The Sabbath in Hebrews 4; shadow or sign?

[By M. L]

In this blog I want to take a look at a very significant part of scripture which talks about the Sabbath. 

In Hebrews the author (which I will assume to be Paul) gives us the clear meaing of the Sabbath. Often this is quoted to prove that Christ is our Sabbath and that the Sabbath as it is written plainly in the ten commandments is therefore abolished. They argue that the Sabbath must therefore be part of the 'shadow of things to come' that Colossians 2 talks about. 

But as we will see Paul never once says Christ is our Sabbath. He never  says the gospel is the Sabbath neither does he give any indication that it is therefore abolished. 

This is quite different than for example the passover. He very clearly calls Christ our passover. He calls Christ the Firstfruits. He calls Christ the sacrifice and High priest. 

But he does not call Christ the Sabbath. 

What he does say however is that there is a very literal rest in the gospel message and that this is the reason why there is a Sabbath left for Gods people.

He says:

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

Some translations just translate verse 9 as 'a rest', but the Greek is pretty much decisive here. The word used here is different from the other Greek words Paul has used in Hebrews. He uses the word κατάπαυσις (katapausis). But the word in vers 9 is σαββατισμός (sabbatismos). This of course is no accident on the side of the author of Hebrews. The word literally means 'a keeping of Sabbath'. 

Now that we have established this and that we have given a general outline we need to look at the context. 

This starts in Hebrews 3. 

Paul has just finished talking about the glory of our High priest in heaven. Jesus is exalted above every name. 

Then it says:

[Hebrews 3:7-11 ESV] "7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' 11 As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'""

Apparently there is a hearing of Gods voice involved. They were to listen and they were not to harden their hearts. This was already a big thing in the wilderness. They heard Gods voice, saw His works, put Him to the test and did not listen. 

Therefore they would not enter into His rest. 

We will later look at what kind of rest this is talking about, but first will provide context.

The scripture Paul is quoting comes from the Psalms, centuries later from the testing in the wilderness. This indicates that the rest that David, the psalmist, is talking about here, was still available in his time.

Why?
Because he says 'Today, if you hear his voice'. He brings the temping and rest to the present day. The rest therefore is something big. 

But this 'today' language has more significance to it. When we go through the times the bible talks about hearing today and not hardening the heart it is almost always in relation to a covenant. 

There is a covenant being brought up here. One only has to read the book of Deuteronomy, the book of the old covenant, and they will constantly see this 'today' language appearing.

Here are some examples:

[Deuteronomy 4:40 ESV] "40 Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.""

[Deuteronomy 5:1-3 ESV] "1 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. 2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today."

[Deuteronomy 8:11 ESV] "11 "Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today,"

Now this in itself already has a lot to do with the Sabbath. The Sabbath was seen as a sign or a mark that you were in covenant with God:

[Exodus 31:16 ESV] "16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever."

[Isaiah 56:6 ESV] "6 "And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant--"

This is pretty big to understand and this thought will unfold itself the more we get into Hebrews.

[Hebrews 3:12-15 ESV] "12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.""

There is still a 'today' going on right now. Every single day we are to hear the words of the new covenant of grace and we are to believe in God and trust in Him. The 'believing' part of these verses and the fact that it comes from Christ shows that this is the new covenant. 

We are to hold fast our confidence. We are not to harden our hearts. 

It continues:

[Hebrews 3:16-19 ESV] "16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief."

This rest that is still here today is obtainable by belief. If we fall into unbelief we will receive only wrath on that day just like the Israelites who fell away. 

We are not to be disobedient to the gospel.

Then the line of thought continues in Hebrews 4:

[Hebrews 4:1-2 ESV] "1 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. 2 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."

At this point it is very clear Paul is not at all talking about the old covenant. Israel did not fall by transgressing the old covenant, but it is talking about the 'good news', the gospel. This is the rest Hebrews is talking about. We have a rest in a new covenant, the gospel of Christ. 

