“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

It may strike many people as strange that in the midst of the Ten Commandments, given by God to Israel on Mt Sinai, is the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath Day. All the other commandments we can easily see to be included in either to the first or the second great commandment of which the Lord Jesus spoke. But where do we place the Sabbath day and why is it singled out from all the other holy days in the Jewish calendar?

To find the answer, let’s go back to the beginning. The Sabbath was first spoken of in Genesis 2.

“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 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. 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)

God rested, not, of course, because He was tired, but because He had finished. So this day was “set apart” to signify that God had finished the creation. The man and woman did not create, only God did and only God could, yet the creation was for them, to be their home and dominion.

When the Ten Commandments were repeated in Deuteronomy, still another reason was given for the Sabbath law:

“Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:15)

Israel was set free from their slavery in Egypt by the power of God. Once again we see a finished work, accomplished by God Himself, from which, in this case, all Israel benefited.

When we come to the New Testament we read that the Sabbath is “a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” (Colossians 2:17) So the Sabbath is a picture or an illustration that speaks of Christ, but in what way?

We know that was cannot be reconciled to God by our good works or by any virtue that we might imagine that we possess. We have to cease from our works, our striving and our empty boasting and trust in what God has done and finished in Christ. We are reconciled to God and our sins are forgiven only through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is the saviour, and we can add nothing to His saving work. We are saved by grace, through faith in what He has done.

Here is the greatest finished work. God has done what we could not do. There is no other way we could be reconciled to God, no other way we could approach Him, or know Him, or worship Him. Only by “resting” – ceasing from our works – can we have any relationship with God, and only through trusting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Fourth Commandment, there in the midst of the Ten, preaches the gospel.

Thank God that for this glorious, holy and endless Sabbath Day!

(Photo courtesy of Sarah)