For the people of ancient Israel, central to the maintenance of a vital covenant relationship with God was the spiritual discipline of assemblingas one community before the Lord. The ESV translates “Surely” as “Above all.” Of only one of the Ten Commandments does the Lord say, “Above all…” Keeping the Sabbath and feast days of the Lord brought together disciplines of hearing and seeking the Lord so that the people could be renewed in their identity as a holy nation among all the nations of the earth.

The Sabbath days especially were to be kept faithfully. God expected His people to rest from their labors in remembrance of His resting from His own, and to spend the day being renewed in Him as their Creator and Redeemer. They were to “remember” the Sabbath – to give careful attention to make good use of this day of rest. And they were to “guard” the Sabbath against anything that might undermine its holy purpose and use.

The Sabbath was to be a sign between God and His people, to remind them that they were not like all the other nations and peoples, but had been separated unto the Lord for the purpose of bringing the blessings of His covenant to all the nations (Ex. 31.12, 13). This they could not do if they failed in their holy calling. The Sabbath would have served as a continuous, weekly reminder that Israel rested in the strength of the Lord so that they could go, through the remainder of the week, in the power of His redeeming love as a holy people unto Him.

The various annual feasts, the seven-year Sabbath for the land, and the Jubilee year were all designed to perform similar functions, reminding the people of God’s grace and promises and providing them ways of standing out from their neighbors as a people holy to the Lord. We must believe, on the basis of God’s Law, that His Sabbath still remains a holy day and that feast days appropriate to this age of grace and the Kingdom can be beneficial in renewing and deepening our covenant relationship with the Lord.

Believers in Jesus Christ today must not forsake the assembling of themselves together, as is the custom of some (Heb. 10.25). Rather, we observe the Lord’s Day as our Sabbath and celebrate the grace of God in special seasons associated with His creating, sustaining, and redeeming grace. By assembling together for such observations we gain the benefit for our spiritual lives of a vital component in our tool box of spiritual disciplines.

T. M. Moore

The book of Ecclesiastes is a crucial resource for understanding the Biblical worldview against the backdrop of our secular age. Follow T. M.’s studies in Ecclesiastes by downloading the free, weekly studies available in our Scriptorium Resources page at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Click hereto see the weekly studies available thus far.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.