Introduction
If you have ever studied in depth a work of art, a piece of literature, a play, or a movie, you undoubtedly know that there is a big difference between enjoying something in passing, and carefully analyzing it. Detailed analysis is time-consuming work, and is completely different from a cursory glance at the work. Therefore, we will set out together to search for the redemptive history of the concept of the Day of the Lord, and how the plan of redemption expands to include this concept as well.
The Day of the Lord in the Old Testament:
First, before diving into the concept of the Day of the Lord and the development of the history of redemption in this concept. We must get to know the concept of the word “day” in the Bible. It is noted in the Bible that the phrase “day,” although it most often means a day limited to twenty-four hours, it also often comes in the form of symbolic days. We find, for example, some evidence that supports that the day was a day limited to twenty-four hours in (Genesis 3:8): “And the waters returned from the land, returning one after the other. And after one hundred and fifty days the waters diminished, and the three days that Jonah spent in the belly of the whale (John 1:17), and the forty days that the spies spent in Canaan (Numbers 13:25), and also the forty days in which Christ appeared to the disciples and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. All of this suggests to us that today was four days. Twenty hours, because without that, how would the day be determined unless it had a specific time?
This does not make us deny the fact that in some biblical places the phrase “day” referred to symbolic days or a time period. Some scholars believe that the phrase “day” in the first chapter of Genesis refers to an era of time because the sun and moon were not created until the fourth day, as the book called it, because the world did not have a tangible, physical day and night as we do now. Therefore, some scholars consider that the phrase “day” has a broader meaning than chronological timing. We find that the phrase “day” sometimes refers to moments, sometimes to days, and sometimes to the future in general. It is interesting to note that in the days of creation in (Genesis 1) it mentions “there was evening and there was morning” for all days except the seventh day. This indicates that all days of creation have a beginning and an end, except for the seventh day, as it began but has not ended yet, as it extends from the creation of Adam until the second coming.
The Sabbath in the Pentateuch:
Then we come to the nucleus and seed of the Lord’s Day. After we have learned what the word “day” is, we must realize deep down that the concept of the Lord’s Day has profound importance in Christianity. Although its roots lie in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, its historical and biblical foundations can be traced throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.
God established a law for man to work just as He did in creation. He worked in six days and then rested on the seventh day. “And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had done. And on the seventh day He rested from all His work which He had done.” (Genesis 2:2). Not only did God declare the seventh day to be a day of rest, but He also blessed and sanctified this day to reveal to us the importance of this day. “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had done as a Creator.” (Genesis 2:3). Saint Augustine also believed: “This Sabbath rest was a period of perfection that did not end for man except because of sin’s entry into the world.”
God’s rest on the seventh day indicates a sense of satisfaction and completion in the work of creation. This rest is not a sign of fatigue, but rather a divine pause to appreciate the perfection and order of the created world. Which confirms that God’s plan for creation was purposeful. God’s rest on the seventh day also includes the desire for relationship and fellowship with His creation, as if God is inviting creation to a space of comfortable fellowship with Him. The goal is not only to stop working, but it is also a time dedicated to worship, contemplation, and intimate relationship with the Creator, so the seventh day will always be a reminder that God is our Creator.
Delving deeper into the Book of Genesis we can see that exploring Sabbath observance among the patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – provides a fascinating lens through which we can understand how this holy day was woven into the fabric of their lives. While explicit reference to the term “Sabbath” may not appear in the Genesis accounts relating to these fathers, there are examples indicating recognition of holy rest and devotion to God. Although at this time, the sanctification of the Sabbath had not been declared as an obligation, as happened in the era of Moses.
This brings us to the Mosaic Covenant and the declaration of the sanctification of the Sabbath as a sign of the covenant between God and the people of Israel (Exodus 31:13-17) and a drawing of the moral framework of the law: “Remember the Sabbath day, to sanctify it. Six days you shall labor and do all your work; On the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. You shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who comes in. Your gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day the Sabbath and sanctify it.” (Exodus 20:8-11), the Mosaic covenant establishes the Sabbath as an essential element in the moral, moral, and symbolic dimensions of Israel’s relationship with God. Keeping the Sabbath is not only a practical guide to moral living but also a profound symbol of covenant identity, holiness, and a continuing narrative of God’s work of creation and redemption. The Sabbath also serves as a reminder of Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. Just as God offered them rest after slavery, the Sabbath becomes a regular celebration of freedom and God’s redemptive works. As Justin Hoffman said about the Sabbath: “Just as Eve was created so that man would not have to live alone, the Sabbath was created so that man would not have to live exhausted.”
