Dictionary of Biblical Words:
This was the day of rest instituted by God in Gen. 2, hence before the Jewish law, and thus belonging to man at large. The Jewish Sabbath under the law, was surrounded with the strictest rules, to prevent its sanctity and rest being brokers (Ex. 20:10; Neh. 10:31; 13:19); and those who transgressed it were rigorously punished (Ex. 16:27; Num. 15:32). When the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28) carne, he showed that sin having come in, there was no longer any rest for Him who, as Creator (Col. 1.) had rested in Gen. 2 He must finish the work He was sent to do (Matt. 12:12; Luke 13:16). After the resurrection, the Sabbath gradually ceased to be observed by Christians as far as its legal enactments, which passed away with the Jewish religion they belonged to. In place of the Sabbath however, still carrying out the divine principle of one day in the seven being set apart from worldly affairs, the first (instead of the last) day of the week was observed as the Lord’s day, being the day on which Christ rose from the dead. On this day the disciples used to assemble to break bread (not on the first of the month or year), Acts 20:7. The Lord’s day, however, is not a day of rest in the sense the Sabbath was; on the contrary, it is often a day of hard toil’ but always in the Lord’s service. For the world at large, it is a merciful and wise provision, that God has led governments to enact the public observance of this day in a general way, as a day of rest. For although the injunction for this cannot be found in Scripture, the principle is clearly embodied in Gen. 2 and Mark 2:27, that the Sabbath was instituted for the benefit of man at large; and now, Judaism having passed away, the Lord’s day is observed instead.
Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(rest). Rest day, the seventh day of the week (Gen. 2:2-3). Under the Law given to Israel through Moses, it was to be kept as a day of rest (Ex. 16:23-30; 20:8-11; Lev. 19:3,30; 23:3; 25:4-9; Deut. 5:12-15). Day for consulting prophets (2 Kings 4:23). A day of teaching and joy (Neh. 8:1-12; Hos. 2:11). A whole week of time is implied (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). The first-day of the week, the resurrection day of Christ, is called “the Lord’s Day” (John 20:26; Acts 20:6-11; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
The first time the Sabbath is specifically mentioned in scripture is in Exodus 16:23, after the manna had been given from heaven; but the Sabbath clearly had its origin in the sanctification and blessing of the seventh day after the six days of creative work. And a hebdomadal division of days apparently existed up to the flood, since it is very distinctly mentioned in connection with Noah. We are also told in Mark 2:27 that the Sabbath was made for man. It was an institution which expressed God’s merciful consideration for man.
The words “rest” and “sabbath” in the passage in Exodus have no article, so that the sentence may be translated “Tomorrow is [a] rest, [a] holy Sabbath unto the Lord.” So in Exodus 16:25-26 there is no article: there is in Exodus 16:29. The Sabbath was soon after definitely enacted in the ten commandments (Ex. 20:8-11), and reference is there made to God having rested on the seventh day after the work of creation as the basis of the institution.
The Sabbath had a peculiar place in relation to Israel: thus in Leviticus 23, in the feasts of Jehovah, in the holy convocations, the Sabbath of Jehovah is first mentioned as showing the great intention of God. God had delivered Israel out of the slavery of Egypt, therefore God commanded them to keep the Sabbath (Deut. 5:15). The Sabbath was the sign of God’s covenant with them, and it may be that the Lord in repeatedly offending the Jews by (in their view) breaking the Sabbath by acts of mercy foreshadowed the approaching dissolution of the legal covenant (Ex. 31:13, 17; Ezek. 20:12,20). The Sabbath foreshadowed their being brought into the rest of God; but, because of the sin of those who started to go thither (who despised the promised land), God sware in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest (Psa. 95:11). God has purposed to bring His people into His rest, for whom there remains therefore the keeping of a Sabbath (Heb. 4:9).
The Sabbath was never given to the nations in the same way as to Israel, and amid all the sins enumerated against the Gentiles, we do not find Sabbath-breaking ever mentioned. Nevertheless, it appears to be a principle of God’s government of the earth that man and beast should have one day in seven as a respite from labor, all needing it physically.
The Christian’s Sabbath is designated the LORD’S DAY—and is as distinct in principle from the Jewish legal Sabbath as the opening, or first day of a new week is from the close of a past one. The Lord lay in death on the Jewish Sabbath: the Christian keeps the first day of the week, the resurrection day. See LORD’S DAY.
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Luke 14:1. He went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day.
The strictness with which the Jewish Sabbath was kept did not prevent the Pharisees, as well as other Jews, from having a better provision of food on that day than on ordinary days. They did this as a religious duty in honor of the day. Lightfoot gives several curious instances of this custom from the rabbins, of which this is one: “Rabba Bar Rabh Houna went to the house of Rabba Bar Rabh Nachman. He set before him three measures of rich cake; to whom he, How did you know of my coming? The other answered, ‘Is there anything more valuable to us than the Sabbath?’ The Gloss is: ‘We do by no means prefer thee before the Sabbath; we got these things ready in honor of the Sabbath, not knowing anything of thy coming’” (Horae Hebraicae).
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Narrator:
Chris Genthree
Duration:
1min