Violation of these Sabbaths consisted of working instead of 
resting.  Again, the emphasis is on cessation of labor, not the 
seventh day.

      


  
 
    
 
      
THE PENALTY FOR VIOLATING THE SABBATH
The penalty for violating the Sabbath was death.

	(Ex. 31:12-14 NKJV)  And the LORD spoke to 
	Moses, saying, {13} "Speak also to the children of 
	Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, 
	for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your 
	generations, that you may know that I am the 
	LORD who sanctifies you. {14} 'You shall keep 
	the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. 
	Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to 
	death; for whoever does any work on it, that 
	person shall be cut off from among his people."
	
The penalty for violating the Sabbath was judgment.

	(Jer 17:27 NKJV)  "But if you will not heed Me to 
	hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a 
	burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the 
	Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, 
	and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and 
	it shall not be quenched."'"
	
The penalty for violation of the Sabbath reveals its importance.  
Those who violated the Sabbath were put to death and when the 
nation violated the seventh year Sabbath, they were sent into 
Babylonian captivity. (See Daniel 9:2; 2 Chr. 36:21.)  The 
captivity lasted for 70 years; one year for every seventh year 
Sabbath that they failed to keep. 
 

  
 
    
 
      
HAS THE SABBATH BEEN DONE AWAY WITH?
No where in the NT does Jesus or any of the other writers say 
that the Sabbath has been done away with.  Before we draw any 
wrong conclusions, let’s see what Paul has to say concerning the 
Sabbaths.

	
(Gal 4:9-11 NKJV)  But now after you have 
	known God, or rather are known by God, how is it 
	that you turn again to the weak and beggarly 
	elements, to which you desire again to be in 
	bondage? {10} You observe days and months and 
	seasons and years. {11} I am afraid for you, lest I 
	have labored for you in vain."

(Gal 5:1 NKJV)  Stand fast therefore in the liberty 
	by which Christ has made us free, and do not be 
	entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
	
(Col 2:16-17 NKJV)  So let no one judge you in 
	food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new 
	moon or Sabbaths, {17} which are a shadow of 
	things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

The Colossians passage is a summary of Paul’s view of the 
Sabbath, i.e., it was a shadow of things to come.  A shadow 
(Gk., skia) is an image cast by an object and representing the 
form of that object.  The shadow is not the reality, but testifies of 
the reality.  To say that the Sabbath is in itself the end of the 
revelation is to miss the reality that it is designed to point us to.  
We must look from the shadow if we are to find the substance 
and that substance, according to Paul, is to be found in Christ.  
When stated in the simplest terms the Sabbath was not done 
away with, but fulfilled or made real by Christ Jesus.

