What is the Sabbath?

“Sabbath”, from the word, “to rest”, or “to cease”, as the Lord said to Noah: ​

“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)

I took my inspiration from Swedenborg’s comment:

“When, however, the Lord came into the world, so that representations of Him ceased, [the Sabbath] became a day for instruction in Divine matters, and also a day of rest from work, for meditation about matters conducive to salvation and everlasting life, and a day for love towards the neighbour.” (True Christian Religion, 301)

From Paul:

“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.” (Hebrews 10:1)

“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” (Colossians 2:16,17)

BOTH PAUL AND SWEDENBORG talk about a TIMELESS principle, celebrated IN TIME. Once the promise has been fulfilled, then what remains of the promise must take on a new role.

Swedenborg makes a similar comment elsewhere, but then goes on to look at the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda:

” … when [the Lord] was in the world and united His Human to the Divine itself, [He] did away with the sabbath as an occasion on which representative worship or the kind of worship established among the Israelite people took place, and made the sabbath day a day for instruction in teachings about faith and love. This is what the following words in John imply,

‘Jesus healing a certain man on the sabbath day said to him, Take up your bed and walk. And he took up the bed and walked. The Jews said that he ought not to carry a bed on the sabbath day. And they sought to kill the Lord, because He broke the sabbath.’ (John 5:8-11, 18) …

Every healing from sickness carried out by the Lord implies purification from evils and falsities, or restoration of spiritual life, … ‘Walking’ means life, … The fact that ‘bed’ means religious teachings is clear from places in the Word where a bed is mentioned, and also from representatives in the next life. When a bed is seen there and someone is lying on it, the teachings on which that person relies are meant.” (Heavenly Secrets, 10360, sections 8 & 9)

Recorded on Sunday 17 July 2021