How to Keep the Sabbath

Longtime Tomorrow’s World readers—and even most new ones—are aware that we are passionate about keeping the Ten Commandments, including the Fourth Commandment that tells us to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Jesus Christ kept the seventh-day Sabbath. His first-century followers, Jew and Gentile, all kept it, and throughout history a continuous line of faithful Christians has kept it as well—just as God commands.

But exactly how should you keep the seventh-day Sabbath?

As always, the answers we need are waiting for us in the divine word of God. His answer to the question of how to keep the Sabbath is made plain throughout Scripture, as many key biblical passages show.

The Sabbath Was Made for Man—Not Just the Jews

First, we ought to highlight two mistakes to avoid—and the first one we’ll address is the belief that we should look to Hebrew or Jewish practices to understand how to keep the Sabbath.

This is a mistake for several reasons. First, over the centuries, Judaism has added many additional man-made regulations, restrictions, and conditions that God never intended to be part of keeping the Sabbath. In fact, throughout Jesus Christ’s ministry, He challenged the Jewish leadership about how they had made God’s Sabbath a burden. For instance, we find that “it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to Him, ‘Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’” (Mark 2:23–24).

Search the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, and you will find no passage at all in which God says you cannot feed yourself by plucking a few heads of grain on the Sabbath day. You’ll find instructions not to use busy times of the year, such as plowing and harvesting times, as an excuse not to keep the Sabbath (Exodus 34:21)—but no one would rightly call what Jesus’ Apostles were doing “harvesting.” They were violating the overly strict, unbiblical regulations of Judaism, but they were not guilty of breaking the Fourth Commandment! If they were, then Jesus was, too—yet we know that He never broke even one of God’s commands!

God Created the Sabbath as a Blessing—Not a Burden

After highlighting how the High Priest in King David’s day had done a better job of administering God’s law according to its intent, Jesus stated that “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27–28).

Christ pointed out that God created the Sabbath to benefit man, not the other way around—and that the unbiblical requirements that the Jewish authorities had added to the Sabbath command were making it a burden God never intended it to be.

Such examples of Jesus correcting the supposed experts about proper Sabbath-keeping abound in the gospels. The scribes, Pharisees, and priests may have been experts in Judaism, but they were not experts in keeping God’s laws as He intended. And that is still true today.

The Apostle Paul described his fellow Jews as having “a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2) It is God’s Spirit, working through the ministry of His Church, the Body of Christ, that brings truth and understanding of the Scriptures—not an obsession with any one historical language, culture, or people (John 16:13; Ephesians 4:11–16).

Keeping the Sabbath does not mean adopting practices rooted in Judaism or the teachings of various so-called “Hebrew roots” movements. God’s commands are often far simpler than people give them credit for. To keep the Sabbath, no one needs to adopt Judaism or any of the many movements that seek to imitate it in varying degrees.

Saturday Is the Sabbath Day—Set It Apart!

Another trap we need to recognize is the mistake of treating the Sabbath as if it were a generic principle of “one day in seven” and not the specifically designated seventh day of the week—the only day of the week God set aside as His Sabbath.

We saw earlier that Jesus said the Sabbath was “made” (Mark 2:27–28). This points to a profound truth about the Sabbath: It was directly created by God. When we read about that creation in Genesis 2, we see that the Sabbath was unique—something God established by not working: “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:1–3).

Here, we see that God specifically set apart the seventh day—not just any day of the week. We see this reflected in the Fourth Commandment itself: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:8–10).

Notice how plain it is that God, who alone can designate holy time, set apart the seventh day of the week, specifically, as the Sabbath. To observe any other day of the week is simply not Sabbath-keeping. Resting? Sure. Taking some “me time”? Perhaps. But not keeping the Sabbath.

In fact, this truth—that only the seventh day of the week has been set apart by God as His Sabbath—is recognized by major denominations throughout the world. For example, Roman Catholic leader James Cardinal Gibbons wrote in The Faith of Our Fathers that “you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify” (1904, p. 86). You can find similar admissions from several denominations in our study guide Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?, which you can receive free of charge by requesting it from the Regional Office nearest you, listed on page 4 of this magazine, or by visiting us online at TomorrowsWorld.org.

