Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

Theme · creation

Sabbath and Rest

God rests on the seventh day — not from exhaustion but to set a pattern of sacred rhythm. The Sabbath commandment grounds Israel's weekly rest in creation's own structure. The Sabbath year and Jubilee extend the principle to the land and to economic life. The prophets condemn the abuse of Sabbath and promise its restoration. Jesus declares himself Lord of the Sabbath and heals on it, revealing that Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Hebrews interprets a final 'Sabbath rest' that awaits the people of God — the eternal rest toward which all earthly Sabbaths point.

Passages expressing this theme

  • Col 2:16 — Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
  • Col 2:17 — Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
  • Deut 5:12 — Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.
  • Exod 16:23 — And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that whi
  • Exod 20:8 — Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
  • Exod 20:10 — But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger tha
  • Exod 20:11 — For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
  • Exod 31:13 — Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sa
  • Exod 31:17 — It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
  • Gen 2:2 — And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
  • Gen 2:3 — And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
  • Heb 4:3 — For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
  • Heb 4:9 — There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
  • Heb 4:10 — For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
  • Heb 4:11 — Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
  • Isa 58:13 — If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, n
  • Jer 17:21 — Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
  • Lev 23:3 — Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
  • Lev 25:4 — But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
  • Matt 11:28 — Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
  • Matt 12:8 — For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.