsy. Dropsy refers to various fluids collected in the cavities of the body or limbs, because of a malfunctioning heart, liver, kidneys and so forth. The Greeks called it the water disease. Nobody had a cure.

Jesus healed him and got into big trouble again. In response Jesus again pointed to their family and their animals. “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?”

The answer was obvious. They had no response (Luke 14:1-6).

But let’s go back to the case of that paralyzed man by the Pool of Bethesda whom Jesus healed on the Sabbath (John 5:1-14). Jesus initially responded to his critics that his Father never stops working, so why should he? By this the Jews understood him to say he was equal to God, as indeed he was. After all, Jesus said, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him."

They were correct. He was indeed claiming to be the Lord, come to bring that rest foreshadowed by the Sabbath.

The Sabbath always foreshadowed the Rest of God, the return to paradise (the experience of Adam and Eve in the original Garden of Eden). When that blessed Rest comes, all the children of God will dwell with Jesus in God’s eternal Seventh Day. Jesus made this promise to the believing thief who died beside him on the cross just prior to the Passover Sabbath. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:39-43). The same promise holds true for all believers.

The Sabbath was always the ultimate sign, pointing to Jesus as the promised Messiah and Lord of the Sabbath. He came to bring all men that mercy of God foreshadowed by the Sabbath. Mercy is what God is all about. That was why Jesus permitted his disciples to pluck heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. That was why, a thousand years before Jesus, David and his men, fleeing for their lives, ate the showbread from the Tabernacle. That was why priests serving in the temple on the Sabbath were guiltless. Jesus emphasized again and again out that the Jews rescued their sheep that had fallen into a pit and watered their cattle on the Sabbath. Surely then men were of greater value than sheep or cattle.

Following up on this insight, the Apostles emphasized that all those laws, regulations and rituals of the Old Covenant are no longer binding for New Testament believers.

But wait! This is getting confusing.  We learned that the Sabbath commandment still stands, but now we’re hearing that the laws and rituals of the Old Covenant are not binding. What is going on?
It’s all explained in the New Testament Book of Hebrews. Briefly, the writer says the sacrifices of cattle and birds, the ritual washings, the festivals, the weekly Sabbaths, circumcision—all of the rituals and festivals—were but shadows. They were prophecies, pointing believers toward what was to come. The shadow is not the same as the body. It has no real substance. The real thing is the body that blocks out the light and so casts the shadow. That body, writes the Apostle Paul, is Christ. Now that the body is present, we turn from the shadows to embrace him. He is both the body and the head of the body of which we are all members (Hebrews 10:1-10).

Conclusion: it is not circumcision—or any other ritual—that saves, but Christ. Through the Spirit, believers eagerly await the hope of righteousness in Christ. They don’t boast of being circumcised or of having kept any other commandment. God forbid! Their boasting rests in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him all believers await a new creation. The true children of God are those who believe in Jesus and put their trust in him, regardless of race or nationality, Jews, Germans, Americans, blacks, whites or whatever. All are members of his household, built upon the foundation laid down by the prophets and extended by the apostles as they taught believers the meaning of the rituals and festivals, the shadows of what is to come. Jesus is the great cornerstone holding together the new, living temple of God. This living, growing temple is the place in which the Spirit of God dwells. This beautiful, living temple is made up of people everywhere, people who believe and trust in Jesus, not stones and mortar (1 Corinthians 3:10-23).

But I still have not answered the question about the Third Commandment. Does it or does it not apply to New Testament believers?

It does, but now, instead of observing the Sabbath in order to reflect upon God’s promise to restore his Day of Rest through the promised Messiah, we gather to celebrate Messiah’s coming. His name is Jesus, Fulfiller of all God’s promises. He has completed everything needed for our salvation. He is our guarantee of rest. We do not observe the Sabbath to gain the goodwill of God or earn something. Instead we remember the Sabbath out of gratitude and joy. To remember is to experience anew the past. This we do in our baptism as daily we remember we have died and risen again with Christ. To remember is to do what is now necessary, namely to move forward in His name today. To remember is to emphasize what is vital and important to all of us, namely that we are the Lord’s and in him we have eternal life.

So we remember the Sabbath by gathering weekly to be with him who alone gives rest, to be nurtured and nourished by him, to be fed at his Table, to rejoice in his mercy, to be with his people and to look forward eagerly to his return. In doing so, we are motivated by his mercy and grace. In faith and love, we seek to obey him, follow his leading and thus receive his eternal blessings (1 Corinthians 11:23-25).

We will continue our discussion next as we look at  the early church’s response to Christ and the Sabbath.

To Remember Is To Act

_________________
The Day of Rest
________________________
Biblical Teaching About Time

—An online book about rest and worship—
By Dr. Al Franzmeier
Chapter 5
The Jubilee Year

(part 2)
_________________________

As stated, our entire life is tied into what the Sabbath symbolizes. We'll explore that in chapter 6, but  before doing that we must consider what it means to remember the Sabbath. 

