When is
the Sabbath first mentioned in the Bible?
Gen
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them.
Gen
2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he
rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Gen
2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in
it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
No,
mention of the word Sabbath? Let God speak for Himself-
Exo
16:27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the
seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
Exo
16:28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my
commandments and my laws?
Exo
16:29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his
place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Exo
16:30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
BEFORE the
law was given at Mount Sinai on two tablets of stone, written by the finger of
God Himself- God said…"HOW long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my
laws?" What commandment was that?
What law? They had yet to receive the moral law just mentioned. Yet God said
otherwise.
The LORD
has given you the SABBATH.
Most
pointedly God was reminding His newly freed people that it was important to
listen to Him. In the very beginning of creation God rested- He BLESSED and
SANCTIFIED a day.
A day was
given a blessing. A day was made holy. When? After creation!
Directly
after creation!
No sooner
was creation completed then the creation of a blessed holy day was given. Leaving no doubt that this day was blessed
and made holy- God reiterated its existence before He even made it one of the
ten moral laws.
Had God
blessed any other day? Had God made any other day holy? God never took that
blessing away, never. He never unsanctified the seventh day. We live in a world
of weeks- SEVEN DAY weeks.
Note: 'A
continuous seven-day cycle that runs throughout history paying no attention
whatsoever to the phases of the moon was first practised in Judaism, dated to the 6th century BC at the
latest.'
Now lest
you believe the children of Israel newly freed from slavery were keeping all
the moral laws already before they were given we know they were not. They we
well versed in the worshipping of idols because one of the very first things
they demanded of Aaron after determining Moses had abandoned them was that he
make them a golden calf to worship. If they'd known nothing of idol worship
they most certainly would not have asked for an idol to worship. These people
were estranged from their unwritten moral laws.
Did they believe murder was wrong? Yes, taught from the Egyptians as
well, murder was wrong. Stealing a crime? Yes. The moral law was not plucked
out of non-existence to suddenly appear. Abraham taught Isaac, Isaac taught
Jacob and Esau, Jacob taught Joseph, and all eleven offspring besides and all
their family. When Joseph rescued his father, Jacob and all his family they
were God's people. Read this--
Gen
46:1 And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to
Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
Gen
46:2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said,
Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.
Gen
46:3 And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down
into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:
Gen
46:4 I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring
thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
Gen
46:5 And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried
Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which
Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
Gen
46:6 And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten
in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with
him:
Gen
46:7 His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons'
daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
Gen
46:26 All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of
his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and
six;
Gen
46:27 And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two
souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were
threescore and ten.
Seventy
children of Israel (Jacob) not including the wives. And Israel consulted God
before ever going to Egypt- they had a relationship, and God was leading them
as His. Joseph had been sold into
slavery for the express purpose of ultimately saving his family.
Were the
children of Abraham taught to worship idols. No. Were they taught to make
sacrifices to God. Yes. These children were not Godless. Remember this--
Exo
2:23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died:
and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and
their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
Exo
2:24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with
Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exo
2:25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto
them.
Exo
3:4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am
I.
Exo
3:5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Exo
3:6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid
to look upon God.
Exo
3:7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people
which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters;
for I know their sorrows;
Exo
3:8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land
flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the
Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the
Jebusites.
Exo
3:9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto
me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress
them.
Exo
3:10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou
mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Exo
3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Exo
3:15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the
children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for
ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Exo
3:16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The
LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared
unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you
in Egypt:
Exo
3:17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt
unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the
Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey.
Exo
4:28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and
all the signs which he had commanded him.
Exo
4:29 And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the
children of Israel:
Exo
4:30 And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses,
and did the signs in the sight of the people.
Exo
4:31 And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had
visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction,
then they bowed their heads and worshipped.
Exo
5:3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we
pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our
God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.
Exo
5:4 And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and
Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.
Exo
5:5 And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye
make them rest from their burdens.
MOSES made
the children REST.
Here we
are God instructing Moses, going to the people descendent from Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob (Israel). God heard the cries of His people and answered them. These
people were raised knowing they were not of Egyptian descent but rather people
whose Fathers were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They knew their own history- they
were not allowed to forget their history.
When they
left Egypt God determined to test and try, and teach His chosen children. God
would remind them of all He asked of them.
He began the lessons by again pointedly revealing the REST He
instituted. They needed food and God supplied that food from heaven. The supply
was conditional. Six days they were to
gather it up and on that sixth day only were they to get double the normal
portion, why? So they didn't have to go out gathering their food on the day
that God had blessed and made holy upon Creation. The seventh day they would
rest and already have their provisions for the day. And God said this…
Exo
16:28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my
commandments and my laws?
