BIBLE TEACHINGS MADE PLAIN, part 16
The Seventh-day Sabbath
With this lesson we will have a look at the Seventh-day Sabbath in the Bible. After we have established the Biblical Sabbath properly we will in the next lesson discuss the question,” How to keep the Sabbath Holy?”
What we have done several times before, we will turn to the beginning. The beginning gives us the foundation for what we want to know. We learn from the beginning that all was good and even very good, Gen.1:31. In our first lesson we established the fact that the Bible is trustworthy and given to us by divine inspiration, 2Tim.3:16 The Bible is of divine origin, we can believe it as we believe God. For that reason we believe that the first chapters of Genesis also are divinely inspired and fully and completely trustworthy. The creation record of a creation done in seven days of 24 hours each, we accept as fact and without a shadow of doubt.
The days given in Genesis chapter one start with evening followed by the day and together making one full day of 24 hours, Gen.1:5, 8.13, 19, 23 and 31. Also we read after each day that what was made was “good”, followed by 1:31 that it was “very good”.
After the sixth day followed obviously the seventh day of which we read in Gen.2:1-3 Gen.2:1 starts with stating that the making or creating of heaven and earth were finished or completed, and that by the seventh day God ended all His work, 2:2. Then follows that God did three things, “He rested from all His work, He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it”, 2:3. What God has blessed and sanctified, no one ever can change or alter into an ordinary day. By sanctifying the seventh day God made it different from the other six days. The seventh day is a specially blessed day, separated and different. Only Adam and Eve existed at that time and thus the Seventh day Sabbath does not belong to any special people, nation or tribe, but belongs to the human race, is made for man as Jesus later declared in Mark 2:27. This is the first fact we learn from the beginning, it is made for man.
The next thing we learn about the Sabbath is that because it was made in connection with God’s creation it is declared to be a memorial day to God’s creation. Read the fourth command in Ex.20:8-11 and in particular verse 11 where it says “for in six days God created”. In the first angel message for the last days we read in Rev.14:6, 7
that we should worship Him that made heaven and earth. In other words we are called to worship the Creator God. It is difficult to worship the Creator God and by-passing His creation memorial the Seventh-day Sabbath. At the same time it is difficult to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath as a memorial to God’s creation and not believing in the creation week of Genesis chapter one.
The third fact we learn about the Sabbath is that it was instituted before sin entered the Garden of Eden, thus before any law was established in relation to sin, before any ceremonial law. The Seventh-day Sabbath does not belong in the category of ceremonial laws but in the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments. We do find certain days called Sabbath days in Leviticus and Numbers, but they are ceremonial Sabbath days and not particularly falling on the Seventh day of the week, they could be celebrated on any day of the week. The Seventh-day Sabbath stands on its own, is directly related to God as Creator and His creation and is part of the unchangeable Ten Commandments.
After Genesis 2:1-3 it is a long time before we read again about the Sabbath and that is in Exod.16:23, 25, 26 and 29. The Israelites have come out of Egypt; they are now in the desert, the Lord feeds them from heaven with manna and the Lord gives them instruction regarding food collection on Friday and the Sabbath, double portion on Friday and nothing on Sabbath. Remember this Sabbath instruction was before the Sabbath was mentioned as part of the Ten Commandments. Sabbath was known, but coming out of more than 400 years in bondage they needed to be reminded regarding the sacredness of the Sabbath.
The question may be raised what about the Sabbath in between Gen.2:1-3 and Exodus 16 was there no Sabbath keeping in that period of time? It is not mentioned, but so are the other commandments not mentioned. However we learn from Gen.26:5 that Abraham kept all God’s commandments, statutes and laws. It is logic to reason that this included the Ten Commandments with the fourth one about the Seventh-day Sabbath. Abraham knew about the sacrificial system because he built an altar in different places, Gen.12:7, 8; 13:4, 18; 22:9, 13. Noah also built an altar and was also acquainted with the law about clean and unclean animals, Gen.7:2; 8:20. Abraham and Jacob knew about the law of tithing, Gen.14:20; 28:22. While these men practiced these laws and were not written until we have them in the book of Leviticus we believe that the Sabbath was known to them as well before it was carved in stone and mentioned in Exod.20:8-11 as part of the Ten Commandments.
