God's Desire for Relationship: Exploring the Sabbath

Emmanuel: Discovering God's Desire for Relationship

History Split in Two

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
— Matthew 1:23 NKJV

You are likely familiar with the story of the birth of Jesus; you can read it in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2. The birth of Jesus split history in half; we divide dates into Before Christ (BC) and Anno Domini (AD), which is Latin for “the year of our Lord.” We don’t know exactly when Jesus was born, but we estimate it, and the year before the estimated date of Jesus’ birth is 1BC, and the year He was born is 1AD. There is no year zero.

Whether you believe in Jesus or not, you can’t help but be aware that something happened that impacted history and culture all over the world. This incredible event is the birth of Jesus, God as a human being.

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
—Luke 1:35 ESV

God does not change

The birth of Jesus also marks the beginning of the New Testament. The books of the Bible written before the birth of Jesus are called the Old Testament, and those written after the birth of Jesus make up the New Testament. Some argue that there is a difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. It is almost as if the birth of Jesus made God nicer, kinder, more loving. However, I reject that idea of an evolving God. I believe that the earthly ministry of Jesus gave us a clearer picture of God's character, but not that it changed God's character.
Here are some verses that support this.

“For I am the Lord, I do not change;
Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
— Malachi 3:6 NKJV (bold mine)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
— Jaes 1:17 NKJV (bold mine)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
—Hebrews 13:8 NKJV (bold mine)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
— John 1:14 ESV (bold mine)

who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
— Hebrews 1:3 NKJV (bold mine)

 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
— Colossians 1:15 NKJV (bold mine)

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
— John 14:9 NKJV (bold mine)

If God does not change, and Jesus is the clearest revelation we have of what God is like (Jesus is God), then God did not become nicer, kinder, and more loving with the birth, life, and crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. God must always have been kind, loving, and gracious. God already loved us long before Jesus was born in a manger.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
— John 3:16 NKJV (bold mine)

There are many examples of God’s character throughout the Bible, but I would like to focus on one that appears at the very beginning, at the culmination of the week of creation.

The Creation Account

1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
—Genesis 2:1-3 NKJV (bold mine)

Many read the creation account looking for arguments against the theory of evolution or for proof of God's existence. I do not believe that Moses was concerned about disproving the theory of evolution or proving the existence of God. As I read the creation account (Genesis 1-2), the emphasis is on God's character and power. God is not a created being; He is the creator. Creation did not happen by accident; it was very organized and intentional. We are not here by accident; God made us in His image.

One reason we struggle with the biblical text is that we are searching for things that the text is not concerned with revealing. I find it helpful to read the text open to what it says, rather than wishing it revealed something different. Instead of searching for arguments against the theory of evolution, what if I read the text, curious about what it does say and what it means? I have an entire post dedicated to the creation account entitled In The Beginning… for this post, I will focus on the conclusion of the creation week.

Insights from the Creation account

From the creation account, we learn that

• God is the creator

• Creation was intentional and organized

• God is the source of life

• Humans were created in God’s image

• God’s creation was very good (no room for improvement)

This list is by no means exhaustive, but these are some of the clear lessons I take away from the Creation account. But there is one point I want to focus on and dive deeper into: the seventh day of creation.

A unique account

I have heard people claim that the Bible’s creation account is similar to other ancient accounts of creation. I won’t go into all of that now, but feel free to read other ancient accounts of creation; you will notice that they are not similar after all. In many of those accounts, humans are created by accident or to serve the gods. In the Bible, humans are made in the image of God. Humans are created after everything else has been created. We are placed in a perfect world. We are made by hand by God who breathes the breath of life into Adam.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
—Genesis 2:7 NKJV

Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day of creation, but the creation week is seven days long. Many who focus on the creation vs evolution debate tend to overlook the importance of the seventh day.

“The seventh day is the capstone of Creation and comes forth at the dawn of history as the first signifier of the character and meaning of Creation.”
—Sigve Tonstad. The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day. Berrien Springs, Mich., Andrews University Press, 2009, p. 21.

Blessed and Sanctified

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
—Genesis 2:3 NKJV (bold mine)

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
— Genesis 2:3 ESV (bold mine)

And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.
— Genesis 2:3 ASV (bold mine)

To bless (בָּרַךְ bāraḵ)something is to “speak words invoking divine favor, with the intent that the object will have favorable circumstances or state at a future time.” (James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997)).

But God not only blessed the seventh day, but He also sanctified, or made holy, or hallowed it. The Hebrew word is קָדַשׁ (qāḏaš), which means to “consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified, be separate.” (BlueLetterBible.org)

Back to a point I mentioned earlier, there is no equivalent of the Sabbath found in any extra-biblical source. There is no precursor of the seventh day in the languages and ruins of the Near East. Nothing like the Sabbath is found elsewhere; as far as we know, the Bible is the only witness to the origin and meaning of the Sabbath. (Sigve Tonstad. The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day. Berrien Springs, Mich., Andrews University Press, 2009, p. 26,27.) see also Andreasen, Rest and Redemption, 23; cf. idem, The Old Testament Sabbath: A Tradition-Historical Investigation (SBLDS 7; Missoula, MT: Society of Biblical Literature, 1972); idem, "Recent Sudies of the Old Testament Sabbath: Some Observations," ZAW 86 (1974): 453-469.) 

The seventh day is the very first thing to be made holy in the Bible. It was the first thing to acquire the special status that belongs to God.

But is it a command?

