Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Sabbath”
Born in Nebraska in 1933, Walter Brueggemann is an Old Testament theologian, St Louis Cardinals fan and for some, one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the last 40 years or so. He uses a practice called rhetorical criticism (basically looking at the meaning behind words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films etc that people use to communicate) …
Hebrews 4:9-11 The writer of Hebrews offers us another glimpse of what the Sabbath is about and of what it offers us a glimpse of. The author of the book tells us of those who have entered God’s rest and stopped their work as God did on the seventh day of creation. This rest is the freedom we have in …
Mark 2:23-28 Jesus had many disagreements with the Pharisees throughout his ministry. As his disciples picked grains and ate them, the law-makers jumped in with accusations of not keeping the Sabbath by doing work. Jesus responds to their accusations by telling them that the Sabbath was made for humans and not humans for the Sabbath. The Pharisees delighted in creating …
Isaiah 56:1-8 Christians have often drawn lines in the sand to define who is in and who is out. The Bible has been used in many of these instances to back up these claims of those God loves. In Deuteronomy 23:1 eunuchs are excluded from the assembly of the Lord but here in Isaiah they are welcomed in. There are …
Exodus 20:8-11 The Ten Commandments set out the principles in which the people of God would flourish and become moulded into the holy nation they had been called to be. The fourth commandment instructs the people to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy. The Sabbath is the pinnacle of the week; a chance to recharge from what has …
Genesis 2:1-3 Did God get tired? It’s a valid question when reading about the last day of Creation. If God needed to rest, was it because he was tired? We can probably answer with confidence that, “No, God was not tired.” So why did he do no work on the seventh day? Well, another translation for the Hebrew word Shavat, …
Genesis 1:1-5 There was evening and there was morning… You may have never considered these words but they remind us of something important. For most of us we start the day with morning and we end it with evening but these words are the other way round in Genesis. Evening then morning, darkness then light. The Jewish Sabbath has always …
Leviticus 25:1-7 The Jubilee came as the pinnacle of a much longer Sabbath cycle. Every seven years the land would be given rest and, after this cycle had taken place seven times, the Jubilee would take place. God’s decree was that the land would rest and that no seed would be planted, no field ploughed and no harvest gathered. The …
The Sabbath is the last piece of creation. Having made all that is, God stopped creating on the seventh day, blessed it and made it holy. Libraries worth of books have been written about this day and some times, in all the arguments, something of its importance is lost. It doesn’t matter if it is a Saturday or Sunday, the …
