The climax of Creation is rest / The crux of the Cross is rest / The coming of Christ is rest.
Rest— a physical metaphor for a spiritual truth.
We are created dependent creatures in need of rest.
In the beginning—before the world was marred by sin, pain, and death—God walked with man in the garden. Adam and Eve knew His voice and heard His Word, the Logos. There in the garden, He taught them the patterns of the universe: days and nights, months and years, all marked by celestial bodies in their orbits. As long as the sun ruled the day and the moon governed the night, these patterns would endure.
Yet God established more for humanity than mere physical rhythms. He set in motion—like a drop in water that ripples through time—a sacred pattern of spiritual communion: a chance to walk with Him again. Consider the week: it has no sun to herald its coming, no moon for a benediction. So where did it come from? And why do we need it?
WHO GAVE THE WEEK ITS DEFINITION?
GOD.
In six days, God created the world. He filled it, furnished it, formed it. And on the seventh, He rested. He declared that day holy and set apart. A gift.
Yet the Sabbath is more than rest:
A reminder of redemption from Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:14-15)
A sign of sanctification by God (Ezekiel 20:12)
A symbol of salvation from sin (Hebrews 4:9-11)
A foretaste of ultimate bodily redemption (Revelation 21)
The Sabbath points us to Jesus, who is greater than the Sabbath itself. It is He who offers not only physical rest, but spiritual and eternal rest as well.
Languages have ceased. Kingdoms have fallen. And still, the seven-day week remains. And with it, a Sabbath—a sacred invitation for God to walk once more with us in the garden. And with is a chance to pause and look ahead to the new creation, where once again, we will walk with Him in a world remade.
So in an age and place that encourages more of this and less of that, be encouraged that only one thing is needed: Jesus. If he invites you to slow down, slow down. If he is walking with you on a crowded path in a busy place, keep walking. He is your rest— “find rest, O my soul, in God alone.”
There was, and is, and will be a Sabbath rest for the people of God—through Jesus, our Better Sabbath.
Please note:
I am not advocating for Gentiles to keep Moses’s law. St. Paul is explicit in his speech in Acts 15 that Torah observance is not required for non-Jews.
That being said, the Lord God created the Hebrew calendar. He created the sun and the moon to keep that calendar on track. And on that calendar, He created and organized different dinners and offerings. Why? Why did He do that? The answer is to point to Jesus and foreshadow His plan of redemption and renewal.
And if the reason for the Sabbath and the feasts and the festivals is Jesus, then there is freedom— freedom to study them as an academic endeavor and freedom to study them through experience.
The important takeaway is that the thoughtful study and practice of the Bible should take us deeper into the Person and work of Jesus.
I want my life to be a life of intimacy with the Lord the whole year through, whether that’s in experiencing the Sabbath day or not.