Remember the Sabbath
Israel was commanded by the LORD to remember the Sabbath. The act of remembering is much more than recalling the command and observing the day. To remember is to follow the example set by the LORD Himself.

In a similar manner we Americans recall certain things about our history when we celebrate the 4th of July or Memorial Day. On those days we go on picnics, listen to speeches, watch fireworks, but that is only a little of what the Hebrew word ‘remember’ means.

Turn to the story of the Flood in Genesis 7-8. Every living land creature was wiped out during the 150-day flood. Only Noah and those with him in the Ark remained. Then we read that “God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.” In this case to remember meant that God acted to rescue the inhabitants of the earth and to fulfill the promises He had made. He remembered His covenant and did not destroy all life on the earth. Now He promises to continue remembering the covenant and as a sign He has placed a rainbow in the sky after every rainfall (Genesis 9:8-17).

The same kind of thing happened when Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was living in the doomed city of Sodom. The LORD sent angels to lead Lot and his family to safety. “So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived” Genesis 19:29). God’s remembering was the cause of His gracious action and the fulfilling of His promise to bless Abraham.

During the time of the Exodus we read that God heard the groaning of His people in Egypt and “remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24). His remembering led Him to the great acts of delivering the Children of Israel (Jacob) from their bondage and leading them to the promised land of rest.

From these examples, we can conclude that when the LORD commands us to remember the Sabbath, He is commanding us not only to recall what the Sabbath means, but also to act upon it. This refers in our own case to putting our entire trust and faith in the One to whom the Sabbath pointed, namely Jesus Christ. It refers to setting aside time each week to stop working in order worship Him in the presence of His people. It emphasizes the importance of both hearing and teaching His Word to our children. We can to on and on. We’ll have more to say about this later. 

Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy 

One final point before we leave this topic. The Children of Israel were to remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy (Hebrew: Kadosh). The LORD alone is holy, of course. Hosea recorded the LORD’s words: “For I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you” (Hosea 11:9). God’s holiness is a paradox. It is both fearful (He will allow no other gods before Him) and attractive. Even sinful men are fascinated by this God who is totally and completely the Other, the Creator, Himself uncreated and eternal. God shows Himself holy by His righteousness and His justice (Isaiah 5:16). He did this at Meribah (Hebrew for “quarreling”). At Meribah Israel grumbled about not having sufficient water. Moses, in turn, struck the rock twice with his staff instead of speaking to the rock as the LORD had instructed him. Water came out and both the people and their livestock drank from it, but Moses was henceforth forbidden to enter the Promised Land. He had disobeyed. It was there that the LORD “showed himself holy among them” (Numbers 20:13).

The people were to be holy, even as the LORD was holy. They were to submit to Him, obey His commands, fear to disobey Him, confess their sins before Him, seek His mercy and forgiveness and daily and weekly renew their commitment to Him. These same lessons apply to us who follow the LORD, now come among us in the person of Jesus Christ. 

 

The Jubilee Year

_________________

The Day of Rest
________________________
Biblical Teaching About Time

—An online book about rest and worship—
By Dr. Al Franzmeier
Chapter 5

The Jubilee Year
_________________________

Once the chosen people entered the promised land, the LORD not only promised them rest and security, He also asked them to trust that He would provide for them from the bounty of that land. The command to observe an entire Sabbath year every seven years put that faith to the test.

 1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. 6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, 7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten (Leviticus 25:1-7). 

The LORD assured them they would have enough to eat in those Sabbath years:

¹⁸ " 'Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. ¹⁹ Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. ²⁰ You may ask, "What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?" ²¹ I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. ²² While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in (Leviticus 25:18-22). 

The purpose of the Sabbatical year was that the land might rest and have time to recover, a concept re-discovered in modern farming methods as crops are rotated.

In connection with the Sabbatical year, Exodus 21:1-6 describes how Hebrew servants were to be released in the seventh year, unless they voluntarily desired to be lifelong servants.

 2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

 5 "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' 6 then his master must take him before the judges. [a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

Deuteronomy 15:1-18 teaches that the seventh year was also to be called the LORD'S release, and all debts were to be forgiven. This was a way to relieve the burden upon the poor. There is no comment, however on whether some of these same poor took advantage of that Law and avoided working to pay off their debts other than what is written in Deuteronomy 31:9-13. There the LORD instructed that the Torah be read at the end of the Sabbatical year, at the Feast of Tabernacles. That was to ensure that former debtors and servants were properly taught God's Law so they might not have to become poor again. In fact, no one among them, poor or rich, would suffer if they but observed the commands of their Creator and Redeemer.

 9 So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Then Moses commanded them: "At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. 12 Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. 13 Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."

