Fasting and Sabbath Rest

The author of Hebrews says, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:9–11).

In his use of the Old Testament, it seems as though the author of Hebrews understands the goal of the Christian’s journey, the goal of the Exodus, and the goal of creation as entering God’s Sabbath rest through faithful obedience. But, isn’t Sabbath observance about not working on a particular day of the week; simply resting from one’s work? Perhaps, but that action item is rooted in a much grander vision of Sabbath laid out by the Old Testament narrative. The author of Hebrews draws out this narrative through Psalm 95 (and, by implication, Exodus 17 and Numbers 20) and Genesis 2. As the story unfolds, we find ourselves caught up in a beautiful story of Sabbath rest that begins in creation (Genesis 1-2) and ends with new creation (Revelation 21-22). The story of Sabbath is indeed rest, but it not simply rest from labor. It is also respite from sin and its curse. This respite from sin and its curse is the ultimate goal and purpose of creation.

Entering God’s rest could be entering the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 12:8–14), the Temple (1 Chronicles 28:2; 2 Chronicles 6:41; Psalm 132:8; and Isaiah 66:1), a spiritual rest, or God’s rest in creation. But to read these as separate options is to read the Old Testament narrative as a disparate grouping of stories with no underlying narrative flow: as if the God of creation is not the God of redemption; as though the One who made the sea and formed the dry land is not also Israel’s maker, the shepherd of His people. Hence, it makes the most sense to read “rest” as all these things, each one symbolic of entering God’s rest.

Sabbath rest is simply God’s people, in God’s place, obeying God’s commands, i.e., enjoying respite from sin and its curse. The author of Hebrews simply comes in at the end of this narrative and proclaims, “We now enter that rest in Christ.”  We enjoy respite from sin and its curse when we enter into Christ, having experienced new creation in Him. And we will enter that rest when we have come to the end of our faithful service in Him. We will hear our King, Creator, and Redeemer say, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into My rest.”

As Oliver O’Donovan artfully puts, “The sign which celebrates the completeness of creation [Sabbath] looks forward also to the fulfillment of history…God’s works have been completed since the beginning of the world, He tells us. What remains is for us to enter the Sabbath rest which has been waiting for us all this time, as it were, unoccupied.”[1] Here the Psalmist seeks occupants to dwell in the place and time of Sabbath. Use your time of fasting, time in the wilderness, as striving to occupy this rest.

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[1] Oliver O’Donovan, Resurrection and the Moral Order: An Outline for Evangelical Ethics, pg. 61. 

Mark Catlin