WHAT WE KNOW!
We know that the Sabbaths did not focus on a day, but on 
	cessation from labor and on rest.
	We know that the Sabbaths were not an option, but 
	mandatory.
	We know that the penalty for violating the Sabbath was 
	death or destruction of national authority and bondage.
FULFILLED IN CHRIST!
(Heb 3:7-19 NKJV)  Therefore, as the Holy Spirit 
	says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, {8} Do 
	not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day 
	of trial in the wilderness, {9} Where your fathers 
	tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty 
	years. {10} Therefore I was angry with that 
	generation, And said, 'They always go astray in 
	their heart, And they have not known My ways.' 
	{11} So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter 
	My rest.'" {12} Beware, brethren, lest there be in 
	any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing 
	from the living God; {13} but exhort one another 
	daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be 
	hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. {14} For 
	we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the 
	beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 
	{15} while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His 
	voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the 
	rebellion." {16} For who, having heard, rebelled? 
	Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led 
	by Moses? {17} Now with whom was He angry 
	forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, 
	whose corpses fell in the wilderness? {18} And to 
	whom did He swear that they would not enter His 
	rest, but to those who did not obey? {19} So we 
	see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."
(Heb 4:1-11 NKJV)  Therefore, since a promise 
	remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of 
	you seem to have come short of it. {2} For indeed 
	the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; 
	but the word which they heard did not profit them, 
	not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 
	{3} For we who have believed do enter that rest, as 
	He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall 
	not enter My rest,' " although the works were 
	finished from the foundation of the world. {4} For 
	He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day 
	in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day 
	from all His works"; {5} and again in this place: 
	"They shall not enter My rest." {6} Since therefore 
	it remains that some must enter it, and those to 
	whom it was first preached did not enter because of 
	disobedience, {7} again He designates a certain 
	day, saying in David, "Today," after such a long 
	time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear 
	His voice, Do not harden your hearts." {8} For if 
	Joshua had given them rest, then He would not 
	afterward have spoken of another day. {9} There 
	remains therefore a rest (Gk., sabbatismos) for the 
	people of God. {10} For he who has entered His 
	rest has himself also ceased from his works as God 
	did from His. {11} Let us therefore be diligent to 
	enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the 
	same example of disobedience."
The letter to the Hebrews addresses those who are on the verge 
of abandoning Christ for the works of the Old Testament, i.e., 
circumcision and keeping the law.  Under OT Law men worked 
toward rest, but through unbelief failed to experience it.  In the 
NT, the "faither" enters into rest apart from works of the Law.  
The rest foreshadowed by the Sabbath is entered into by faith, 
not by works or by striving. 
(Heb 4:3 NKJV)  For we who have believed do 
	enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My 
	wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest,' " although the 
	works were finished from the foundation of the 
	world."
That this is a faith issue is further seen in Hebrews 4:1-2 -
"Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us 
fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.  For indeed 
the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word 
which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with 
faith in those who heard it." (Heb 4:1 NKJV)
In Hebrews 4:5, we understand that the rest God has called us to 
enter is His rest.  It is not the rest of fatigue, but of repose that 
comes with the completion of a task.
(Gen 2:1-3 NKJV)  Thus the heavens and the earth, 
	and all the host of them, were finished. {2} 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. {3} Then God 
	blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in 
	it He rested from all His work which God had 
	created and made."
The evidence of entrance into God’s provided rest is cessation 
from labor (Heb. 4:4,10).  The rest that David proclaimed (Heb. 
4:7-8), is to be found in Christ Jesus.  The NT believer ceases 
from his strivings and law works, and by faith rests in the 
finished work of Christ.  Unbelief that says “Christ finished 
work isn’t enough” is the reason rest is not a reality in our life.
When we move from the rest of faith to the works of the Law, 
we also move from grace and come under the sentence of death 
proclaimed by the Law.
Here is where the man in Numbers 15 becomes our teacher.  His 
violation of the Sabbath may seem trivial to us, but it was an act 
worthy of death.  If desecrating the shadow brought death, then 
what does violation of the substance incur?  God’s message to 
us is faith in the finished work of Christ plus nothing equals 
salvation.  Eliza H. Hamilton declared it with beauty when she 
wrote:
My Saviour, Thou hast offered rest,
		
O grant it then to me--
	
The rest of ceasing from myself
		
To find my all in Thee.
		
	
In Thy strong hand I lay me down,
		
So shall the work be done;
	
For who can work so wondrously
		
As the Almighty One?
The songwriter said, "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy 
cross I cling."  And again, "I dare not trust the sweetest frame, 
but wholly lean on Jesus name."

PRAYER
Father, forgive me for trying to accomplish what Jesus has already done. I 
declare that His finished work is sufficient. By faith I accept Him as the One 
who satisfied your just demands and died in my place. I refuse to trust in the 
shadow when You have so graciously provided the substance. From now on my works 
will flow out of the faith rest I have found in Christ. I will no longer work 
to gain acceptance before you, but I will labor in your service because you have 
given me righteousness for faithing the finished work of your Son. Thank you Father 
for loving me and for accomplishing in Christ, what I could not do by works of 
the Law. You Sir have captured my heart. 

ANSWERING QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIONS

1. Answering objections concerning Galatians 4:8-11.
2. Answering objections concerning the terms "days, months, and seasons."
3. Answering objections to my use of the term "fulfilled".

OBJECTION #1: The addition of verse eight changes the entire meaning of the scripture because it shows that the Galatians were turning back to God's that were no God's, not the Sabbath.

Galatians 4:8 (NKJV) But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. 9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how [is] [it] [that] you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

The following is quoted from pages 216 and 217 of THE NIVAPPLICATION COMMENTARY written by Scot McKnight and published by Zondervan Publish House, copyrighted 1995.

The Galatians had had a typical pagan past (ignorant about the true God and worshiping non-gods). They had converted wonderfully as a result of Paul's preaching (3:1), but now they were "turning back to those week and miserable principles" (cf. 1:6; 3:3). Here Paul describes their new-but-batd situation" with the term principles, the same term he used in 4:3 for the Jewish past under the law. Futhermore, in verse 10 he mentions what is by almost every reckoning Jewish observances of holy days and seasons (cf. Rom 14:5-12; Col 2:16-17). What is revolutionary here is that Paul considers "moving into Judaism" as nothing other than a reversion to "paganism," to "non-gods" (cf. Gal 1:6). He asks, "Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?" Their move from idolatry to Christianity and now to Judaism is for Paul no different than a venture back into "idolatry" or "paganism."
R. N. Longenecker says it well:
Beyond question, Paul's lumping of Judaism and paganism together in this manner is radical in the extreme. No Judaizer would have accepted such a characterization of Torah observance; nor would those in Galatia who accceded to their message. . . . For Paul, however whatever leads one away from sole reliance on Christ, whether based on Good intentions or depraved desires, is sub-Christian and therefore to be condemned.