You will notice that there is no command associated with the seventh day of the week in Genesis 2, no command to go to church. But in Exodus 20, there is a command to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The command did not make it holy; the command did not even choose the day. The command is for us to remember it and keep it holy; in other words, don’t make it common.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
— Exodus 20:8-11 NKJV (bold mine)

God brings a degree of distinction to the seventh day of the week that makes it difficult to ignore. Before there was sin, before Abraham was born, before God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, God created holy time, a special set-aside time. The sanctity of the Sabbath is older than Israel, and it is meant for all of creation.

Think through this with me. Why a seven-day week? If creation was done by the evening of the sixth day, why not stop there? God does not get tired; He does not need to rest.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
—Isaiah 40:28 NKJV

Adam and Eve also would not be tired; they were just created. So there was no physical reason for the Sabbath; no one needed physical rest on the seventh day of creation. Also, there was no sin, no death, no alienation from God. There was no need for salvation; there was nothing to be saved from. The question then is, what was the purpose of the first Sabbath?

The first Sabbath

If no one was tired, why did God create a holy period of 24 hrs (sunset to sunset)? In my mind, this reveals something about the heart of God. Humans and animals did not need physical rest at this point, so I believe the reason is related to what God desired. God desired quality time with His creation. God wanted to be with us and celebrate the perfect world He created. God wanted quality time, a relationship. For me, this clarifies the reason for creation. Why did God create us? Not for us to serve Him and bring him offerings and build Him fancy buildings, and bring sacrifices to make Him happy. God created us so that we could enjoy each other’s presence.

The Sabbath is a weekly reminder that there is a mighty God, a powerful creator God, who is interested in spending time with me, who cares about me personally. The idea of Emmanuel, God with us, is not a new idea that began with the birth of Jesus. The notion of God desiring to be with us is the original idea; God with us was God’s plan all along! Each week, the Sabbath reminds me that there is more to life than paying the bills, going to work and school, and chasing money, degrees, success, and sustenance. Life is about relationships, and primarily about our relationship with God.

So many fixate on which day we should go to church that they forget the point behind it all. The Sabbath is not about church attendance; the Sabbath is about a personal relationship with our Creator. Oh, how much we miss out on when we narrow the Sabbath to just church attendance. The seventh day reminds us that we were created, intentionally, that there is a purpose and a plan for our lives, that we are not alone, and that God is powerful.

The seventh day of creation reveals God’s personhood; He is not just emotionless cosmic energy. The fact that creation did not end on the sixth day with the creation of humans but on the seventh day reveals that the ultimate end of the creation week was the joy of spending quality time with someone.

God with us

Ultimately, the creation story as well as the Christmas story do the same thing. They reveal to us the heart of God. The Bible is not a book primarily about teaching us how to be good people; that is not the goal. The Bible is a book that helps us know God; it is our relationship with God that transforms us. God is good and loving and king and forgiving and merciful. As we get to know God, as we fall in love with Him, as we decide to follow Him, He transforms us into the best possible version of ourselves. We become who we were always meant to be as we find ourselves in God.

The Bible is not about instructions for us to get into heaven. Our salvation is not based on our performance; it's about God and what He did and does for us. Our behavior is our response to God’s love.

What about the Sabbath?

The Sabbath is an integral portion of the revelation of God’s heart, His plans, and His values. God values relationships. God wants to spend time with us, and He chose a day, blessed it, and made it holy for this purpose. God invites us into a deeper relationship with Him. He invites us to trust in Him as our Creator, God is also our provider, He is also our redeemer, and that is why we cease from striving on the Sabbath. On Sabbath, we rest in God, acknowledging that He is God, that He created us. We remember that everything we have and all we need comes from God.

The Sabbath reminds us that we have intrinsic value, that when we stop working, we don’t lose our identity or our value; our value and true identity are found in Jesus, not in our busyness. Remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy is not about legalism; it is about trusting in God’s grace. It is about shifting the focus from all that I want to do and achieve. It is about actively choosing to cease work and to worship and rest despite the pressure to always push harder.

Practical Application

Oftentimes, we stay busy to avoid considering life’s big questions. We don’t want to consider eternity; it scares us, so we stay busy. We don’t want to consider the quality of our relationships, whether with friends or family members, so we just stay busy. We live in a consumeristic culture that thrives on our not being content. A happy and content person is not buying their product. A content person is a dangerous person; a person who is able to say “enough” is a person who cannot be manipulated. So billions of dollars are spent to convince you that you are unhappy and that if you buy their product, then you will finally be happy.

How can we possibly compete with this culture of consumerism that seems to make up the very air we breathe? The ads, the apps, the screens, the products, the need for distraction, to be informed, to have the best and latest… we live in an attention economy, money is spent to have your attention. What hope is there for you? For us?

What if there was a period of 24hrs (from sunset to sunset) that was set aside for you to disconnect from all that and instead focus on God. Take a break from work, school, consumerism (purchases), apps, screens, news, video games, ads, movies…
What if we stop running away from silence and quiet, and sit for a bit with God, and talk to Him?
Spend time in prayer.
What if we take this opportunity to journal and reflect on life?
How was your week?
What are the relationships you value?
Have you dedicated enough time to them?
What are your plans for the future?
What is really important in life?
When was the last time you read the Bible? Read it slowly, no rush. Listen to what the text is saying. (For some practical tips, see Engaging with God’s Word)

Instead of creating a list of things that should not be done on the Sabbath, what if we create a list of what we get to do?
What would feed your hungry soul?
What is God calling you to do?

Don’t be afraid of the silence, of the quiet. What better way is there to listen to God’s still small voice?

Don’t be afraid of stopping, of resting. Your value comes from what Jesus did for you, not from your relentless activity.

Slow down, connect with God, invest in relationships. Reflect, read, listen, enjoy the quiet. Rest. God loves you and has a plan for you.

Maybe God is just waiting for you to slow down long enough to listen, to connect, and to understand His plans for your life.