The Sabbath Rest Means WE Stop Work

Now that we have cleared up those misunderstandings, we can look at several keys to keeping God’s Sabbath. Let’s start by reviewing the Sabbath command in full:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it (Exodus 20:8–11).

First, let’s notice that we should cease from our work on the Sabbath. We saw earlier that God Himself did this at creation: “On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work” (Genesis 2:2). Likewise, God commands us to cease from our own work on the seventh day. In today’s busy world, it’s all too easy to find ourselves working seven days a week—but God commands us to pause and cease from our labors when the seventh day begins.

When Does the Sabbath Begin? At Sunset on Friday

And when does that day begin? As Genesis 1 and other passages of the Bible reveal, God counts days from sunset to sunset. So, the seventh-day Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday and continues until sundown on Saturday. When sundown arrives on Friday, God commands that we set aside our labor, cease from our regular pursuits, and take a rest—just as He did 6,000 years ago.

Of course, God doesn’t grow tired. He didn’t need to rest on the seventh day, and He certainly didn’t think, Wow, those six days of creating were really hard—I need a break! Rather, He rested on that day as an example for us to follow.

Some might protest, “My job has times that are just too busy to take a break!” If you think this applies to you, I do get it! I used to be an actuarial mathematician for a large insurance company, and our department had its own seasons in the year when work was especially intense, often involving important legal reporting. But are we to abandon the Sabbath rest during those busy seasons? What does God say?

God’s Work Week: “Six Days Shall You Labor”

Consider Exodus 34:21, which we mentioned earlier—and remember that ancient Israel was an agricultural society. “Six days you shall work,” we read, “but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.” For the ancient Israelites, plowing time and harvest time were just about the busiest times of the year! Yet God told them not to make an exception on those days. They were to honor His command and rest from labor on the seventh day of the week.

Now, “work” doesn’t just mean “employment.” After all, many people who get Saturdays “off” spend them mowing the lawn, maintaining the house, or doing other laborious chores. But the commandment is plain: on “the seventh day… you shall do no work”—neither you, nor those over whom you have authority (Exodus 20:10). Come sundown Friday evening, God commands us to focus on different things.

Use the Preparation Day to Protect the Sabbath

Part of treating the Sabbath as God intended involves properly preparing for it—a principle that God taught the ancient Israelites after freeing them from Egypt. Many people have heard of the miraculous “manna from Heaven,” but few realize that the miracle tested God’s people to see if they would take the Sabbath command seriously.

I recommend that you read the entire account in Exodus 16, but for now we will simply observe that, for the first five days of the week, God rained down enough manna for that day, every day. But on the sixth day He rained down two days’ worth, so the Israelites could prepare enough for that day and for the Sabbath day that followed. Then, on the Sabbath, they were not to go out looking for more—since God had given them enough for two days the day before.

Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.” Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?” (Exodus 16:25–28).

God had warned them to prepare properly for the seventh day during the time leading up to it—and that’s what we should do. He wants us, by preparing for it, to protect the blessing His Sabbath represents—taking care of household chores and other mundane work on the other six days of the week, thus preserving the seventh day for the divine rest He intended.

Yet the Sabbath is about far more than mere relaxation. As key as physical rest may be, the real power and blessing of the Sabbath is unlocked as we engage with the keys that remain.

Remember the Sabbath Day and Keep the Sabbath Holy—Exodus 20:8

Far more than a mere day of rest, the Sabbath is a holy day, set apart by God. In fact, we read this in the Fourth Commandment even before we are told to rest: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). There it is, right at the beginning!

Remember what God did upon His creation of the Sabbath day: “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:1–3).

Notice that He did not only rest on the seventh day. He blessed it and sanctified it—made it holy. Those who attempt to assert that the sacredness of the Sabbath began at Mt. Sinai or that the Sabbath is only for Jewish people have no leg to stand on. Scripture is clear that the Sabbath was made holy from creation.

As a day sanctified and set apart from the other days of the week as holy time, we should not spend the seventh-day Sabbath in the same way we spend those other days. After all, most of us certainly rest or “recharge” on other days of the week in all sorts of ways—we might go to the movies, watch some sports, play a little golf, go to a concert, or read a few chapters in an engaging novel. But the Sabbath isn’t just a day off, and it is far more than some restful vacation time. It is holy, sacred time, set apart by God for special purposes.

