The rest that God intended for us to receive
on Sabbath is not just a physical rest from
our work or a mental and emotional rest from
the stress of life. When Jesus said, Come unto
me . . .I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28),
He also said, ye will find rest unto your souls
(Matt. 11:29). Entering that rest requires that
we stop trying to save ourselves and rest in
the finished work of Jesus.
The image of the joyless, somber restricting
Sunday stems from the 16th century. Jesus defines
the Sabbath in Matthew 12:8, For the Son of
Man is Lord of the Sabbath day [(!)] The Sabbath,
as with the rest of the Bible finds fulfillment
in Christ. For Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to every one that believeth
(Rom. 10:4). Everything about the Sabbath teaches
us something about the Messiah (Lancaster 1996).
The Candles
The Sabbath is full of customs and traditions
far predating the time of
Jesus. The two candles that are lit to mark
the beginning of the Sabbath are called the
witness candles and they are symbolic of the
two witnesses that stand before the Lord in
Revelation 11 and Zechariah 4. They are Moses
and Elijah, the personifications of the Torah
and the Prophets. These same two witnesses appear
with Messiah in the transfiguration. Each Friday
evening the lighting of the two witness candles
reminds us that Messiah is witnessed throughout
the Torah (first five books of the Bible) and
the Prophets.
The Wine
When the family is seated around the table,
a declaration of the holiness of the Sabbath
and the blessing of the wine is recited (Kiddush).
The father lifts a cup of wine and says “Blessed
are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe,
who brings forth fruit from the vine.”
Jesus says in John 15:5, I am the vine, ye are
the branches, and in Mark 14:24, Jesus said
unto them, This is my blood of the new testament,
which is shed for many.
The Bread
The special bread called Challah is covered
with a cloth while Kiddush is
recited. Then the cloth is removed from the
bread and the loaves are lifted up while a blessing
is said: “Blessed are you Lord our God,
King of the Universe, who brings forth bread
from the earth.” In the same way, the
Messiah was laid in the earth and covered with
a cloth, And he took it down, and wrapped it
in linen, and laid it in a sepulcher that was
hewn in stone, wherein never man before was
laid (Luke 23:53). Then He was lifted up from
the dead, brought forth from the earth, and
exalted. The bread is broken and dispersed around
the table.
The Sabbath blessings have not changed since
before the time of Jesus. So when we read in
the gospels that Jesus took a piece of bread,
made the blessing, broke it, gave it to them
and said, “Take it! This is my body,”
we know what that blessing was: Blessed are
you Lord our God, King of the Universe, who
brings forth bread from the earth. It was a
prophecy regarding his resurrection!
Havdalah Ceremony
Jesus is revealed even in the Havdalah ceremony.
The wine is poured until it overflows and then
the cup is lifted up again. Psalm 116:13 is
recited, I will take the cup of Salvation and
call upon the name of the Lord. The Hebrew word
for Salvation is Yeshua (Jesus), so the above
verse can be recited: “I will take the
cup of Jesus and call upon the name of the Lord.”
At the end of Havdalah, the lit candle is extinguished
into the wine which has run over the cup. We
see how in the same way the life of our Messiah
was extinguished with the spilling of His blood.
It is an awe-inspiring picture of our Lord’s
sacrifice.
Prophecy
Just as at the completion of six days of work
there comes a seventh day of rest, Messiah will
reign over the earth for a thousand years at
the
completion of the age. But, beloved, be not
ignorant of this one thing, that one day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8). We are approximately
six thousand years from creation and the thousand-year
Sabbath reign of Jesus is at hand.