Today we hear this proclemation and today we are to hear this voice. For if the disobeying the first covenant had the penalty of death, how much worse will the end of those be that disobey the voice that speaks from heaven by trampling on the blood of Christ?

[Hebrews 4:3-5 ESV] "3 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. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works." 5 And again in this passage he said, "They shall not enter my rest.""

Now this rest of the gospel is proven in the creation account. On the seventh day of creation God finished the work. This means that this rest of the gospel was somehow already finished at creation. But how can that be?

The gospel is about restoration and the cleansing of sin. How can the finished work on the seventh day ever give us a clue about the finished work on the cross?

How does this argument even make sense?

For this we must go back to creation. In Genesis we see that when God  finished the work He looked on creation and it was 'very good'. He then rested on the seventh day and because everything was finished at that point, He also sanctified it. 

Thus the sabbath became a sign of the finished perfect work of creation:

[Exodus 20:10-11 ESV] "10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

[Genesis 2:1-3 ESV] "1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 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."

We can add to this that since humanity was created perfect they were also in perfect covenant with God. The Sabbath made sense.

But unfortunately sin came into the world. The perfect work of creation became defiled. It became broken. The words 'it was very good' could no longer be applied to this creation. Satan became our accusser and our sins made seperation between us and God; the eternal covenant broken.

The eye of sight will recognise this, but it also sees something else on this earth. For ages there have been people who still kept the Sabbath, the seventh day, a sign of that perfect creation and that they were in covenant with God. 

How can this be?

This is possible because the eyes of faith look further than the eyes of sight. They behold a new covenant, a restoration. There they see the cross from which that righteous blood of an infinite Person flows. There restoration is made for all of humanity.

For whom and for when?

For all.

[1 Timothy 2:5-6 ESV] "5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time."

He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. From the very beginning, at the finished work of creation, God had already planned out a restoration. 

Thus the finished work of creation is already restored. In whom? In Christ.

[1 Peter 1:20 ESV] "20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you"

[2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV] "17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

But this rest can only be obtained by faith in Christ. 

We see that the argument of Paul makes perfect sense if the Sabbath is still kept since the keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of all this. 

[Hebrews 4:6-8 ESV] "6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 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." 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on."

The 'today' still counts. This covenant of good news is still there today. Today we are to enter into His rest. The rest that Joshua gave, obtaining the land of Israel, is not at all meant here. 

And now we get back to our first point:

[Hebrews 4:9-11 ESV] "9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience."

This is the conclusion. There remains a Sabbath keeping for the people of God. Why?
Not because we are saved by our own works, but because we are saved by the works of another. God already obtained. God already finished a work. God has already restored us in Christ. The fact that this is called a rest shows we can cease from our own works now. 

Do not think for one moment you are justified and restored by those efforts and works that is wrought in you. The works in you are not yet finished. They are to wrought out with your co-operation. 

But the rest we are talking about does not require your good works. It does not require anything in you.

This is completely and wholly given you in Christ alone, by faith alone and by grace alone. 

Our weak conscience will often go back to the old covenant of bondage. We may be tempted to fall into forms of legalism or fear of death. 

But do not look at yourself, look to the blood of Christ that purifies the conscience. Strive to enter into that rest. Let yourself fall every day at the feet of Christ hearing His words to obey that gospel. 

There is no way you will fall while doing that. 

Do you want proof that you are not forsaken in Christ, restored in Him and perfectly in covenant? Are you doubting that finished work?
Look no further than the visible sign of the Sabbath God has commanded us to keep that is in the middle of the ten commandments, once written on stone, but now in the heart. 

We, adventists, exalt the Sabbath. And rightly so. 

But have we at all lived out it's significance? Why are we so tempted to doubt Gods care and good news just like the Israelites? Shouldn't we know this message of justification by faith at this point? Is this not the light that will lighten the whole world? 

The Sabbath, therefore, is, more than any other commandment in the old testament, pointing towards a new covenant rest. 

But this rest was not a shadow of things to come, but it was a sign of a rest that has been there since the days of Israel. 

Amen.