Is Sunday rest a command from the Bible?
According to the Bible, are we supposed to rest on Sundays and are we then not allowed to, for example, mow the grass, build a chicken coop, or paint the house?
Many people say that God does indeed give us that command in the Bible. Let’s explore where we can find that command and why God would not allow us to work on Sundays.
Indeed, throughout the Bible it speaks of rest and of a specific day of rest. This day of rest is called the Sabbath. In what we often refer to as the 10 Commandments, we indeed encounter God’s command to have complete rest and not perform any work on this day of rest.
God says to the people of Israel:
Exodus 20:8-10
Exodus 20:8-10 (NAS)
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
For six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God.
On it you shall not do any work!
Well, that’s plain language! There is no way around that!
God clearly says that on the 7th day of the week we are not to do any work.
But the last day of the week, the Sabbath, is Saturday. So why do we keep a Sunday rest and not a Saturday rest?
This we owe to the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.
He instituted Sunday as a day of rest some three centuries after Christ because, according to him, at the time of the apostle Paul, the Christians met on Sunday.
This is indeed mentioned in Acts 20:7 for example, but nowhere is it mentioned that they had made that day a day of rest.
There are many different opinions about Sunday being a replacement for the Sabbath.
Jews still celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday and there are also Christians, such as the Seventh-day Adventists, who are keen to keep the Sabbath.
So it seems that we should keep our day of rest on a Saturday if we want to carry out God’s command correctly.
But what about the violation of the Sabbath rest by the disciples?
For….
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath.
His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him,
“Look, Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
Jesus replied, If only you had known the meaning of ‘ ,’
you would not have condemned the innocent.
(Matthew 12:1,2,7 (BSB))
So Jesus says that the disciples are not guilty of breaking the law of God. (‘…the innocent’)
And He explains to the Pharisees that they would not have accused the disciples either if they had understood what God meant by “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
So let’s find out what that statement of God means so that we can get answers to our question of whether we should keep a day of rest, either on Saturday or Sunday.
Jesus’ statement, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” is a quote from Hosea 6:6.
The explanation of the meaning of this quote can be found in the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 7:21-24 (NAS)
This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says:
I did not speak to your fathers, or command them
on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
But this is what I commanded them, saying,
‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people
and you shall walk entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may go well for you.’
Yet they did not obey or incline their ear,
but walked by their own advice and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts,
and they went backward and not forward.
They went backward, that is, back toward the bondage of Egypt from which God had just freed them.
If they had listened to the voice of God, they would have gone straight forward to the promised land, the land of milk and honey, where things would have gone well for them.
But, like many of us in the 21st century, they did not trust what God said and thought they knew better than God.
God is Spirit
We pray:
our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name.
…but have you ever really let what you are saying sink in?
God is our Father! He is your dad.
He loves you unconditionally, and He wants to raise you up in His kingdom so that you…
…become mature,
attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
(Ephesians 4 :13 (NIV))
God is Spirit, however, and He therefore speaks of spiritual things.
Everything He wants to teach us is therefore spiritual, invisible.
2 Corinthians 4:18 (BSB)
For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.
The things we cannot see, spiritual things, are eternal. It is therefore important that we learn to understand these things. Because, however, they are things we cannot see, God uses the things we can see to make it clear to us.
So God uses visible things to show us the invisible.
He uses natural things to teach us the spiritual.
This is true of everything in the Bible, including the law and the sacrifices that had to be offered.
God never desired to receive sacrifices from us (Hosea 6:6) and, therefore, He never spoke to the Israelites or commanded them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices on the day He brought them out of the land of Egypt.
But, as a loving Father, God wants to teach His children spiritual, invisible things, so that we will grow up to become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
That is the promised land! That is the land that overflows with milk and honey: the fullness of Christ.
Throughout the Bible you can read about natural events and objects that give us insight into spiritual, invisible things.
In the same way, God instituted the law to teach us spiritual lessons.
Romans 7:14 (ESV)
For we know that the law is spiritual!
But then what is the spiritual meaning of the law?
We’re exploring the day of rest called the Sabbath in the Bible.
This day of rest is instituted by God in what we often call the 10 commandments.
However, nowhere in the Bible is this called 10 commandments, but 10 words (e.g. Exodus 34:28).
Therefore, these 10 words are not placed in the ark of commandment, but in the ark of testimony (e.g. Exodus 40:3), the ark of the covenant of the Lord (e.g. Numbers 10:33).
These 10 words testify of the new covenant that the Lord would establish with us.
They testify to the covenant established by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We usually read the 10 words as a commandment: you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery. But the words testify to the new life we may have in Christ.
When you find your identity in Christ, you will not kill, you will not steal, and you will no longer commit adultery.
Everything in the Old Testament, all the events and all the objects, point to Jesus Christ!
Jesus explained this to the men on the road to Emmaus:
Luke 24:27 (NAS)
Beginning with Moses and with all the Prophets,
He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures.
Also to the disciples He says:
Luke 24:44 (NAS)
These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that all the things that are written about Me
in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
The Law of Moses, called the Torah by the Jews, are the first 5 books of the Old Testament.
Together with the Prophets and the Psalms, they are the entire old testament.
The entire old testament therefore points to Jesus Christ. So do the ten words in which the Sabbath is also mentioned. The Sabbath, the day of total rest points us to Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2:16-17 (NIV)
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink,
or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
The work is finished!
The Sabbath is a shadow image of Christ.
It has a spiritual meaning that shows us a part of what the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ mean to us.
That is why Jesus said right before He died:
John 19:30 (NAS)
It is finished!
The work of God is finished and we may rest in it.
We do not have to toil anymore (Gen. 3:17). God has done everything for us.
Isaiah 26:12 (ESV)
O LORD, you will ordain peace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
The Sabbath, the sacrifices, and also the journey to the Promised Land
are therefore things we must not perform so much in the natural,
but we must learn to understand and believe their spiritual significance
so that they can become a reality within us.
God has done all the work for us through Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the lamb who was slain for us and He has set us free from the bondage of sin.
We see this image reflected in the exodus from Egypt.
The Israelites slaughtered a lamb and then God lead them out of Egypt to bring them into the promised land.
When He did that, He never spoke to them or commanded them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
He only wanted them to listen to Him and rely on Him.
And what were they to listen to and rely on?
Joshua 1:12 (NAS)
The LORD your God is giving you rest, and will give you this land.
Hebrews 3:17-19 (NKJV)
Now with whom was He angry forty years?
Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest,
but to those who did not obey?
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
So their sin and their disobedience was their unbelief. They did not listen to what God said because they did not fully believe Him. Therefore, they could not enter the rest and the promised land because of their unbelief.
Hebrews 4:1-3 (NKJV)
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest,
let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them
but the word which they heard did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:
“So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ”
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
From the foundation of the world, the works of God have been finished.
Jesus therefore says “it is finished!
And He is, after all, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8)!
Hebrews 4:6-11 (NKJV)
Since therefore it remains that some enter this rest,
and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, (unbelieve!)
again He designates a certain day; Today!
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest,
lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. (unbelieve!)
Joshua 1:12 (NAS)
The LORD your God is giving you rest, and will give you this land!
Believe that, rely on that, and follow Jesus Christ.
He will defeat all the enemies in that land for you.
While it is probably good to have complete rest one day a week, it is not something we should do every Saturday or Sunday.
Sabbath rest is not a law, but a promise!
It is the promise of the rest we enter when we put our trust in God and listen to what He says.
When you believe that He has done all the work for you, you no longer have to toil but you can rest in the finished work of God.
Colossians 2:16-17 (NIV)
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink,
or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ!
