By Dr. Rey V. Entila, Ph.D
The prophet Jeremiah wrote about the seriousness of making holy the Sabbath day for the Jews. If the Jews do work or business during the Sabbath, God will punish them severely even to the point of destroying the holy city Jerusalem.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote about the seriousness of making holy the Sabbath day for the Jews. If the Jews do work or business during the Sabbath, God will punish them severely even to the point of destroying the holy city Jerusalem.
"But
if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a
burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will
kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and
it shall not be quenched” (Jer. 17:27).
Based on
the proper content and context of the prophetic utterance above, it is one that
is addressed to the Jews only, and not an obligation for the future followers
of Christ. Sabbatarians should be alert in reading to the text, things which
are not there.
NEW COVENANT PREDICTED
The Prophet Jeremiah
predicted the New Testament relationship of God with His new people, not
anymore based on the whole Mosaic Covenant (including the Sabbath) which the
Israelites broke, but will put the Law in their hearts and minds. That will be
the New Testament Law of Christ poured forth by the Holy spirit into the hearts
of Christians (Cf. Rom.5:5).
31
"Behold, the days are coming,'' says the Lord, "when I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah 32 "not according to the covenant that
I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them
out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband
to them,'' says the Lord. 33 "But this is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel:
After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law in their minds, and write it
on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34
"No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his
brother, saying, `Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of
them to the greatest of them,'' says the Lord. "For I will forgive their
iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more'' (Jer.31:31-34).
The
Sabbath is not a sign for Christians and God, but a sign for God and Israel.
"Moreover
I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might
know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them (Ezek. 20:12; Cf.Ex.31:17).
There is
never a verse in the New Testament that Sabbath remains a sign for followers of
Christ and God.
The
post-exilic prophet Nehemiah who restored the true worship to the returning
remnant of Israel from
Babylonian captivity, rebuilt the ruins of the Jerusalem temple but admitted that the
Sabbath law as well as the Ten commandments came only during Moses’ time.
13 "You came down also on Mount Sinai, and
spoke with them from heaven, and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good
statutes and commandments. 14 You made known to them Your holy Sabbath, and
commanded them precepts, statutes and laws, by the hand of Moses Your servant (Neh.9:13-14).
It is therefore not true,
as Sabbatarians claim, that the Sabbath was commanded by God to be observed by
Adam and Eve and their descendants.
TOTALLY NO BUSINESS DURING SABBATH
The same prophet Nehemiah
commanded that there shall be no commerce and trade during the whole Sabbath.
The Jerusalem
gates shall be closed, and merchants from other places should not enter and
sell their produce. Anybody who transgresses the law shall be killed, whether
insider or outsider.
19 So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be dark before the
Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must not
be opened till after the Sabbath. Then I posted some of my servants at the
gates, so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 Now the
merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. 21. So I warned them, and said to them, "Why
do you spend the night around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on
you!'' From that time on they came no more on the Sabbath (Neh.13:19-21).
If the Sabbath observance continues today
for Christians, then, the whole no-trade policy during Sabbath and capital
punishment be enforced to all, including the Sabbatarians. But Christians know
that the Old Testament Sabbath law has been abolished. Endeavoring to restore
it is to restore the whole gamut of its punitive force.
PROPHETS PREDICTED SABBATH OBSERVANCE WILL CEASE
There are predictions by the Old Testament
prophets that the feast days of Israel
will cease in the future. The reason is that the Israelites continually fail to
follow its requirements.
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast
days, her New Moons, her Sabbaths all her appointed feasts (Hos.2:11).
Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an
abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies I
cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting (Isa.1:13).
The cessation of annual
feast days, monthly and weekly Sabbaths can only mean that ALL Sabbath observances
belong to the ceremonial law, not to the unchanging or immutable moral
law. in the Old Testament that God ever
commanded His people to cease from following moral laws concerning murder,
adultery, stealing and false witness. They are moral laws which show the
sinlessness of God. However, why did God ordain through the mouths of His
prophets that Sabbath observances shall cease? Simply because they are
non-immutable ceremonial laws. The New Testament letter of St. Paul to the Colossians clearly stated the
fulfillment of these predictions by the abrogation of the of the yearly, monthly, and weekly Sabbath
laws (Col.2:16; Eph.2:14-16). According
to Fernandez (2008), the Jewish Sabbath was prophesied to end because of the
Jewish abuses (Amos 8:5).
MEANING OF SABBATH IN NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH
Even though the Prophet
Isaiah wrote of the delightful Sabbath for God’s people, and even Sabbath in
the future when all peoples will worship Him, it is to be understood in the New
Testament fulfillment. They are never to be interpreted literally because in
the new heavens and new earth there will be no more sun and moon to give light
to God’s holy people, but God Himself will be their light (Rev.22:5).
If
you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy
day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and
shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor
speaking your own words (Isa. 58:13).
22
"For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain
before Me,'' says the Lord, "So shall your descendants and your name
remain. 23 And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and
from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,'' says
the Lord. 24 "And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men
who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire
is not quenched. they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh''(Isa. 66:22-24).
