And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2: 27, 28, NKJV).
Lord of the Sabbath and of my life, I pray that You will keep me living in the light of Your glory. May I allow You to lead me as You choose and not as I wish to go. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Hebrew shabbath signifies rest. Yesterday we spoke about another kind of sabbath. Today we will be talking about God’s gift to the newlyweds in the Garden of Eden. The first weekend in the new earth God spent the Sabbath day resting and fellowshipping with His friends. How wonderful that must have been!
Unfortunately, many would take the fellowship, and if you allow them, the rest as well, out of the Sabbath. “Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath” (23, 24). Jesus had to remind them of the spirit of the law and the correct observance of His day!
Scripture informs us, “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).
Let us take a few minutes to review what God did on the first Sabbath day that has made it so special, and why He should declare Himself “Lord . . . of the Sabbath”
The first thing He did was to give the finishing touch to His work of creation by adding the Sabbath (day seven). Now He was ready to celebrate with His crowning work of creation all the “very good” work that He had “created and made.”
Next, God rested. I believe it is common knowledge that it was not because God was tired that He rested. “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). Therefore, His resting must have been for another reason. Perhaps to give His undivided attention to His friends in a state of complete relaxation.
Then God blessed the seventh day. The blessing that God gave the Sabbath has never been removed. What God blesses is blessed indeed! It is no wonder that no other day of the week has that feeling of joy and peacefulness that we enjoy on the Sabbath day!
Finally, God sanctified the day. He set it apart for a special purpose, a holy purpose. He also left us His example for the celebration of His day. His Word informs us, “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read” (Luke 4: 16. Emphasis provided.). Even after four thousand years God the Son still found joy in His custom of fellowshipping on the Sabbath with other believers. He still does.
What a pity that others did not feel the same way. That did not keep the Savior from doing what He was accustomed of doing. Neither should it keep us from doing the same.