It is popular for Christians to say that the Sabbath has been done away with, or that we no longer need to keep the Sabbath. Some even say that the Sabbath was changed to Sunday. However, none of these claims can be supported by Scripture. There is not a single verse in the entire Bible that tells us the Sabbath was ever changed or removed, and not one verse ever tells us to stop keeping the Sabbath. Yet, there are well over one hundred verses in the Bible that tell us to keep the Sabbath.
Here are my top 10 Scriptural reasons about why we should still be keeping the Sabbath.
10. THE SABBATH WAS ESTABLISHED AT CREATION
“And on the seventh day ELOHIYM ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then ELOHIYM blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which ELOHIYM had created and made.”
Bere’shiyth(Genesis) 2:2-3
9. THE SABBATH IS ONE OF THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of YAHUAH ELOHAYKA. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days YAHUAH made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore YAHUAH blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
– Exodus 20:8-11
8. THE SABBATH IS A SIGN BETWEEN ELOHIYM AND HIS PEOPLE
“ And YAHUAH spoke unto Mosheh, saying, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am YAHUAH MEQODDISHKEM (YAHUAH who sanctifies you)… Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days YAHUAH made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”
– Exodus 31:12-17“Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am YAHUAH MEQODDISHKEM (YAHUAH who sanctifies them)… I am YAHUAH ELOHAYKEM(YAHUAH YOUR GOD): Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them; hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am YAHUAH ELOHAYKEM(YAHUAH your God).”
– Ezekiel 20:12-20
7. THE SABBATH IS A GIFT TO US
And He said to them, “The Sabbath was MADE FOR MAN, and not man for the Sabbath.”
– Mark 2:27“Moreover I also GAVE them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am YAHUAH who sanctifies them.”
– Ezekiel 20:12
6. YAHUAH BLESSES THOSE WHO KEEP THE SABBATH
“Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil. Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to EL-YAHUAH Speak, saying, “YAHUAH has utterly separated me from His people”; Nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.” For thus says the YAHUAH: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to YAHUAH, to serve Him, And to love the name of YAHUAH, to be His servants – Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant – Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
– Isaiah 56:2-7
5. THE SABBATH WILL STILL BE KEPT IN THE NEW CREATION
“’For as the new heavens and the new earth Which I will make shall remain before Me,’ says YAHUAH, ‘So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass That from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,’ says YAHUAH.”
– Isaiah 66:22-23
4. WE ARE COMMANDED TO REMEMBER THE SABBATH
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
– Exodus 20:8
3. TO FORGET OR CEASE THE SABBATH IS A PUNISHMENT IN ITSELF
“He has done violence to His tabernacle, As if it were a garden; He has destroyed His place of assembly; YAHUAH has caused The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest.”
– Lamentations 2:6“‘I will also cause all her mirth to cease, Her feast days, Her New Moons, Her Sabbaths – All her appointed feasts… I will punish her For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, And went after her lovers; But Me she forgot,’ says YAHUAH.”
– Hosea 2:11-13
2. YAHUSHA, Paul, AND GENTILE CONVERTS KEPT THE SABBATH
“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.”
– Luke 4:16“So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath… On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of YAHUAH.”
– Acts 13:42-44“Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,”
– Acts 17:2“And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.”
– Acts 18:4
1. THE BIBLE NEVER SAYS TO STOP KEEPING THE SABBATH
“Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a PERPETUAL covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel FOREVER; for in six days YAHUAH made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”
– Exodus 31:16-17
And here is a bonus scripture:
FALSE PRIESTS DO NOT KEEP THE SABBATH
“Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.”
– Ezekiel 22:26
I hope you enjoyed this top 10, and if you are not currently keeping the Sabbath, I pray this write-up has challenged you to consider doing so.
Shalom.