Exo
16:29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his
place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Exo
16:30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
Commandment-Law-
Sabbath- even before it was written in stone among the ten moral laws. Just how amazingly important is the Sabbath
to God? The Sabbath is a seal of His Creatorship. Truly it is. The Sabbath was
all a part of the plan of salvation, of redemption yet people are blind to
this, blinded because they serve self.
Exo
31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe
the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Exo
31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in
six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and
was refreshed.
Read the
following written by E.J. Waggoner-
'The cross
conveys to us the knowledge of God, because it shows us His power as Creator.
Through
the cross we are crucified unto the world, and the world unto us; that is, by
the cross we are sanctified.
But
sanctification is the work of God, not of man. Only His divine power can
accomplish the great work.
In the
beginning God sanctified the Sabbath, as the crown of His creative work--the
evidence that His work was finished, the seal of perfection, and therefore He
says, "Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and
them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them."
Eze.20:12.
So we see
that the Sabbath--the seventh day--is the true sign of the cross.
It is the
memorial of creation, and redemption is creation,--creation through the cross.
In the
cross we find the complete and perfect works of God, and are clothed with them.
Crucified
with Christ means the utter giving up of self, acknowledging that we are
nothing, and trusting absolutely in Christ. In Him we rest; in Him we find the
Sabbath.
The cross
takes us back to the beginning, into "that which was from the
beginning." The resting upon the seventh day of the week is but the sign
of the fact that in the perfect work of God, as seen in creation,--in the
cross,--we find rest from sin.' Taken
from Glad Tidings by E.J. Waggoner
Now recall
these verses from the beginning of this particular study--
2Ti_1:9
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began
NOT
according to our works! We are to do NO work on the Sabbath. Is it mere
coincidence that we are commanded to do no work on the day our God made holy
and blessed, AND the fact that we can do NO work to save ourselves, that
salvation has to come solely from our Creator, our Redeemer? Our Savior, our
Sabbath.
Before the
world was created….our Savior was prepared to redeem us should we sin. All of
it was a part of CREATION.
We are
made HOLY by our SAVIOR'S sacrifice…
The
Sabbath was made HOLY by God. If we
believe in the SANCTIFICATION of our SAVIOR to make us holy, we have to believe
in the SANCTIFICATION of the seventh day Sabbath, that day was made holy upon
CREATION. That day was reiterated as HOLY by God over and over again. How dare we not believe that the Sabbath- a
memorial to our CREATOR- not be a memorial to the CREATOR to our REDEEMER, our
REDEMPTION. Who makes things holy? Our God, our Creator, Our Savior. Creation and the Cross.
We cannot
save ourselves- FACT.
We cannot
make anything holy- FACT.
God can
save us- FACT.
God can
make us holy- FACT.
To remind
us- we are given a WEEKLY SABBATH.
To remind
us- we are to do NO work on one day of the week.
To remind
us- we are TOLD to remember.
To remind
us- we should NEVER forget.
Christ
Alone can save us- We can do NO work to save ourselves.
Christ
Alone can make us holy- We can do NO work to make ourselves holy.
As we
honor the Sabbath we are to remember-
GOD is the
Creator- NOT US.
GOD
sanctifies- NOT US.
GOD is in
control- NOT US.
GOD has
the power over all- NOT US.
GOD is to
be obeyed- NOT US.
GOD is all
in all- NOT US.
We are
NOTHING without God.
We need
constant reminding of our status in existence.
We need
constant reminding of our dependence.
We need
constant reminding of pure love undefiled.
If we
refuse to yield up our self-absorption in all ways and give our all in all to
God for one day in every seven, can we yield ourselves for eternity? Truly we
are to give our all to God- always, every day of our lives. He commands us to
set aside one day in seven to live in HIM wholly right here, right now
outwardly declaring HIM and the creation and salvation power He has over us.
For six
days making a living can take over a lot of our lives, but SET ASIDE the
SEVENTH day for GOD - not allowing ANYTHING to take over our lives but HIM on
this day and HIS WILL.
Christ
will make us able to yield, we must let Him.
Christ
will remind us that HE ALONE can save us.
Christ
will remind us of our dependence upon Him.
Christ
will remind us of pure love undefiled.
Christ
will sanctify us, Christ will make us holy, we are blessed in Christ.
The Cross
and Creation.
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