NAME 07 of 16: YEHOVAH-QADASH

Yehovah told Israel to keep the Sabbaths forever because it was a sign between Him and them throughout their generations that they would know that He is Yehovah who sanctifies them. Keeping the Sabbath was a perpetual sign to Israel that Yehovah set them apart.

“Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.” Exodus 31:13 (KJV)

The Hebrew word for ‘sanctify’ is QADASH. It literally refers to consecrating, sanctifying, preparing and dedicating, hallowing or making holy and to separating or setting apart something or someone. In this instance the Israelites are urged to observe the Sabbaths because observing them was an eternal sign to them that Yehovah had separated them.

It is clear from scripture that the Sabbath is important to God and is also a reminder to the people and to their descendants that God had separated them. If it was not important to God then He would not have taken on the attribute Yehovah-Qadash. I will ask two questions below:

Question 1: Since this was a command to Israel, does observing the Jewish Sabbath apply to us as born-again believers under the new covenant? I like Matthew Henry’s commentary on Matthew 28, which I believe answers this question.

“He arose after the Jewish sabbath, and it was the passover-sabbath; all that day he lay in the grave, to signify the abolishing of the Jewish feasts and the other parts of the ceremonial law, and that his people must be dead to such observances, and take no more notice of them than he did when he lay in the grave. Christ on the sixth day finished his work; he said, It is finished; on the seventh day he rested, and then on the first day of the next week did as it were begin a new world, and enter upon new work. Let no man therefore judge us now in respect of the new moons, or of the Jewish sabbaths, which were indeed a shadow of good things to come, but the substance if of Christ. We may further observe, that the time of the saints' lying in the grave, is a sabbath to them (such as the Jewish sabbath was, which consisted chiefly in bodily rest), for there they rest from their labours (Job iii. 17); and it is owing to Christ.” Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

Question 2: When should born-again believers observe a Sabbath, if at all? Again let us go to Matthew Henry’s commentary on Matthew 28.

“ He arose upon the first day of the week; on the first day of the first week God commanded the light to shine out of darkness; on this day therefore did he who was to be the Light of the world, shine out of the darkness of the grave; and the seventh-day sabbath being buried with Christ, it arose again in the first-day sabbath, called the Lord's day (Rev. i. 10), and no other day of the week is from henceforward mentioned in all the New Testament than this, and this often, as the day which Christians religiously observed in solemn assemblies, to the honour of Christ, John xx. 19, 26; Acts xx. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2. If the deliverance of Israel out of the land of the north superseded the remembrance of that out of Egypt (Jer. xxiii. 7, 8), much more doth our redemption by Christ eclipse the glory of God's former works. The sabbath was instituted in remembrance of the perfecting of the work of creation, Gen. ii. 1. Man by his revolt made a breach upon that perfect work, which was never perfectly repaired till Christ arose from the dead, and the heavens and the earth were again finished, and the disordered hosts of them modelled anew, and the day on which this was done was justly blessed and sanctified, and the seventh day from that. He who on that day arose from the dead, is the same by whom, and for whom, all things were at first created, and now anew created.” Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

The scripture tells us that Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. We know that the Jewish Sabbath was Saturday, the seventh day and that the first day was Sunday. This is often referred to as Resurrection Day. John calls it the Lord’s Day in Revelation 1:10.

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,”

Remember that as born-again believers we are also sanctified or set apart through Christ Jesus our Lord when He was raised from the dead.

“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11

“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10

If we are sanctified through Christ then we are set apart to Him and to the commemoration of the Lord’s Day as an example. We have scriptural examples of believers gathering on the Lord’s Day. The disciples assembled on the first day of the week two different times after Jesus had been raised:

“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.” John 20:19, 26

Paul preached to disciples who had gathered together on the first day of the week to break bread.

“And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” Acts 20:7

There is evidence that the churches of Galatia and Corinth assembled on the first day of the week.

“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” 1 Corinthians 16:1-2

Under the Old covenant, Yehovah-Qadash sanctified Israel and reminded them of their sanctification by their keeping of the Sabbath on Saturday. Under the New covenant Yehovah has sanctified us through Christ Jesus and we honor Christ on His Day, the first day of the week, the day he was resurrected, Sunday, by assembling together.

If Yehovah is also our Qadash, the Lord that sanctifies us, and sanctification is through Christ who rose from the dead on Sunday, then can it be said that Sunday is our Sabbath (seventh day), our day of rest, that is, our eternal sign of Christ’s resurrection and Yehovah’s sanctification?