In Hebrews 4:2, 6 the Sabbath rest is twice presented as the "good news," or the gospel (same verb: evangelizo), of God's rest for His people. Yet, for some persons as referred to here, the Sabbath is not good news but bad news. Why is the Sabbath viewed and experienced differently by different persons?

Principally because of different understandings and acceptance of the message of the Sabbath. Obviously a person cannot joyfully celebrate the Sabbath if he or she does not know what is there to celebrate.

Our family landed in the United States of America on July 4, 1974, the day on which Americans celebrate the signing of their Declaration of Independence. We needed to clear our car through customs, but everything was closed. We spent that day in a motel in a mood of frustration rather than enjoying the spirit of celebration.

Why? Primarily because we did not fully understand and accept the significance of the event. Frankly, we were more interested in the signing of our custom declaration than in the American Declaration of Independence.

In the same way, a person who does not understand and accept the good news of the Sabbath will experience not rest, peace and jubilation, rather restlessness, tension and frustration.

To help us understand and experience the message and blessings of the Sabbath, we shall briefly examine in this article the three basic glad tidings that, according to the Scripture, the Sabbath contains and proclaims:

• Perfect creation.
• Complete redemption.
• Final restoration.

A more comprehensive study of these messages is found in my book Divine Rest for Human Restlessness.

The Sabbath: good news of perfect creation

The first good news the Sabbath proclaims is that God originally created this world and its creatures in a perfect and complete manner. This message is first presented in a most emphatic way in the creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:3) by means of three effective literary devices: (1) the use of the number seven, (2) the emphatic use of words and (3) the imagery of the rest of God.

The number seven is used both to structure the creation story in seven parts--that is, according to the seven days of creation--and to relate many details of the story. The creation story is arranged in seven sections, each divided by the recurring sentence: "And there was evening and there was morning, one day . . . a second day . . . a third day." The climactic moment is the seventh day, which is repeated three times (Genesis 2:2, 3) to emphasize its function as the goal, conclusion, perfection of the whole creation.

Several details of the creation are also given in seven or multiples of seven. For example, in Hebrew there are seven words in Genesis 1:1 and 14 -- twice seven -- in verse 2. The name of God (Elohim) occurs 35 times; that is, 5 times 7; earth ('eres) 21 times; that is, 3 times 7; light ('or) occurs seven times in the account of the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-18); the expression "It was good" also occurs seven times (the last time is "very good": Genesis 1:31).

The structure, as well as many of the details of the creation story, is based on the number seven because the number seven signifies totality, completion and perfection. Thus its repeated use in the creation story heightens the role of the seventh day as the memorial of God's complete and perfect creation.

In the account of the establishment of the Sabbath given in Genesis 2:1-3, four words have the highest frequency: God, seventh day, work and done. Each of these words occurs three times, because it is central to the message of the passage, namely that God on the seventh day proclaimed His work done, done, done.

The imagery of the rest of God

To dramatize the perfection and completion of His creation, the Scripture tells us that God rested (Genesis 2:2, 3). Obviously God was not tired. God "does not faint or grow weary" (Isaiah 40:28). In fact, the Hebrew verb (shabat) does not mean that God took a rest to recover from exhaustion, rather that "He stopped or ceased creating."

Why? To testify by this dramatic action--by desisting from creating--that He regarded His creation "very good" and perfectly satisfying. There was no need for additional touches to improve His workmanship, because all came up to His expectations.

The first glad tidings the Sabbath proclaims is, then, a message of reassurance from God that this world and all its creatures came into existence not in a deformed state by chance but in a perfect way by the personal act of God.

This message is indeed good news. It gives us the reassurance that our ancestral roots are good because they are rooted in God Himself from creation to eternity. It reassures us that, in spite of apparent futility and tragedy, our life has meaning, value and hope because it proceeds from and moves toward a glorious destiny with God.

The Sabbath: good news of complete redemption

A second significant message of glad tidings the Sabbath proclaims is that God has completely redeemed us through Jesus Christ. The human heart longs for a constant assurance of divine redemption. We want to be reassured that God has indeed saved us.

