Some Thoughts

A couple thoughts on Sabbath and shalom.

I don’t remember where it was that I read it recently, but apparently there’s a lot more to the meaning of the Hebrew Shalom than I’d thought. Much more than mere “peace,” apparently shalom’s deeper meaning connotes the order and peace of God moving in on and overpowering strife and disorder. One almost catches a whiff of the pre-Fall Eden-paradise! To greet someone with shalom! is more than merely polite; it’s actually eschatological – even redemptive. “May the peace and blessing of Eden be upon you. May paradise be regained in your life.” I think that’s pretty cool.

I’m finishing up Gaffin’s little book Calvin and the Sabbath today and something struck me about one of the Sabbath requirements God placed on Israel (rather, on anyone in the land of Israel). Everyone was to observe the Sabbath – the day of peace and rest in and with the Lord of the Sabbath – everyone including sojourners and those passing through. It wasn’t an ethnic thing, only for those in Abraham. It was race-wide, for all in Adam. Consider with this the idea that the Sabbath was a kind of a sacrament – a foreshadowing the “rest from our evil works” that Christ brought us. Abraham’s blessing wasn’t for Abraham’s offspring alone: “in you shall all nations be blessed.” It seems, perhaps, that here is a small hint that what Israel’s Sabbath pointed toward was not for Israel alone, but for all nations — for “every nation, tongue, and tribe” in Christ. As Jesus (who is “our Sabbath”) said, “Come to me, all of you, and I shall give you rest.”

In Christ, whose voice still commands the winds and the waves, shalom is personified. And with Christ, who “does always the things which please the Father,” our Sabbath is perfected, and perpetual having been won by his perfect obedience.