These were rather extraordinary commands. Can you imagine everyone in your community taking a yearlong vacation and forgiving all debts?  Our national economy would collapse; our land would be over-run by criminals and foreigners. It wouldn’t work. Did it work for Israel?

It worked when they observed it, but they soon ignored the commands. They were warned from the beginning, of course, about what would happen if they did.

'If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, 28 then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you. 31 I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. 32 I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. 34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it (Leviticus 26:27-36).

Hundreds of years later, the prophet Jeremiah warned that because Israel reneged and did not free their Hebrew servants, God would proclaim "liberty" unto these cruel taskmasters by turning them over to the sword, pestilence, famine and captivity. The result was the Babylonian captivity of the southern tribes.

The writer of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel also commented on the failure of the people to observe God’s commands with these words:

15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. 17 He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, [g] who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar. 18 He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the LORD's temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. 19 They set fire to God's temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.

 20 He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. 21 The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah (2 Chronicles 36:15-21).

Harsh? Yes, but the LORD had no other choice. His people had forsaken Him by disobeying His commands. They were putting their faith in other gods. He had to bring them back to their senses. Notice also that the land did enjoy its Sabbaths for seventy years, the multiple of the two numbers indicating completeness in the Old Covenant: seven and ten.

The Jubilee Year
In addition to the Sabbatical year, the LORD also commanded the Jubilee year, the fiftieth year following seven Sabbatical years.

8 " 'Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

 13 " 'In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.

 14 " 'If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other. 15 You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. 16 When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops. 17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 25:8-17).

The Hebrew term translated Jubilee year probably meant "ram,” which, by extension, stands for "the horn of a ram.” Thus the priests announced the year to the people by the blowing of the ram’s horn. In Ezekiel 46:17 the Jubilee year is called "the year of release;” hence some commentators have derived the Hebrew word for Jubilee from the Hebrew stem which means to “emit or liberate,” but the first derivation is generally more accepted.

As in the Sabbatical years, slaves were set free. This was also the great year to recall that the land did not belong to any single family or tribe. Any owner of landed property, who, for reason of poverty or otherwise, had been compelled to part with his land, had the right to receive his property back free in the Jubilee year, or to redeem it even before the Jubilee year, if either his own financial circumstances had improved, or if his next of kin would redeem it for him by paying back what was owed according to the price which regulated the purchase. Hence, the transfer of property was not, properly speaking, the sale of the land but the sale of its produce for a certain number of years, and the price was fixed according to the number of years which intervened between the year of the sale and that of the next year of Jubilee.

Accordingly, the right of possession of real estate was inalienable. Whether a landowner was ever allowed to part permanently with his property for speculation, or for any purpose other than poverty, is not explicitly stated, although according to later rabbinical interpretation, this was considered as legally unlawful.

Real estate in walled towns was made an exception to this law. An owner who had sold was permitted to redeem his property provided he did so within a year, but not afterwards.
The Jubilee year, therefore, emphasized that the LORD was Israel’s King. He had redeemed Israel from the bondage of Egypt to be his peculiar people, and allotted to them the Promised Land. He would not suffer any one to usurp his title as King over those whom he owned as his own. This is the idea of grace for all the suffering children of man, bringing freedom to the captive and rest to the weary as well as to the earth.

Consequently the Old Covenant prophets and the New Covenant Apostles saw the year of Jubilee as the symbol of the eternal year of grace, the Sabbath to come, ushered in when Messiah comes. Every Sabbath pointed to this glorious Day of Rest.  On that Day God’s people will enter His rest, all the conflicts in the universe shall be restored to their original harmony, and not only shall we sons of God, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, be restored, but the whole creation, which groans and travails in pain together until now, will share in our glorious liberty. The prophet Isaiah wrote:

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
       because the LORD has anointed me
       to preach good news to the poor.
       He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
       to proclaim freedom for the captives
       and release from darkness for the prisoners, [a]

 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
       and the day of vengeance of our God,
       to comfort all who mourn,

 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
       to bestow on them a crown of beauty
       instead of ashes,
       the oil of gladness
       instead of mourning,
       and a garment of praise
       instead of a spirit of despair.
       They will be called oaks of righteousness,
       a planting of the LORD
       for the display of his splendor (Isaiah 61:1-3).

This idea of Sabbath seems to have touched every part of Israelite life. Their laws about work, leisure, worship, their concepts of money and land, family and fellowship—everything was tied into the Sabbath.

Indeed. And the Sabbath laws all pointed forward to the freedom we have because Christ has set us free. In Him we have the certain hope of eternal Sabbath. So we Christians need to gain a deeper appreciation of this marvelous commandment. As in the case of the Old Covenant believers, our entire life is tied into what the Sabbath symbolizes. We’ll be looking into this more deeply in the next chapter.

Before we get to all that, however, we have a couple more lessons to learn from our Old Covenant brothers and sisters about remembering and keeping the Sabbath holy.
_______________to be continued . . .