A vital function of the Sabbath in the history of salvation has been to provide this reassurance of divine redemption. In the Old Testament the Sabbath served to nourish the hope and faith of God's people in the messianic redemption that was to come. In the New Testament it enables believers to experience the reality of the salvation that has come. We can consider only a few of the Sabbath themes that have helped believers to understand and experience the reality of redemption.

In the Old Testament the Sabbath functioned as a symbol of redemption because it contains God's original promise of the blessing and sanctification of mankind. The Scripture says: "God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it" (Genesis 2:3).

God's blessing is not just a good wish, like our human blessings, but a concrete assurance of happy and abundant life. The Psalmist declares: "The Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore" (Psalm 133:3). Being the symbol of God's gift of abundant life, the Sabbath, when Eden was lost, remained as God's assurance to restore life to His creatures. This can be seen in the Old Testament by how the rest and liberation of the weekly and annual Sabbaths served to nourish the hope of messianic redemption.

In Old Testament times the rest and peace of the Sabbath were viewed not only as a physical benefit (Exodus 20:10; Leviticus 23:3), but as the symbol of the messianic age. The Messiah was expected to bring to the people the rest and peace experienced on the Sabbath.

The prophet Isaiah, for example, describes the messianic age (Isaiah 66:11) by using the same words "delight" and "honor" that he employs for the Sabbath (Isaiah 58:13). The implication is that the peace and delight of the present Sabbath are a foretaste, an anticipation, of the expected messianic peace and delight.

The messianic function of the Sabbath rest is explicit in Jewish literature. The Babylonian Talmud, for example, teaches that "at the conclusion of the Sabbath the son of David will come." A rabbi demurred: "But so many Sabbaths have passed, yet He has not come."

Not only was the Messiah expected to come on a Sabbath, He was also expected to bring to the people the blessing of the Sabbath rest and peace. A Jewish work of the first century A.D. known as II Baruch describes "the time of my Messiah" as the time that "joy shall be revealed and rest shall appear" (29:3).

Another Jewish work, known as the Book of Adam and Eve, admonishes to "mourn not for the dead more than six days, for the seventh day is a sign of the resurrection and the rest of the age to come" (51:1-2). The Mishna Tamud describes "the time of salvation" as "wholly Sabbath rest" (7:4).

Examples such as these show that the Sabbath rest served to nourish the hope for the rest and peace to be brought by the Messiah.

The Sabbath liberation

The liberation from the oppression and pressure of work that the weekly and annual Sabbaths provided to every member of Hebrew society could effectively symbolize both the past and future divine deliverance. The link between the Sabbath and deliverance is explicitly found in Deuteronomy 45:15:

"You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day."

The reason given in this text for observing the Sabbath is to remember the past exodus deliverance. A symbol of past deliverance, the Sabbath could fittingly express and nourish the hope of future messianic redemption. The latter was accomplished particularly through the Sabbath year.

The Sabbatical year, which occurred every seven years (Leviticus 25:8), and the Jubilee year, which occurred every 49 years (Leviticus 25:8), were in a sense an intensification of the weekly Sabbath (Leviticus 25:2, 4).

At these annual institutions, the Sabbath truly became the liberator of land, slaves, debtors and property. The land was to lie fallow, slaves were to be emancipated, debts were to be canceled, and property was to be restored to the original owner. The restoration offered by the annual Sabbaths served to announce the future restoration to be brought about by the Messiah.

The prophet Isaiah announces the redemptive mission of the Messiah by means of the imagery of Sabbatical release: "The Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . . to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Isaiah 61:1, 2). The latter is a clear reference to the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:10). Jesus, as we shall see, used this very passage to announce and explain the nature of His redemptive mission.

Not only the rest and liberation of the Sabbath, but also the Sabbatical (septanary) structure of time is used in the Bible to announce the messianic redemption. A noteworthy example is found in Daniel 9. The first part of the chapter refers to the 70-years prophecy of Jeremiah (Daniel 9:2; Jeremiah 29:10), which predicted the national restoration of the Jews. The second part of the chapter speaks of "seventy weeks" or "70 sabbatical cycles" until the messianic restoration: "to the coming of the anointed one . . . to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity" (Daniel 9:24, 25). The vision of the release of the Sabbath years is here utilized to announce both the national and the messianic liberation.

