Key Thought: Hebrews describes a rest that belongs to God and also is a Sabbath rest. True Sabbath rest offers us a foretaste of the future God has promised.
January 29, 2022

1. Have a volunteer read Exodus 20:8-11.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What two things does the Sabbath rest commemorate, and how are they related?
3. Personal Application: How should keeping the Sabbath help us understand our complete dependence upon God, not only for existence but also for salvation? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “What’s the difference between entering into Sabbath rest and a legalistic keeping of the Sabbath? Is one based on rules and the other with no rules or guidelines? Is it the reasons for keeping the Sabbath and the frame of mind?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Hebrews 3:12-19.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Why was Israel unable to enter into the promised rest?
3. Personal Application: In what ways can you help build the faith of fellow believers? How can you make sure that you never say or do anything that could weaken another’s faith? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Since the rest that the Israelites didn’t enter into was faith in Christ, doesn’t that supercede keeping the weekly Sabbath, since Jesus is our rest?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Hebrews 4:1,3,5,10..

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. How does God characterize the rest He invites us to enter?
3. Personal Application: How can we enter into His rest even now? How can we rest in the assurance of salvation we have in Christ, and not in ourselves? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “If entering into God’s rest is not related to Sabbath-keeping, then how are we to rest? How are we to stop working to rest in Christ? Resting in Jesus without any reference to the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments seems like antinomialism.” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Hebrews 4:8-11.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How is resting on the Sabbath an expression of salvation by grace?
3. Personal Application: What is the relationship between Sabbath observance and justification by faith? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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Compare Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15, and Hebrews 4:8-11. What differences do you find regarding the meaning of the Sabbath rest?

As we have already seen, these texts in Exodus and Deuteronomy invite us to look to the past. They exhort us to rest on Sabbath in order to celebrate God’s accomplishments at Creation and at Redemption. Hebrews 4:9-11, however, invites us to look to the future. It tells us that God has prepared a Sabbath rest that is in the future. It suggests a new dimension for Sabbath keeping. Sabbath rest memorializes not only God’s victories in the past, but also celebrates God’s promises for the future.

Image © Pacific Press from GoodSalt.com

The future dimension of Sabbath observance has always been there, but it has often been neglected. After the fall, it came to imply the promise that God would one day restore creation to its original glory through the Messiah. God commanded us to celebrate His acts of redemption through Sabbath observance because Sabbath pointed forward to the culmination of redemption in a new creation. Sabbath observance is an anticipation of heaven in this imperfect world.

This has always been clear in Jewish tradition. Life of Adam and Eve, a work composed between 100 B.C. and A.D. 200 (in James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha [New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1985], vol. 2, p. 18}, said: “The seventh day is a sign of the resurrection, the rest of the coming age.” Another ancient Jewish source said: The coming age is “the day which is wholly Sabbath rest for eternity.” — Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah, a New Translation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), p. 873. The Othiot of Rabbi Akiba, a later source, said: “Israel said before the Holy One, Blessed Be He, ‘Master of the World, if we observe the commandments, what reward will we have?’ He said to them: ‘The world-to-come.’ They said to Him: ‘Show us its likeness.’ He showed them the Sabbath.” — Theodore Friedman, “The Sabbath Anticipation of Redemption,” Judaism: A Quarterly Journal, vol. 16, pages 443, 444.

Sabbath is for celebration, for joy and thanksgiving. When we keep the Sabbath, we indicate that we believe God’s promises, that we accept His gift of grace. Sabbath is faith alive and vibrant. As far as actions go, Sabbath observance is probably the fullest expression of our conviction that we are saved by grace through faith in Him.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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