The people of the time of Noah may well have perished in the flood for transgressing these laws and the same may be true for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, because of Abraham we know that he did keep them, Gen 26:5.
For Israel coming out of Egypt the Sabbath became a special sign between them and God, Exod.31:12-17, a sign of loyalty. Later we learn from the apostle Paul in Romans 9-11 that Israel does not consist only of the biological children of Abraham
We read in Rom.9:6-8 they are not all Israel who are of Israel, which means not all are God’s Israel who are born from an Israeli farther/mother, but who are from the Seed of Abraham and that Seed is Christ, Gal.3:16, 29. True Israel are those who are born of Christ. Read also Rom.2:28, 29 about who is a Jew. Circumcision is not important but the keeping of God’s commandments, which includes the Seventh-day Sabbath, 1Cor.7:19 and this keeping is only possible by faith that works through love, Gal.5:6
Israel has not always been faithful to the Seventh-day Sabbath, read Nehemiah 13:16-22. Even after the 70 years of captivity unfaithfulness occurred again. Nehemiah reminded them of that fact that such was the reason for having been deported for 70 years into Babylon.
The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel have given us messages about the importance of the Sabbath and not only for the Jews but for all including the strangers, Isa.56:1-7; Eze.20:12, 20. Isaiah even states that in the new earth we will keep the Seventh-day Sabbath, Isa.66:22, 23.
What do we know about Jesus and the Sabbath? We learn from Luke 4:16 that it was His custom to go to the Synagogue on the Sabbath. Jesus performed miracles on the Sabbath, of which we will speak in our next lesson. Jesus declared that He is The Lord of the Sabbath, Mark.2:28. Jesus also taught that He had not come to change anything from the law and that includes the 4th commandment as well, Matth.5:17, 18.
Not even a tiny little bit of the law would be changed. The day Jesus died, on Friday the preparation day for the Sabbath, Luke 23:52-56 the women after having cared for the body of Jesus went home and rested on the Sabbath according to the command.
What about the apostles did they forget the Sabbath? Read Acts 13:14, 42, and 44. The gentiles heard their message and asked to have the same preached to them. They were told to return the next Sabbath, Acts 16:13; 17:2 and 18:4. Even John in exile on the isle of Patmos speaks about the Lord’s Day, which is not Sunday or a day to honour the Roman emperor, but the day of which Jesus and God are Lord, Mark 2:28; Exod.20:10. The Seventh-day Sabbath is a day of rest. In Hebrews 4 it is explained that we must go into a spiritual rest, 4:1-11 but that does not take away the physical rest of which God spoke in a certain place and that God rested the Seventh day from all His works, 4:4. Taking that as a divine example it reads in 4:9 there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. rest means in Greek “Sabbatismos” or the keeping of Sabbath.. In verse 10 it is further emphasized that when we go into His rest, the spiritual rest for which we are invited in Matth.11:28-30 we will rest from our works as God did from His works, as we find recorded in Gen.2:1-3.
God’s last day people are people identified as keeping the commandments of God, which no doubt includes the fourth commandment about the Seventh-day Sabbath, because they worship the Creator God, Rev.12:17; 14:12; 14:6, 7. They are Christians because they have the faith of Jesus, believing in Jesus and also they have the Testimony of Jesus, so they are clearly identified as Jesus people, Christians. They also know that they live under the grace of God because they are sinners but forgiven by God and having received His grace and are saved by grace through faith, Eph.2:8, 9. This means they have to stay away from transgressing God’s commandments, it does not mean that the law has been taken away, but their sins have been taken away.
Dear reader if you have responded positively to previous commitment statements to accept Jesus as your personal Saviour and Messiah you are now challenged to the commitment of accepting the Seventh-day Sabbath as the Lord’s day.
Commitment: Having accepted Jesus as my personal Saviour and Lord, by God’s grace I now do commit myself to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath Holy, of which Jesus my Saviour is Lord.
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