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Austin Church of God |
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Many wonder why someone in the twenty-first century would observe the seventh-day Sabbath? This article will address the Biblical reasons for worshipping God on the seventh day of the week. God created the heavens and
earth in six days “and on the seventh day God ended His work which He
had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had
done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He
rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
(Genesis 2:2-3). God created the seventh-day Sabbath by ending his work,
resting on the seventh-day, and thus setting it apart as a separate, holy
day. The
next instruction of the Sabbath from God is around 1450 BC. In Exodus 16
after 430 years of slavery in Egypt, God through Moses freed the
Israelites. One month after
leaving Egypt, they complained to God, and God gave them "bread from
heaven, manna”. It is
through this food God supplied that he confirmed again the seventh day
Sabbath. They were to gather
manna every morning according to their need, "one omer for every
person", no more, no less, and they were not to leave any till
morning. (Ex. 16:16-18) On
the sixth day they were told to gather twice as much because
"tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord." (Ex.
16:23) When they left manna over from the first five days of the week,
against the instruction from God, it stank and bred worms, but when they
saved it over on the 6th day, for the Sabbath, it was fine.
There was no manna from heaven on the Sabbath.
This manna was given to them for 40 years while they were in the
desert. God again taught and reinforced his command to observe the seventh
day Sabbath to the Lord. God
then instructed in the Ten Commandments, “Remember the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy. Six days you
shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of
the Lord your God. In it you
shall do no work...for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed
it.” (Exodus 20:8-11) Since
the time of the creation, God has set apart the seventh day in honor of
Him, the Creator. We are to
remember the Creator God, and give honor to Him by resting from our work
on that day, and using it to honor and glorify Him as our Creator, and
Sustainer of all life. God
restated to Israel the importance of the Sabbath when He gave them His
Feast days to observe. And
the Lord said, “The feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be
holy convocations, these are My feasts.
Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of
solemn rest, a holy convocation. You
shall do no work on it, it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your
dwellings.” (Leviticus
23:1-3) The Sabbath is to be a day we rest from our work and we join
together in a holy assembly as the people of God. So serious was this command from God that it was punishable by death. “Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath…then the Lord said to Moses, The man must surely be put to death;” (Numbers 15:32-36). Blessings are promised to those who choose to honor God on the Sabbath instead of seeking their own desires. “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord: and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:13-14) Jesus
and the Sabbath When
Jesus came, His instruction was that we should live by God’s
commandments also. “Do not
think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets, I did not come to
destroy but to fulfill. For
assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one
title will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments,
and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but
whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of
heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19). Jesus
gave us a living example of God’s law through His life.
We are to follow in his footsteps, and strive to live as He lived. Jesus
said the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and that the
son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:27)
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day, the scribes and Pharisees,
often condemned Jesus for what he did on the Sabbath because of their lack
of understanding of the purpose for the Sabbath.
They had a list of their own laws regarding the Sabbath in addition
to God’s instruction. However,
Jesus gave clarity to the Sabbath day in the way he lived and taught.
“There was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the
Sabbath?’—that they might accuse Him.
Then He said to them, ‘What man is there among you who has one
sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it
and lift it out? Of how much
more value then is a man than a sheep?
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’” (Matthew
12:10-12) Jesus’ example on the Sabbath was to go to the synagogue and teach. “And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.” (Luke 4:16, also Mark 1:21, 6:2, Luke 4:31, 6:6, 13:10). Paul's
Sabbath Observance It
was also the custom of Paul and those with him to go to the synagogue on
the Sabbath to read the word of God and discuss it.
“Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three
Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures”. (Acts 17:2, also Acts
13:14, 27, 42, 44; Acts 18:4). Paul
taught we too should be obedient to God’s law.
“Do we make void the law through faith?
Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law”.
(Romans 3:31) Copyright © 2004-2007 by the Austin Church of God |