The word Sabbath comes from sbt, which means rest. Therefore,
the Sabbath basically means day of rest. It is talked about in the earliest Israel
writings. Even as slaves in Egypt, the Jews still took their day of rest. This is different from now because it was only a day of rest, it was based on the
belief that your body was a temple and as a form of respecting God you must respect your body and give it rest.
The Sabbath wasn't looked at as a big deal and many Israelites celebrated it on different days and some
didn't celebrate it until Moses came with the law. (Source: DC) When the law came God told Moses in the 10 commandments that he must have a Sabbath.
He said it had to be based on 7 days. "6 of the days you can work but
the 7th day you must rest." And God added to the Sabbath and said,
"You must make it a holy day." (Ex: 20:8-11)
Moses made the 7th day of the 7-day cycle the Sabbath day based on the story of creation. The details as to who was exempt from the Sabbath and how to keep it holy has changed
in each time frame in the bible. The punishment for not resting on the Sabbath
or keeping it holy was death. (Numbers 15:32-36). By 1 Maccabees time the Jews
were so caught up in the rules of the land that they forgot the meaning of the rule.
They got to a point where they wouldn't defend themselves in battle. (1
Macc. 2:32-38) If their son fell into a hole and broke his arm they couldn't
help their son out of the hole or mend his arm until the Sabbath was over. (Source:
A Jewish friend). When Jesus came he was often caught healing on the Sabbath. He made very clear that you can heal on the Sabbath and the Church has no right to
change that because healing your body was half the meaning of the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was kept by early Christians but eventually changed to the Lords Day on Sunday. (Source: DC) The Lords Day is celebrated the same way as the Sabbath and fulfills the Sabbath obligations. We still have 6 days of work and the 7th day of rest.
We just don't have them in the same order. The 6 days of work are the
last 6 days and the 7th day is the first day of the week to celebrate the start of a new Covenant. There is a Jewish belief that the 7th day of creation is Judgment day. Well our Judgment was paid for us at the start of this Covenant. So, we celebrate it at the start of the
week rather then the end of the week. Another reason for calling it the Lords
Day rather then the Sabbath is to emphasize the fact that it is a Holy Day rather then emphasizing the fact it is a day of
rest even though it is still both.