F. F. Bruce adds that this viewpoint is given "not as an exaggeration in the heat of argument but as the deliberate expression of a carefully thought out position." Incidentally, Paul's willingness to lump together both unconverted Jew and Gentile under the "elemental principles" encourages our application of the text of Galatians, which so often addresses the Jewish Christian problem, to all groups today. Every human being, Paul would say, is captive to the "element principles" in some way and is only set free by Jesus Christ.

OBJECTION #2: "Verse ten could not possibly mean "HEBREW" festivals because the Hebrews had no observable MONTHS, only days such as the first DAY of the seventh month or the First DAY of all months. Also the Hebrews did not observe "SEASONS" the Gentiles do. For example after Janus the God. (Lev. 23:24)"

The following is quoted from pages 122 and 123 of Wuest's, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Volume I, Galatians In the Greek New Testament, written by Kenneth S. Wuest and published by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, copyrighted 1972.

The days, months, and years which the Galatians were observing, were those which the Mosaic law required Israel to observe. This is made clear by Paul's statement in 4:21, to the effect that the Galatians are bent on being under the law. . . . The days probably refer to the Sabbath days and to the feasts which were observed just for a day. The months refer to the monthly recurring events (Isaiah 66:23), or to the seventh month (Numbers 29). The reference also could have to do with the celebration of the appearance of the new moon (Numbers 10:10, 28:11). Times refers to the celebrations not limited to a single day, such a the Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, and to the feasts of the fourth, fifth, and seventh months (II Chron. 8:13). Years may have reference to the year of Jubilee or the Sabbatical year.

OBJECTION #3: Is the term "fulfil" in Matthew 5:17, synonymous wit "end"?

Matthew 5:17 (KJV) Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

THE GREEK - The Greek term translated " fulfil" is the aorist active infinitive of "pleroo".


PLEROO {play-ro'-o.}

1. to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full
a. to cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally
i. I abound, I am liberally supplied
2. to render full, i.e. to complete
a. to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting to full measure, fill to the brim
b. to consummate: a number
i. to make complete in every particular, to render perfect
ii. to carry through to the end, to accomplish, carry out, (some undertaking)

c. to carry into effect, bring to realisation, realise

i. of matters of duty: to perform, execute
ii. of sayings, promises, prophecies, to bring to pass, ratify, accomplish
iii. to fulfil, i.e. to cause God's will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be, and God's promises (given through the prophets) to receive fulfilment


OTHER TRANSLATIONS

1. Matt 5:17 (ASV) Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil.
2. Matt 5:17 (DBY) Think not that I am come to make void the law or the prophets; I am not come to make void, but to fulfil.
3. Matt 5:17 (NASB) "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.
4. Matt 5:17 (NIV) "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
5. Matt 5:17 (RSV) "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.

THE ENGLISH TERM "FULFIL"
Fulfil or fulfil
1 archaic; to make full: FILL
2 a: to put into effect
2 b: to bring to an end
2 c: to measure up to: SATISFY
3 a: to convert into reality
3 b: to develope the full potentialities of

MATTHEW 5:17 EXAMINED
1. The term "fulfill" applies both to "the prophets" and "the law."
Jesus said "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Mat. 5:17). The term "fulfill" applies both to "the law" and "the prophets." The messianic prophesies of the OT, find their fulfillment in Christ. They have been satisfied and brought to fruition by His appearance and ministry. After quoting Isaiah 61:1,2, Jesus declared: "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:21) Jesus fulfilled both "the prophets" and "the law," i.e., He completely satisfied and fulfilled the predictions of the prophets and the just demands of the LAW.
2. Jesus is the one doing the fulfilling.

Jesus clearly declared that He was the one who would fulfill the law and the prophets, NOT US!! If He declared "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill," then it is clear that He and He alone is the one who will fulfill both "the prophets" and "the law." Thus it is foolish to claim that the believer fulfills Matthew 5:17, by observing the OT sabbath.
THERE'S MORE TO COME!

Back to the beginning of The Sabbath: A Salvation Essential?


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OTHER ARTICLES ON THE SABBATH
Sabbath Rest ][ The Shadow of The Sabbath

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THE SABBATH: A Salvation Essential
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