THE MEANING OF THE SABBATH

Rev. Bertrand L. Comparet

 

   Despite some difference of opinion as to which day of the week should be kept, all Christian denominations agree on the need to observe one day each week as a Sabbath of rest. Like the other features of our religion, this has its roots in the Old Testament: I have said many times that there is just as much Christianity in the Old Testament as in the New; and we shall find this true of the Sabbath, also. You are grateful, of course, for that day of rest; but have you ever thought about its real meaning? How did it originate? What does it symbolize? How will it be fulfilled?

    God intended the Sabbath as a great monument of hope for His people‑‑‑a symbol of a mightier deliverance than any which has yet occurred. First, we must go back to Adam.   There had been other races of man on earth for thousands of ears before Adam‑‑‑as I explained in my broadcast "Adam Was Not the First Man ‑‑‑and these pre‑Adamic races were created, but had no closer relation to their Creator. But Luke 3:38 tells us That "Adam was the son of God". The "Garden of Eden" was not just a lot of ordinary trees and shrubs: the "trees" in it were the "family trees" of the various races. Satan had been the gover­nor of this planet, until he forfeited his right to this power by rebellion against God. Adam was sent to replace him. But Adam, unfortunately, was as well‑meaning and gullible as we, his descendants, are. When Satan proposed "peaceful coexistence" between them, instead of the vigorous warfare of good against evil which God had commanded, Adam fell for it‑‑‑and thereby Adam lost the power and glory with which he had come. To buy what he thought would be peace, he sold his power and immortality.

   One of the penalties of Adam's fall was the sentence to a life of toil. We are always meeting people who cheerfully assure us that the necessity for constant work is really a great blessing (and, confidentially, I don't find that any more convincing than you do). For the Bible expressly calls it a curse:  Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying 'Thou shalt not eat of It': cur­sed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; * * in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." (Genesis 3 17-19) A life sentence at hard labor, just what we give to some criminals today (with no platitudes about what a favor we are doing them.)

    Nevertheless, this penalty would not last forever: God anticipated Adam's fall, and made provision to redeem Adam and all his descendants. Remember, Jesus Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8) But God did not stop with a remedy to come thousands of years‑the future: the Adamic race would have perished of despair in the meantime, unless comforted with knowledge of this. So God gave them hope; and from early times we find the Sabbath of Rest as a symbol thereof.

The curse reached terrible power in Israel's bondage in Egypt ‑‑‑as God had prophesied to Abraham (Genesis 15:13)‑‑‑but God redeemed them from it in the Exodus, as a symbol of the eventual great Redemption, and commanded observ­ance of the Sabbath for this reason. In Deuteronomy‑‑‑5:15, He said "And remem­ber that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and  YHWH thy God brou­ght thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: THERE­FORE YHWH thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.  So God's people were always to have the symbol of hope: one day in each 7, the curse was to be lifted, as a reminder that some day it would be lifted forever.

    Neither did it stop there, for God also commanded the Year of Release every seven years, in Leviticus 25: 3-4, "Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for YHWH." So the hope was reinforced: first one day of rest in seven; then one year of rest in seven, when the curse of hard labor was lifted. To further em­phasize the symbolism of eventual complete redemption, this seventh year brought also the forgiveness and release of all debts. Deuteronomy 15:1‑4 gives the rule: "At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.  

   Every creditor that lendeth aught unto his neighbor shall release it; he shall not exact It of his neighbor, or of his brother: because it is called YHWH'S Release. Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that 'which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release ' as." Yet this was accompanied by the promise that the creditor would not lose thereby, for God would so bless him for keeping this law that he would prosper greatly. In other words, God would pay our debts.

   See what this symbolized: the curse is still upon us, but we look for­ward to our release from it ‑‑‑every seventh day, lest we feel too greatly crushed; then on a far greater scale every seventh year; and in that Sabbath Year God Himself pays our debts for us‑‑‑symbolizing the time when Jesus Christ on the cross paid the awful debts or every sinner.

    Then, to still further emphasize the promise, after seven Sabbath of years, 49 years, the 50th. year was the Jubilee ‑‑‑another year of rest and freedom from the curse ‑‑‑and even more than that, the year of restitution.

   Through all the centuries, most people have been poor; and in every generation, many of them have gone through periods of hard times when they have lost their pitifully few possessions. In their distress, they have been compelled to mortgage or to sell their homesteads; and in their poverty they were not able to redeem them. But in the Year of Jubilee, God redeemed it all for them.

    Leviticus 25:8‑13 gives the rule: "And thou shalt number seven Sabbath of years unto thee, seven times seven years; * * * And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhab­itants thereof: it shall be a Jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and Ye shall return every man unto his family." (This is where we got the words written on the rim of our Liberty Bell: " proclaim lib­erty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." Being God's people, we took this from God's Law.) All that man had lost, under the curse of labor and poverty, God restored‑to him without cost.

    Again we find in the Old Testament the Christian symbolism. Adam was placed in this world as a son of God, with the power, glory and immortality  that went with that position. By his disobedience, his failure to live up to the responsibilities of his position, he lost these things and the curse came upon him, and upon all his race. But God paid the debt for us In the Year of Release; God lifted the curse in the weekly and yearly Sabbath; and now, in the Jubilee Year, God restored to us all that we had lost. This is the comp­lete redemption given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ‑‑‑and it is all prophesied in symbol in the Old Testament.