Thank God for Sunday!

There is a great emphasis made on the Sabbath and Sabbath worship in scripture and there are arguments whether Sunday is the “Christian Sabbath” or not. As dispensationalists, we refrain from calling Sunday the Christian Sabbath although we readily agree that Sunday fills the “one in seven” rest principle established at creation. However, the worship of God on the first day of the week was an Old Testament concept that we often miss.

God rested after creation on the seventh day, and then the work began in the Garden of Eden on the eighth day. They hopefully began to dress and keep the Garden under the command of God. It would have been a time filled with joy, excitement, and hope.

Sheaf offering.

While seventh-day rest was commanded in the law, at least one Sunday a year was committed to the worship of God.

Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹ He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. ¹² And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³ Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a ^[a]sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. ¹⁴ You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings (Leviticus 23:1-14).

A Sunday offering.

The sheaf offering was made the day after the Sabbath—on Sunday. Specifically on Sunday immediately following the Passover. Jesus rose from the dead on the day the Sheaf Offerings would have been made. The choice of the day of the week would have been a mystery until Jesus affirmed the symbolism when He rose from the dead on Sunday.

Thankfulness that the harvest has come.

The first sheaves of grain of the new harvest were the culmination of many steps of faith. Some seeds of the previous harvest had to be saved rather than eaten. It then had to be sown in faith trusting that God would send the rain to nurture the grain and withhold the forces that could destroy it. The seed had to die in the ground for it to be reborn in a new and prospering plant.

Jesus used the analogy of the seed in John 12:24 to describe His own work. He likened Himself to the seed that had to die so that it could produce a new plant and much fruit. So Jesus, in faith and obedience planted His own body in death so that He could be the first fruits of a new harvest.

First of a new harvest.

The sheaf offering was the firstfruit of a new harvest. The first sheaves of grain were harvested and brought before the rest of the harvest was attempted. The Apostle Paul makes much of the sheaf offering imagery when He calls Christ “the first fruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20).

Jesus rose from the dead as the firstfruits on the day the Sheaf offering was made. He is the first of a new resurrection—a new kind of resurrection—that will one day characterize everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. “Even so we also” is the hope of every believer (Romans 6:5).

Anticipation of the joyful harvest work ahead.

Taking in the harvest was hard work—but the harder it was, the more joyful it was. The worst thing in the world would be to be at ease during harvest time. That would mean that famine is coming. So when the sheaves were brought to the Temple to be waved before the Lord it was with a sense of anticipation and joy.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be [a]witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8)

So the resurrection of Christ meant victory for the disciples, but it also pushed them forward into the joyful Age of the Harvest in which we are now living.

So the Church met on Sunday.

So the New Testament church met on Sunday. They gathered to break bread on Sunday (Acts 20:7). They came together and set aside their tithes and offerings on Sunday (1 Corinthians 16:1-2), and God even chose to interrupt the Apostle John’s Sunday devotions with the revelation of the end times (Revelation 1:10). The Sabbath day looks back at the work that has been done in thankfulness and finds rest. The Sheaf Offering looks forward to the harvest that is ahead in joy and finds hope.

Thank God for Sunday.