Man was not made for the Sabbath,
but the Sabbath was made for man

“As he was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath,” Mark 2:23-27.

As we know God rested on the seventh day and it has been set aside as a time for rest and worshiping our Lord. But we are no longer under the law that was given for us to follow certain rules and regulations. For he has come to set us free, and when the son sets us free, we are free indeed.

Every day should be time for considering the rest that He has come to give his saints. As Hebrews 3:10-11 says,

“Because of this I was provoked with that generation and I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart, and they do not know my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”

The Pharisees had come to Jesus when he was picking a few tassels of grain on the Sabbath, and the Lord reminded them of how the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. And now we are not to follow it as a rule, but as a gift from him, not under obligation to cease from our labors. For every day we can come to him and find rest. For he has said that those who come to him who labor and are heavy-laden, can find rest with him, not just on a particular day.

And we are told in Colossians 2 to not let anyone pass judgment about matters of food and drink, or the sabbath. These are but temporary things, and they are not eternal. For if we died with Christ to the rules and powers of this world, then why are we still following them?

“Let no one, then, pass judgment on you in matters of food and drink or with regard to a festival or new moon or sabbath. These are shadows of things to come; the reality belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, delighting in self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, inflated without reason by his fleshly mind, and not holding closely to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and bonds, achieves the growth that comes from God.
If you died with Christ to the elemental powers of the world, why do you submit to regulations as if you were still living in the world? “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” These are all things destined to perish with use; they accord with human precepts and teachings. While they have a semblance of wisdom in rigor of devotion and self-abasement [and] severity to the body, they are of no value against gratification of the flesh,” 2 Colossians 2:16-20.

It’ not to say that we don’t follow speed limit signs or disobey rules that we must follow in order to live a civil life, but we look beyond this earth to a higher law, the law of life in him, that instills freedom and hope beyond this world.

So, find that rest within him. Come to those still waters and green pastures, even amidst your labors on a day like today. Don’t follow after man and his rules and regulations, but seek that higher rule which would give you freedom.

~ Stephen Hanson

Stephen Hanson of In His Truth Ministries came to the Lord is a special way in 1975 and has been prophesying regularly since. In these end-time birthing pangs we are to be reminded that judgment must first begin with the household of God. Will we be prepared and ready?