It’s One of the Holy Days in the Bible

Through the inspired words of the prophet Isaiah, God makes it plain that He is speaking to all people—not just the Jewish people—when He says, “Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil” (Isaiah 56:2). We can clearly see that God proclaims a blessing upon those who do not treat as common something He has declared holy—His Sabbath. And He elaborates further:

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth (Isaiah 58:13–14).

What do these words mean? Certainly, the Sabbath is a day on which we should seek to spend more time than we normally do in prayer and in studying God’s word. But is there more to it than that?

In the free study guide I mentioned earlier, Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?, Dr. Roderick C. Meredith—who served Jesus Christ as an evangelist for more than 60 years—explains what God means by these passages in Isaiah:

We are not to be doing our own pleasure on God’s Holy Day. That means we are not to be pursuing our hobbies or leisure activities. That does not preclude doing any enjoyable things on the Sabbath whatsoever, for we are to find delight in it. The point is that whatever we do, God must be an intrinsic part of it. A family walk through a natural setting, for example, is a wonderful way to get in touch with the great God who made the beautiful creation we see.

When the seventh day arrives, we must stop pursuing our “own ways” (the things we normally do), seeking our “own pleasure” (just trying to have fun), and speaking our “own words” (the everyday things we talk about that do not involve God). This last one is often very hard to follow because “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). To truly keep the Sabbath in spirit, we must focus our minds on God and those things He wants us to be concerned with during His holy time. Then, as God promises, we will be truly blessed (pp. 38–39).

Learning to honor God’s command by resting from our usual day-to-day lives—treating the seventh—day Sabbath as the holy time it is—is nothing less than life-changing.

The Sabbath Is a Holy Convocation

There is one more key that many fail to understand. Yes, we should cease from our work, giving ourselves room to do so by planning and preparing for the Sabbath, and we should keep the Sabbath holy by treating it as the holy time God created it to be. These are essential first steps, but many sincere people stop there and unknowingly prevent themselves from experiencing the full blessings of the seventh-day Sabbath as God designed it. To receive those blessings, we need a third vital key: meeting in holy convocation on the Sabbath.

We see this explained in the opening verses of Leviticus 23: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts”’” (vv. 1–2). Notice that He doesn’t call these days “the Feasts of the Jews” or even “the Feasts of Israel.” He says that these are His Feasts, “the Feasts of the Lord”!

The Meaning of a Holy Convocation

In addition, he calls them “holy convocations.” He says, “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings” (Leviticus 23:3). God points to the holiness of the Sabbath and the need to treat it as a sacred rest—but, furthermore, He explains that it is a “holy convocation.” What does that mean?

We have already explained what it means to be “holy”—to be set apart by God for His own use. And a “convocation” is a calling together of people out of the world to a meeting. God is describing a holy meeting of holy people, commanded by their holy God!

The seventh-day Sabbath is the day of the week that God Himself set aside for His worshippers to gather together—to praise Him together, worship Him together, and learn together from His ordained teachers expounding on His inspired word. So, when we meet and fellowship with each other—not on a day set aside by human tradition or doctrines, but on the day the Lord Himself set apart as holy—we do more than fellowship with each other: We fellowship with God the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

God’s People Gather Together on the Sabbath to Worship

It’s no wonder that Paul wrote these words to his Hebrew brethren: “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24–25). As Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath? explains in detail, the seventh-day Sabbath pictures the beautiful rest Christ will soon bring to the whole world. That rest is fast approaching, which should lead us to long all the more to meet in holy convocation on the day picturing that time of peace and fellowship with God.

For anyone seeking to truly observe the biblical Sabbath, just as Jesus Christ and His faithful followers have done for almost two millennia, these keys are the essential ingredients: cease from your own work, keep the day holy, and gather together in holy convocation with the people of God.

The Living Church of God, sponsor of the Tomorrow’s World magazine, has Sabbath-keeping congregations all over the world, as well as ministers who are ready to talk with you if you believe Sabbath-keeping is something you should pursue to walk more closely with God the Father and Jesus Christ. If you would like to speak with one of those ministers, you can contact us right here at TomorrowsWorld.org. In fact, we urge you to do so—because properly keeping God’s seventh-day Sabbath will open your eyes to a closer and more intimate walk with your Creator than you ever thought possible.