Observing The Old Testaments

INTRODUCTION The Old Testament contains several passages where God calls His people to observe time to rest and refresh, in fact, He requires it in the fourth command of the Decalogue, labeling it the “Sabbath” through Moses. God decrees three different types of Sabbath that The Israelites are supposed to observe in the Old Testament: The Sabbath Day, The Sabbath Year, and The Year of Jubilee. Each of these occasions, while they bear several dissimilarities, require the Israelites to trust The Lord to provide for them. “Rest, like that of the Sabbath, is the goal of one’s spiritual journey. It symbolizes the security and the blessings that a person has because of a relationship with God.” In calling for trust and reliance on Him during the

23:3). There are two differing reasons for observing the Sabbath in the Old Testament, specifically Exodus 20:11 and Deuteronomy 5. In Deuteronomy, “it is said to be in memory of the deliverance from Egypt,” and in Exodus, “the reason is given that the Sabbath had been a holy day since creation.” These different reasons are not contradictions, instead they provide “two good reason for observing the Sabbath.” The word “Sabbath” is translated to “day of rest” which was a time when all work would cease, not just the work of the Israelites, but also their slaves and animals, with the purpose of recognizing the day as belonging to the Lord. The Lord did not imply that that this should be a day of rest, He commanded it. Leviticus 23:3 references the Sabbath as a day of “complete rest”, and the Hebrew text uses “shabbat shabbatom” which is a superlative meaning, “the most restful cessation from assigned tasks.” Additionally, the prepositional Hebrew phrase, “lamed”, used in Leviticus 23:3, connotes possession, so the Lord is proclaiming; “This is a day that belongs to Me.” The Sabbath is a day created by God, for

Rooker explains: “The Sabbath was meant to be a joyous occasion of spiritual reflection with the whole heart, for it demarcated a weekly renewal of Israel’s covenant relationship with God.” Every seventh day, the Yahweh-follower was to repudiate themselves of any self-concocted delusion of control over their life and therefore recall God’s sovereignty. God’s gracious decree of keeping the Sabbath demands His people to deny themselves and look to Him as their sustainer. In doing this, God releases His people from the bondage of self-centeredness to the freedom of an outward expression of praise for Him. This requires that God’s people remember the promises He made to them through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, how He delivered them from their bondage in Egypt, and the way He sustained them in their desert wandering. In Isaiah 55:1-2, God explicates through the prophet that He is the Sustainer, and He calls the thirsty and poor to purchase wine and milk from Him without cost; God is “promising… security and [spiritual] prosperity” to those who come to Him. God calls people to remember the Sabbath, He is requiring that they pursue the Creator of joy for their sustenance. In these decrees, God reveals His