For the Sunday Christians…

Sabbath & Obedience

It honestly breaks my heart when I hear Christians say the Sabbath is not for Christians… that it was “for the Jews”… or just “Old Testament.”

Because I know most of you weren’t intentionally trying to rebel against God.

You were trusting what you were taught.

And this whole message is simply me walking you through Scripture - so you can see what Christianity’s traditions have kept you from really looking at.

Because a lot of Sabbath arguments sound like they’re about time management:

• “Which day is it?”

• “Does it still apply?”

• “Aren’t we under grace now?”

But underneath all of that, it’s really about something much deeper:

Whose voice you trust… and what you believe about the character of God.

🕯️ If Sabbath Feels Heavy… Here’s Why

If you’ve been told the Sabbath is a weight on your back… a legalistic test… or something Jesus came to cancel… then of course it sounds miserable.

If you think it’s just an old Jewish custom or a religious chore, you’ll never see the beauty in it.

And the tragedy is this:

A lot of people are not rejecting what Scripture actually says…

They are rejecting the cheap, twisted version they were taught by Christianity.

🌍 Sabbath Was Introduced in Creation - Not at Sinai

From the very beginning, weekly rest wasn’t introduced as a punishment or a restriction.

It was introduced as part of creation itself.

Genesis 2:3 says:

“God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work which he had created and made.”

In Hebrew, that “rested” is about ceasing -

not collapsing from exhaustion.

God does not get tired.

He stops because the work is complete.

Because everything He intended to make has reached its goal.

Before there was Israel…Before there was Sinai…Before there was “the Law”…

There was a seventh day that God Himself set apart and blessed.

He stamped His rhythm into time.

And the first thing He ever calls holy is not a mountain, a building, or an object…

It’s a day.

A block of time that is different from the others.

That day was not given to crush people.

It was given as a pattern of life in His presence.

And it’s not an accident that this seventh day is the only day in the creation story that does not end with:

“there was evening and there was morning.”

Even the structure of the chapter marks it off as something set apart.

👣 Humanity’s First Full Day Was Rest

Here’s another detail people miss:

Humanity is created on Day Six… then immediately steps into Day Seven.

The first full day of human existence is a day where God has already finished His work…

And has already blessed and sanctified the time.

From the beginning, people were meant to start by entering His completed work…

Not by trying to build their own identity apart from Him.

📜 The Sabbath Was Repeated in the Ten Commandments

Later, He spoke the same thing again - clearly - in the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20:8–11 says:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.”

This is not God tightening the screws on human freedom.

This is God protecting people from becoming slaves again.

He ties the day of rest to His creation and His authority…

Not to Israel’s mood or culture.

He blessed that day.

Declared it holy.

And told His people to remember it… not ignore it.

🔥 Sabbath Is a Sign - Not a Suggestion

The Torah says in Exodus 31:13:

“Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Most certainly you shall keep my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.’”

That is covenant language.

A sign is not random.

It is a mark that says:

“These are mine.”

The weekly rest is tied to identity:

Who your God is… and who you belong to.

🌿 The Prophets Call It Delight - Not Bondage

Isaiah 58:13–14 says:

“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable, and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in Yahweh; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,” for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.

That is not the language of bondage.

That is the language of relationship.

He offers delight in Him…

Not just a quiet day off work.

He ties joy, honor, and inheritance to how we treat the day He calls:

“My holy day.”

⚖️ Why Sabbath Makes Christians Tense

For many of you who grew up in Christianity, this is exactly why the word “Sabbath” makes you tense.

Why do so many Christians flinch when it comes up?

A lot of it comes from being taught that any serious obedience to God’s commandments is “works-based salvation.”

You’ve been told that the moment you talk about loyalty to His Law, you are denying grace.

So anything that smells like a commandment gets thrown into the “legalism” bucket.

But Scripture does not present Sabbath as a competing path to salvation.

It presents it as one part of a life that already belongs to God.

You do not rest every seventh day to buy your way into the Kingdom.

You rest because you acknowledge the King.

🕊️ Yeshua Didn’t Cancel Sabbath - He Clarified It

Jesus did not treat the weekly rest as a disposable leftover from the old system.

He lived it.

He taught in the synagogues on that day.

He healed people on that day.

He cut through the man-made rules stacked on top of it…

But He never trashed the commandment itself.

Mark 2:27–28 says:

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

That one statement destroys two popular lies at the same time.

