Planet Earth Needs A Rest

Our troubled world needs a rest – a rest from all its aches and pains, a rest from its sorrows and deaths, a rest from its hopelessness. It needs a new lease on the lives it plays host to from the beginning of creation.

Our societies have been in turmoil since the dawn of civilization. They have been suffering from what went down in the Garden of Eden – the fall of humanity. But until we, as a society, begin to recognize and accept that we have been cut off from the Divine, the Creator God, we can’t see a way out.

The atheists and agnostics will dismiss this reality of human existence and place their own humanistic spin on life, what it is, and what it ought to be – no afterlife, no eternal kingdom as promised by YAHWEH. Life would be a waste, if that was all there is to life.

Until that kingdom is established, God has given us a temporary period to rest, rejuvenate, and worship. The 24-hour period known as “the Sabbath of the LORD thy God,” not my Sabbath or your Sabbath, is a foreshadowing of the great Sabbath to come, pictured in Hebrews 4.  Unfortunately, some misled Christians take it to mean the millennial rest pictured in this chapter means we don’t have to observe the Sabbath now. What a tragedy! That reasoning absolutely makes no sense. Here’s why.

Jesus Christ established the Sabbath at creation, as He created it as commanded by the Father; when He came on earth, His custom was to worship on the Sabbath, His disciples and later the apostles observed them (annual and weekly Sabbaths), the apostolic church kept them, and when Christ returns He says ALL FLESH will come to worship Him on the Sabbath (Isa 66:22). That is a fact! Why then are Christians not observing the Sabbath today, and instead, chose another day not sanctified by God or the Bible?

Hebrews 4: 9 says, “there remains, therefore, a rest (Greek: Sabbatismos or keeping of the Sabbath) to the people of God.” Of course, your Bible may render the translation of Sabbatismos as rest; other versions correctly translate rest keeping of the Sabbath, which it ought to be. The word rest is used several times in that chapter, but a different Greek word is used in verse 9. Sabbatismos is used which means keeping of the Sabbath.

Yes, Hebrews 4 is telling us of the present-day Sabbath rest and the future millennial rest pictured by the Sabbath. But it’s also reminding us of the need to remember to keep the Sabbath now because it’s a reminder of the millennial rest to come. And, for sure, Isaiah 66:22 confirms this, “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. 23And 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. Got it?

Some important points to note. The verse is talking about the new heavens and the new earth, which means that time is coming when everyone (all) flesh shall bow before YAHWEH. To do what? Worship before me. Whether we like it or not, or ready to brand the Sabbath Jewish like all the Ten Commandments are not Jewish, find every excuse in the Bible through false interpretations to substitute Sunday worship for “My Sabbaths” or “appointed times,” the fact is YAHWEH is going to require us to keep the Sabbath, not Sunday, when he returns to set up a new heaven and a new earth.

Question. If the Sabbath is not done away with, neither the nine other commandments, as Hebrews 4 tells us clearly, WHY are Christians not observing the Sabbath rest NOW?

Sabbatarians recognize the importance of this weekly pause every Saturday from the troubles of this world to honour God on His appointed time. It’s a pause to get physical rest, rejuvenate us spiritually, and to honour/worship God. Certainly, we should worship God every day as the primitive church did, but note that the book of Acts recorded Sabbath services being held 85 times and not a single Sunday service (Acts 2 and Acts 20 were NOT Sunday services). One fact many Christians miss about the Sabbath is the reality that it is God’s “appointed time.”  He sanctified it, in other words, set it apart for Holy use. He never sanctified Sunday when He was on earth for forty days after His resurrection.  ONLY God can deem what is Holy.

Our troubled world needs a rest. The rest is coming when Jesus, the Christ, comes bursting through the clouds to establish His everlasting Kingdom. In the meantime, why not get your temporary rest that the Holy Sabbath provides? For more on this subject, download FREE our booklet Understanding the Sabbath Day.