WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT MADE THE SABBATH A SIGN BETWEEN HIMSELF AND HIS PEOPLE

Few people know that God’s Sabbath was given to Israel not only as a day of rest and worship but also as a perpetual sign between God and Israel: “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”(Exodus 31: 13).

What if God had not made the Sabbath a sign between Him and Israel? What if He had just given Israel the Law and had not given special emphasis to the Sabbath?

At first glace, it seems quite strange that God would command the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments and then would give it extra emphasis by declaring it to be a special sign between Him and His people in perpetuity. Yet what God does is consistently right and totally wise.

The Sabbath is crucial in the worship of the true God. Once a week, His people were to be reminded that God is the Creator of the universe. Each week they were to be reminded that God is a God of righteousness who demanded from His people holiness and justice. Each week He had to be their total focus, and all other pursuits were to be left aside. The Sabbath, therefore, was meant to be a time of physical, mental and spiritual renewal that would add to their physical, mental and spiritual well-being. But there was more.

Throughout the past three thousand or so years, the Sabbath has been central to the worship of the true God wherever Jews were exiled to. The Sabbath was to be a day of total ceasing when Israel focused on its Savior and was reminded of His will. No other nation had such a day and no other nation reaped the accompanying benefits.

Later, when Israel was taken into captivity and its inhabitants were taken to the far-flung areas of the world, though no longer able to worship in the Temple, there was one central gathering place that all Jews could meet therein, and that was the holy time God had established for them: The Sabbath.

No matter where Jews were taken. No matter how distant different groups may have been, on the holy Sabbath all faithful Jews gathered to worship the same God, they learned the same laws, and longed for the same hope: the coming of the Messiah and their return to the Promised Land.

The land God had given them was there no longer; the Temple that was the focus of Jewish worship was no longer, but the perpetual sign between God and Israel remained. The Sabbath was a gift that God would not take away and that only Israel could reject. It remained as the unquenchable flame that God’s people could gather around and get light and warmth from, no matter where they might have been.

Furthermore, the Sabbath is in large part responsible for the survival of the identity of God’s people during hundreds of years of wandering around the nations. Every week Israel is reminded that they are a special people who worship the true God and that, someday, they will again keep God’s Sabbath in the Holy Land. All thanks to a special covenant made between God and His people.

If God had not given Israel the Sabbath a special sign between them and their God, they would have been deprived of a special banner that distinguished them from the rest of the world; they probably would have lost their identity as God’s people, and they would not have had a critical tool that keeps their faith alive. Truly, the Sabbath is a special and critical sign between God and His people Israel.

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