This brief survey of sabbatical themes suffices to show that in Old Testament times the Sabbath served not only to provide personal rest and liberation from social injustices but to nourish the hope of messianic redemption to come.

The Sabbath and redemption in the New Testament

The fact that the Sabbath served to nourish the hope of messianic redemption in Old Testament times helps us appreciate the relationship between the Sabbath and the Savior in the New Testament. It was on a Sabbath day that Jesus, according to Luke, inaugurated His public ministry by quoting the sabbatical passage of Isaiah 61:1, 2 (Luke 4:18, 19).

We noted earlier that in this passage Isaiah announces the mission of the Messiah through the imagery of the liberation of the Sabbath years (Luke 4:18, 19). The Lord undoubtedly must have startled the congregation when He briefly but emphatically claimed to be the fulfillment of the messianic redemption promised by Isaiah through the Sabbatical year: "Today," Jesus said, "this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21).

In other words, Christ presented Himself to the people as the very fulfillment of their messianic expectations that had been nourished by the experience of the Sabbath peace, rest and liberation.

In His subsequent ministry, Christ revealed the nature of His redemptive mission especially through His Sabbath healing and teaching ministry. Seven Sabbath healing episodes and ensuing controversies are reported in the Gospels (Matthew 12:1-8; 9; 14; Mark 1:21-28; 2:23-28; 3:1-6; Luke 4:16-30, 31-37, 38, 39; 6:1-5, 6-11; 13:10-17; John 5:2-18; 7:21-24; 9:1-41).

It is noteworthy that in all cases Christ intentionally acted against prevailing tradition by healing chronically ill persons on the Sabbath. By offering on the Sabbath physical and spiritual liberation to souls "whom Satan bound" (Luke 13:16), the Savior made the day a time to celebrate and to experience the blessings of His redemptive ministry.

Christ's ministry not only began but ended on a Sabbath day. The Lord completed his redemptive mission saying "It is finished" (John 19:30) and then resting in the tomb (Luke 23:54-56). The Sabbath marks the completion of both creation and redemption. Christ's Sabbath rest in the tomb reveals the depth of God's love for His creatures. It tells us God so loved the world that He was willing to experience not only the limitation of human time at the creation but also the suffering, agony and death of human flesh during the incarnation.

In the light of the cross, the Sabbath is the weekly celebration and jubilation of a liberated people. It is the day we cease from our work to allow God to work in us. It is the day to experience through the physical rest the greater rest of Christ's forgiveness and salvation.

The Sabbath: good news of final restoration

A third significant message of glad tidings the Sabbath proclaims is that God "is working until now" (John 5:17) to restore this world to its original perfection. Christ declared this good news emphatically when healing on a Sabbath day a paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. He explained to those who charged Him with Sabbath-breaking that God, on the Sabbath, ended His act of creation but not his action in general.

In fact, Christ said that, because of sin, God "is working until now" (John 5:17) on the Sabbath to restore this world to its original perfection.

In another significant Sabbath pronouncement, Christ invited His followers to become participants in this divine restoration program, saying:

"We must work the works of Him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work" (John 9:4).

On the Sabbath God not only reassures us that He is working for the restoration of this world, but he invites us to participate in accomplishing His restoration in our lives and in the lives of others.

In an age in which the forces of chaos and disorder appear to prevail, when injustice, greed, violence, corruption, suffering, sickness and death seem to dominate, God through the Sabbath reassures us we need not fear these destructive forces, because "there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9).

God's people need not fear the threat of nuclear war or population explosion because the Sabbath reassures us that God is still in control of this world, working out His ultimate purpose. The Sabbath tells us that God has conquered chaos at creation, that He has liberated His people from the bonds of sin and death at the cross and that now He is working to establish a new world where "from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come to worship before God" (Isaiah 66:23).

In that final Sabbath, as eloquently expressed by Augustine, "We shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise."

Summing up

The Sabbath contains three significant messages for the human family:

• The Lord has created us perfectly.
• He has redeemed us completely.
• will restore us ultimately.

The Sabbath invites us weekly to joyfully celebrate creation, redemption, restoration; the past, the present and the future divine accomplishments for the human family; man, nature and God; this world and the world to come.