When the law of Moses came, God commanded the people to keep the Sabbath and obey God. He set laws and a way for them to keep the Sabbath. Every Sabbath day that comes to the people reminds them of two things: that God is the Creator and that humans are sinners and cannot keep the law. When the matter of keeping the Sabbath was repeated, we read in (Exodus 31:17) “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” After God had made everything, it was as if His rest had refreshed him. However, God’s rest and refreshment means more. Much more than that, it is linked to his joy and satisfaction, as mentioned in (Psalm 104:31): “The Lord rejoices in his works.” In addition, the Sabbath expressed that God had redeemed his people (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). Finally, the annual Day of Atonement fell on the Sabbath (Leviticus 16:30–31), so the Sabbath was also a celebration of God’s forgiveness of his people.
The Sabbath law was very strict because it was not limited to the people only, but also to everyone in their household, whether slaves, animals, or even strangers (Exodus 20:10). All this strictness was part of the commandments of the law that were intended to hold the hand of the people of Israel and lead them to Jesus Christ. By faith.” (Galatians 3:24). But the Sabbath was abolished. We read in the New Testament, “Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or in regard to a festival, or a new moon, or the Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come. But the body is Christ’s.” (Colossians 2:16-17). The focus in the New Testament is not on God as Creator or Lawgiver but rather on God as our Savior.
The earth also receives its share of the Sabbath. As John Calvin said: “There is not an atom in this universe that does not at least see in its brilliant light the glory of God.” We find in (Leviticus 25:1-7) the Lord’s command to Moses to speak to the people about the Sabbath rest for the land, which includes the Sabbath year allowing the land to rest every seven years. During this time, agricultural activities such as sowing, pruning and harvesting are prohibited. The concept of comprehensive comfort that God was establishing in the Sharia was not limited to humans, but rather extended to the land, livestock, and even wild animals, in order to enhance the people’s confidence in God’s provision for them, so that this Sunnah would be an acknowledgment and declaration that they depend on God for their livelihood. God promises them an abundant harvest in the sixth year that will suffice them during the rest of the seventh year and until the eighth year until the new harvest. The Sabbath year embodies for us the principles of trust and reliance on God’s plan, and it also embodies the principles of social justice.
Saturday during the reign of King David
Then comes God’s covenant with David (2 Samuel 7), which is an important and pivotal aspect in the history of the Bible. It is as if David here goes beyond his desire for worship as being limited to only one day in which he is in harmony with God, but the desire in his heart for worship extends to the point that he desires to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life (Psalm 23:6) and to build a permanent dwelling for the Ark of the Covenant – which represents the declaration of God’s presence – and God’s response goes beyond building a physical temple to establish an eternal covenant. The Davidic covenant finds its ultimate fulfillment in the establishment of Jesus’ eternal kingdom, which transcends the earthly realms (Luke 1:32-33). The Davidic Covenant is a testimony to God’s ongoing commitment to His people and His plan of redemption. By establishing an eternal kingdom in the line of David, the covenant indicates final consummation in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Saturday in the Age of the Prophets:
Then comes the Age of the Prophets and we find that the Sabbath takes on a different dimension than what we knew before, “And it will come to pass from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before Me, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 66:23). Isaiah’s vision begins with the promise of a new creation, and focusing on God’s redemptive work, the idea of the new heavens and new earth suggests a comprehensive renewal that extends beyond the natural landscape into the spiritual realm. In the vision of the new creation. The repetition of the Sabbath in this context indicates permanent and continuous worship – a continuing communion between God and humanity, and this corresponds to the eschatological dimension of eternal communion with God.
The prophetic voice in the Old Testament, especially through messianic prophecies and apocalyptic visions such as those of Isaiah, contributes to the evolving narrative about the nature of the Sabbath. These prophecies not only anticipate the coming of the Messiah, but also indicate a transformative impact on religious practices as Isaiah’s vision paints a vivid picture of the new creation in which the Sabbath takes on an eternal character, foretelling the final fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan in Christ.