Lie #1: Sabbath was designed to torment people

No. It was made for humanity’s good.

Lie #2: Yeshua stood outside the Sabbath ripping it up

No. He stands over it as Lord.

It belongs to Him.

If anything, that increases its importance…

It does not erase it.

🧠 Sabbath Is About Trust - Not Just Rest

Here is where the heart issue comes in.

Sabbath exposes what you really think about God’s rule in your life.

To stop working when you could be making more money…

Chasing your plans…

Grinding to get ahead…

That takes trust.

When you shut it down for a full day, you are saying with your schedule what you claim with your mouth:

“You run my life. You provide. You set the terms.”

People think Sabbath is mainly about resting bodies.

But it is actually about resting hearts.

You are not just stepping away from a job.

You are stepping out of the illusion that everything depends on you.

Sabbath is where you declare with your time:

what God has already done and already given is enough.

✍️ New Covenant Obedience Doesn’t Remove the Law - It Writes It Within

This is why the Spirit’s work in us does not cancel what the Father spoke.

He does the exact opposite.

Hebrews 10:16 says:

“This is the covenant that I will make with them: ‘After those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind.’”

Under the new covenant, His Law does not vanish into thin air.

It gets moved deeper…

From stone tablets to human hearts and minds.

The Spirit applies it inside, so obedience becomes genuine…

Flowing from love and loyalty instead of empty religion.

And when that happens, resting on the day He set apart is not background noise.

It becomes a living part of that obedience.

🕯️ What Shabbat Looks Like in Real Life

For a lot of us who keep Shabbat, this is what the weekly rhythm has become:

Not a project to impress God…

But a weekly reset that reminds us whose we are.

Six days can feel like a blur of responsibilities, problems, and distractions.

Then the sun goes down…

And you stop.

You light nothing extra to make it “more holy.”

You don’t add man-made rituals.

You simply respond to what He already called holy.

You eat.

You talk.

You pray.

You quiet your mind.

You breathe.

You let your home feel it.

You let your heart feel it.

You are not earning points.

You are responding to an invitation.

🚫 If You Were Hurt by “Sabbath Teaching”… That Matters

If someone has beaten you over the head with Sabbath as a way to control you…

That is not from God.

If someone has tried to guilt you into a list of human rules and called that “Shabbat”…

That is not the commandment.

That is tradition.

At the same time…

If you’ve been warned to run away from the fourth commandment like it is a trap…

Then you have been robbed of something God called a sign and a delight.

🔍 Why the Debates Get So Heated

This is why the arguments get so intense.

People are not just arguing over a day.

They are defending whatever version of God they carry in their minds.

If you think His Law is cruel, you will resist it.

If you think His commandments are protection and kindness…

You will want to walk in them.

Even when it costs you something.

🏡 What If Sabbath Is a Homecoming?

So here is the simple question:

What if Sabbath is not the heavy chain you were warned about…

But a weekly homecoming you never really tasted?

What if, instead of being a threat to your freedom…

It is one of the ways God holds back your slavery to work, stress, and distraction?

What if weekly rest is not God taking something from you…

But giving something back that the world keeps stealing?

📵 You Have to Step Into It

No one can keep Shabbat for you.

No meme.

No teaching.

No argument.

You have to step into it and see for yourself what happens when you shape your week around God’s time…

Instead of forcing His time to fit your week.

You have to feel what it’s like when your phone isn’t running you.

When your job isn’t defining you for that one day.

When your conversations shift.

When your thoughts slow down enough to actually notice Him.

🫶 Walk in It - But Don’t Make It a Checklist

As a believer, you are supposed to walk in it…

But do not come at it like a checklist.

Come at it like you are answering a personal invite.

Ask what honors Him.

Ask what points you and your household back to Him.

Ask what it looks like to rest with Him…

Not just rest away from everything.

✨ Sabbath Will Always Expose the Heart

In the end, Sabbath will always expose the heart.

It will show whether we see His commandments as life…

Or as a prison.

It will reveal whether we trust His voice more than the church system that told us His Law is the problem.

And it will keep reminding us, week after week…

we are not our own.

🫶 Let’s Walk It Out Together

📣 Have you ever been taught that Sabbath was “legalism” or “not for Christians”?Or have you started to see it differently—as protection, as delight, as covenant?

💬 I’d love to hear your story in the comments. Your words might be exactly what someone else needs to hear today.

Shabbat Shalom,

Beth & Daniel