The Sabbath

Greg · #1 (**permalink**) 12-31-2007, 09:42 AM

I was listening to a lecture on the Law of God and the speaker made mention about the Sabbath (the Lord's Day) changing from Saturday to Sunday. He had said that there were allusions to this in the Old Testament...also mentioning something about two Sabbaths?

This is the first time that I've heard about there being prophetical mention being made in the Old Testament about the changing of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Does someone know the verses he was speaking of? How the OT foreshadows this change? Thanks.

AV1611 · #2 (**permalink**) 12-31-2007, 10:41 AM

I know that Jonathan Edwards saw it being prophesied writing the folloing in The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath:

Sixth, it is foretold that this command should be observed in gospel-times, as in Isa. 56 at the beginning, where the due observance of the Sabbath is spoken of as a great part of holiness of life, and is placed among moral duties. It is also mentioned as a duty that should be most acceptable to God from his people, even where the prophet is speaking of gospel-times, as in the foregoing chapter, and in the first verse of this chapter. And, in the third and fourth verses, the prophet is speaking of the abolition of the ceremonial law in gospel-times, and particularly of that law, which forbids eunuchs to come into the congregation of the Lord. Yet, here the man is pronounced blessed, who keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, verse 2. And even in the very sentence where the eunuchs are spoken of as being free from the ceremonial law, they are spoken of as being yet under obligation to keep the Sabbath, and actually keeping it, as that which God lays great weight upon: “For thus saith the Lord, unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house, and within my walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.”

Besides, the strangers spoken of in the sixth and seventh verses, are the Gentiles, that should be called in the times of the gospel, as is evident by the last clause in the seventh, and by the eighth verse: “For mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. The Lord God, which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith, Yet will I gather others to him, besides those that are gathered unto him.” Yet it is represented here as their duty to keep the Sabbath: “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.”

greenbaggins · #3 (**permalink**) 12-31-2007, 10:45 AM

I have an article here proving that the typological trajectory of Exodus and Deuteronomy is fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ with regard to the Sabbath.

Greg · #4 (**permalink**) 12-31-2007, 11:26 AM

Thank you Richard and Rev. Keister.

Poimen · #5 (**permalink**) 12-31-2007, 11:52 AM

You might consider Psalm 118:22-24 in conjunction with Acts 4:9-12.

Contra_Mundum · #6 (**permalink**) 12-31-2007, 01:08 PM

Perhaps the first "intimation" of an initial "change" comes no later than the time of the fall. Man's first full "day" following his creation is the Lord's and the world's seventh, but again, man's first. He, in a sense, tries to be "as God" and rather than beginning his life with rest, sustenance, and worship, instead ignores this requirement. Which pattern is then laid upon him largely (in curse form) as he shall, indeed work in struggle until he "rests", not in life but in death. An "undoing" of this pattern would fit with the idea of return to Eden.

The second intimation comes from the two Law-givings. In Exodus 20, the Sabbath is commemorated as a creation ordinance. In Deuteronomy 5, Sabbath is commemorated as a redemption ordinance. So, it should come as no surprise that the Great Redemption comes with an even more noticeable shift in commemoration.

Then there is the occasional "8th Day Sabbath" (which was actually a 48-hour Sabbath). And the Year of Jubilee (a kind of 8th-day Sabbath, since it "doubled" the Rest of the regular 7-year Sabbath cycle, the 7th time around). The children of Israel were supposed to BEGIN their years in the land after conquest with REST, an initiatory Jubilee (Lev. 25:1; cf. Dt.6:11; Josh 24:13).

These, to me, are some early indicators that God might have a change in mind. But I think they are hints, rather than explicit predictions of a shift. The making of the change is a pure NT ordinance, it is part of Christ's regal prerogative (compare to the arrogant "little horn" of Daniel 7:25).