The Lord’s Day in the New Testament:
In (Mark 2:27-28) Jesus says, “Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath also.’” Christ changed their thinking and beliefs to realize the spirit of the law and not just keep the law. We find Christ performing miracles on the Sabbath, and this was a crime for the Jews, but Christ came to overthrow their false religiosity and teach them to worship in spirit and truth, as he indicated in his conversation with the Samaritan woman (John 4).
When Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, things changed. Christ, the second Adam, “finished” (John 19:30) the work that the first Adam failed to do (Romans 5:12-19). Because of this pivotal event, the church decided that for Christians under the New Testament, the day of worship and celebration of the grace of the Lord in Jesus Christ would be the first day of the week, Sunday. As Daniel Hyde says: “On this day, we remember and share in the glorious reality that we have already entered into God’s rest (Matthew 11:28; Hebrews 4:10) and that we await to experience the fullness of that rest in eternity in the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21-22). We now gather together to worship and to enjoy the deposit of our eternal rest, and then we go out into the kingdom of this world to work for six days.”
We find in (Luke 24: 25-27) Christ saying to them, “You fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that Christ Will he suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them the things in all the scriptures concerning himself.” Christ gave them the first expository sermon on the first Sunday, the first devotional service held on Sunday.
The first day of the week was the day on which our Lord rose from the dead (John 20:1), “This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24). Jesus rose from the dead that Sunday. He appeared that Sunday morning. He appeared that Sunday afternoon. He appeared that Sunday evening. He showed that he was alive for the women that Sunday. The first devotional service took place that Sunday. Jesus preached his first sermon after his resurrection on that Sunday. The two disciples met that Sunday. He broke bread for them, revealed himself to them, and disappeared from their sight in a miraculous way. The first day was also the day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church (Acts 2:1-36). Just as God separated light from darkness on the first day, the church gathers on the first of the week to worship God and be enlightened by the light of the Gospel in Jesus Christ, which separated us from the world of darkness of sin (John 1:5) (2 Corinthians 4:6). This makes the church meet to worship together on Sunday and not on Saturday.
We also read in (Acts 2:46): “And they continued daily with one accord in the temple. And as they broke bread from house to house, they ate “Eat food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and finding favor with all the people.” The apostles were meeting every day, but not long after, we find that they settled on a special day, and we know that from (Acts 20:7): “And on the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread.” It is clear that the early church did not cease to adhere to the meeting of the first week, and we discover that from (1 Corinthians 2:16) When Paul was collecting donations for the saints, he commanded them, saying: “At every first day of the week, let each one of you have his own, stocking up what he has on hand, so that when I come there will be no crowd.” “Then.” He tells them that what he wants from them is to make this a habit in their worship on Sunday. Offerings were collected on the first day of the week.
We also find Paul in (Galatians 4:9-11) saying: “But now that you have known God, or rather have been known by God, how will you turn again to the weak and needy elements, which you would That you may be enslaved to it again? Do you observe days and months and seasons and years? I fear for you, lest I have labored among you in vain. We understand from this that Paul wants to say. To them that they are not under the law of the Sabbath anymore because Christ freed them from that. It is a day in which we do not have to be more saintly than other days. Rather, it is a day in which we celebrate our salvation and a day in which we glorify God and focus on what Christ has done for us. Therefore, we gather as the people of God to pray and worship God together with contented souls and repentant, humble hearts, hoping for God.
Then it becomes clear to us that the seed that was formed in (Genesis 1) is clearly revealed in Revelation 10:1, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a great voice like the sound of a trumpet.” John MacArthur says about this text:
“On the day of the Lord” There are those who think that what is meant by this phrase is “on the day that belongs to the Lord,” meaning that it refers to the day of the final judgment. But this is not true. John did not see the day of the Lord’s final judgment while he was on the island of Patmos. Moreover, the phrase “on the Lord’s day, tehemera tou juriou,” is a descriptive phrase. The phrase, “on the Lord’s day,” is te kyriake hemera, which is A completely different phrase and it is only used here. The talk here is not about the afterlife of the Lord. This is a phrase that does not have any connection to the future. Rather, it even talks about the day of the Lord Interpretation of that.
Although John saw many visions, he does not mention in any vision a specific day except in that vision he did not specify the evening or the morning of the day because the entire day is the day of the Lord, the day of Christ’s resurrection, the day of victory over death, the day of the culmination of the work of redemption, so today is the day of revelation of salvation.
