Sabbath Keeping, Terrorism, Israel’s Jealousy and the End
Personal Matters
God is working out a global scenario involving Islamic terrorism the Gentile Church and the Jewish people. A friend who fled Kazakhstan recently because of persecution spoke prophetically when he said that through harassment, “God is unifying us”. Then I heard the Spirit through an Arab Christian pastor; “The terrorists don’t care what brand of Christian you are they just want to kill you!” In this context came a call to the Gentile Church to live in a way that would “provoke Israel to jealousy” so that “all Israel” might be saved and Jesus return from heaven (Rom 11:14, 26).When another Israeli spoke about the importance of Law to the Jews I started to sense how the Lord is working today to bring his Church into a Sabbath rest so he might bring everything to completion. To enter into God’s plan will require us to be lifted beyond our normal experience of day to day life.
The Reason for Sabbath
The origin of the gift of Sabbath to humanity and Israel is grounded in the eternal rested pleasure enjoyed by the Father and Son (Gen 2:1-3; Ex 20:8-11; John 17:5). We get an inkling of the spiritual depths of such rest when we read that even God Almighty “on the seventh day…rested and was refreshed.” (Ex 31:17). This can only make sense in terms of God in Christ. If Jesus is the one “for whom all things were created” this must include the reason why Sabbath was given (Col 1:16). As the “image of the invisible God….Christ is the goal of the Law” (Rom 10:4; Col 1:15). It was not Adam or Israel for whom the Sabbath was ultimately made but the human Jesus (Mark 2:27). Sabbath is forever important because it is a divine means to make us like Christ. This is rarely experienced because God’s way of bringing us to rest in Jesus is contrary to all worldy understanding (1 Cor 1:18-20).
Lord of the Sabbath
At the spiritual heart of Sabbath was God’s desire for man to trust in his working alone. When the Spirit descended and remained on Jesus the resting place the Lord so long sought in Israel was finally realised in his faithful Son (Ps 132:8, 14; Isa 66:1; Luke 3:22; John 1:33). As the man who constantly depends on God’s power Jesus is qualified as a human being to be “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). In stark contrast the self-proclaimed Sabbath keepers of his day refused to allow Jesus to be the Lord of their Sabbath keeping because they despised a life dependent on grace alone (John 1:17; 9:16; Col 2:16-17). The great test of Jesus’ faithfulness however was not a weekly rest but the cross. Could he trust only in the work of God when the curse of the Law came upon him at Calvary (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13)? Could his total dependency on the Father survive when he was deprived of all spiritual refreshment and plunged into the eternal restlessness of all who despise God’s commandments (Deut 28:65; Lam 5:5; Isa 57:20-21)?
The foolish Law-men provoked Jesus to “come down from the cross” but the Lord refused to deliver himself by his own power (Matt 27:40-42). When Christ cries out the words of Psalm 22:1, ““My God…why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34), he has become one with the psalmist who “finds no rest” (v.2). The crucified Jesus laments ““I thirst”” for he has no access to the refreshing Sabbath Spirit (Ex 31:17; John 19:28). Yet all of this is saving for whilst experientially outside all Sabbath blessings at the heart level Christ trusts in God’s working alone to bring in his kingdom. This is the heart of the Sabbath. The crucified Lord was however not passive; he works with God through prayers that plead for sinners forgiveness (Luke 23:34). By this most blessed divine work Jesus keeps the Sabbath on behalf of our lost and restless race.
Perfected through suffering Jesus “entered” into the heavenly sanctuary where all is at rest (Heb 2:10; 5:8-9; 6:19-20; 9:12, 24-25). The holy blessedness which God planned for us from the beginning belongs to Christ and we are exhorted to “enter” the heavenlies through his blood and share his rest (Gen 2:3; Eph 2:6; Heb 4:3, 6, 11; 10:19). In a busy world a rest that triumphs over all circumstances seems impossible. Indeed it is, apart from the martyrs.
Terror and Jealousy
Rest is not inactivity and in heaven Jesus is interceding the Father’s will (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25). In Christ surrendered prayer is also our place of rest; “In the supreme sense to pray is to observe a Sabbath rest from all one’s cares, even the best.” (Barth). God’s strategy in bringing us to the point of surrendering all our cares to his power alone is great suffering (2 Cor 1:8-11). The incredible terror released on the earth today has surrendered intercession as its ultimate divine purpose (Rev 6). The prayers both of and for those who are suffering for Christ today is how the Lord will release his Sabbath rest to the world. Fighters in the name of Allah may establish an earthly kingdom but Jesus’ reigns through our forgiving intercessory prayers that share in the finished work of the cross (Isa 53:12; John 18:36; 19:30; Acts 7:60). Knowing God’s anger has been removed from us we are empowered to pray blessing rather than cursing on all who would terrorise the people of God; this is the presence of Christ’s perfect Sabbath rest for all who cannot find peace on earth (Luke 6:27-28; Rom 3:25). Whilst Jewish people everywhere live with constant fear and anxiety of anti-Semitic persecution an afflicted but rested Gentile Church is the living testimony that Jesus is their true Messiah; the Lord of their Sabbath. In seeing a truly rested Church Israel will be “provoked to jealousy” and come to the one who promised rest all storm tossed and laboured souls (Isa 54:11; Matt 11:29; Rom 11:14, 26). This is how the End must come.
Conclusion
Anti anxiety medication will not heal the worries of a tormented soul nor can the mood music of our trendy churches cut it with the tragedies of our planet. No ordinary human strategy can deliver us from fears in an increasingly threatened world. We must return to the wisdom of the cross in the way of the martyrs. Seen through the lens of Christ crucified terrorism is an instrument of the Lord to move his Church into a realm of deep constant intercession that rests in the finished work of Christ. In and through such a global movement of prayer God’s Sabbath goal of eternal rest can be revealed to all. Most specifically, the Church’s response to terrorism holds great hope for the conversion of Israel and the End of all things.
The strategy of the Lord is a call for each Christian to live holy and blessed lives so that God can come to rest in me. Pivotal to this rest is an identification with Christ crucified that inspires profound praying for persecuted believers throughout the world. This cannot be separated from joining in the New Testament’s passion for the salvation of the Jewish people. Here is a call for a new reformation that can only take place through grace alone. Long ago God challenged his first Sabbath people; ‘“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling’ (Isa 30:15). Will he find us willing today?