It is very important, as we examine the concept of the Lord’s Day, to focus on the fact that Christ is always the center, and since He is the center of the Christian faith, He is the center of the liturgy. What was revealed to us in the Old Testament is only a shadow and a symbol, but appears in the New Testament in reality and in action. God chose the beginning of the week to be the day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead so that this day would be a declaration of victory and salvation for us, because the resurrection represents a new resurrection of creation, a re-creation. Since the liturgy always takes its themes from the history of salvation and redemption extending from the beginning of time when God created creation until the second coming of Christ. Rather, our liturgy on the Lord’s Day, too, should be a window to heaven through which we can taste a view, even if incomplete, of the work of salvation accomplished and completed in the person of Jesus Christ, and the church becomes the embassy of the coming kingdom.
So we as Christ’s people should seriously consider what the Lord expects of us in His day? He wants us to celebrate Him as our Savior, Redeemer, and Intercessor, to be proud of His cross and to rejoice in His resurrection, to have fellowship with one another, to gather together around His table to do this in remembrance of Him as He commanded us, to listen to the teaching of the Apostles, to hear the word of preaching, and to accept the solemn truth. Because this is the day that God has appointed for us to focus on resting in Him, with Him, and in Him. Certainly, no amount of vacations, entertainment, or escape from social media will give us true peace. Running to Christ, and submitting to His management and guidance, is the only true and permanent Sabbath for the soul. As Eliot said: “Those who are passionate about the Lord’s Day spend a seventh of their lives in heaven while they are still on earth. While they are on earth, they will be no strangers to heaven. And when they die, heaven will be no stranger to them.”
Conclusion
Through the biblical understanding of the redemptive historicity of the concept of the Lord’s Day, we realize that a true understanding of the Lord’s Day is necessary for the church today, as it helps the church experience a taste of the “not yet.” Jesus Christ reigns over His kingdom (Philippians 2:9-11), but the church awaits His return to judge the living and the dead according to all their deeds (1 Corinthians 15:24-52) when He establishes His eternal kingdom and all of God’s people will finally experience the true Sabbath rest (Hebrews 8:4-10). Until that last day, the Church lives the influence of salvation for the present and awaits the completion of salvation “already but not yet.” As Daniel Peters said: “The Lord’s Day is like a taste of “already” and “not yet.”
References page
Arabic references:
يعقوب تادرس وبيشوى بيشرى. “ماذا يعني كلمة يوم في الإصحاح الأول من سفر التكوين” كاتيكيزم الكنيسة القبطية. تم الاطلاع عليه يوم 14 نوفمبر 2023 متاح على الرابط التالي https://coptic-treasures.com/question/168-catechism-of-coptic-church_part_6_almfahym-almsyhyh-walhyah-aly-168/
هايد دانيال. “لماذا يتعبَّد المسيحيُّون في يوم الأحد؟”. خدمات ليجونير 23 مارس 2020 تم الاطلاع عليه يوم 14 نوفمبر 2023 متاح على الرابط التالي https://ar.ligonier.org/articles/why-do-christians-worship-on-sunday/
سبرول آر. سي. “للرب الأرض وملؤها،” خدمات ليجونير 24 سبتمبر 2019 تم الاطلاع عليه يوم15 نوفمبر2023 متاح على الرابط التالي https://ar.ligonier.org/devotions/knowing-god/day-13/
روس مارك. “العيش في الدهر الآتي”. خدمات ليجونير. 27 يناير 2023 تم الاطلاع عليه يوم 16 نوفمبر2023 متاح على الرابط التالي https://ar.ligonier.org/tabletalk/living-in-the-world-to-come/
English References:
Keil C. F. and F. Delitzsch. Commentary on the Old Testament, vol 1, Pentateuch. (Peabody,
Hendrickson Publishers, 2001), 43.
Huffman Justin. “Sabbath: An Enduring Principle for the Soul”. TGC OCTOBER 27, 2020. Available on this link https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sabbath-enduring-principle/
MacArthur John. “Why Sunday is lord’s day?” Grace community: South Calfornia, 11 Oct 2009.
Betters Daniel A. “THE PERPETUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LORD‘S DAY,” (A Thesis Project, Reformed Theological Seminary, 2008), 11.