us and God that He is the God who sanctifies us, i.e. makes us holy, just like He made the seventh day holy at the conclusion of creation week. This is His desire for human beings who have lost the perfection they had in Eden. He wants to take us back to this kind of character. The Sabbath is part of God’s overall plan in the victory over evil.
Q18 Why did God make the Sabbath day?
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Mark 2:27.
NOTE: The seventh day was made for the blessing and benefit of the entire human population. The Sabbath was intended as a ‘day off’ for all people. God actually said that there was no work to be done on the seventh day each week. If human mangers were to give their employees a day off like this there would be complete rejoicing—a whole day not to have to do anything, by order from the company! The Sabbath from God was made before there were races, religions or nationalities. It was made for all peoples for all time as the intended rhythm of our lives.
Q19 In what two places does God wish His will to be carried out?
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10
Q20 So how can we join with the beings in heaven in worshipping the Creator?
Worship Him that made heaven and earth. Revelation 14:7
NOTE: The beings in heaven worship the Creator, and it is God’s will is that we on earth worship the Creator, too. The only revealed way for us to do this is to observe the seventh-day Sabbath that was given to our world at Creation.
The Sabbath was to be a day of holy convocation or meeting together, not just resting at home. ‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation.’ Leviticus 23:3. In the New Testament worshippers of the Creator God still came together on the Sabbath. ’And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down and spake to the women which resorted thither.’ See Acts 16:13 for the full account. These were Gentile women.
Q21 What strong reminder about the Sabbath did God give in the Ten Commandments?
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:8-11
NOTE: In all the doctrines of the Bible the rest day of God is the only one that teaches and demonstrates His creative role and our allegiance to Him, just as adult baptism is the only one that teaches the resurrection of Christ and our being raised to newness of life. When we remember the Sabbath we remember week by week the Divine power of creation. Evolution’s aim is to set up an alternative view of origins that leaves out God.
Q22 How did we get the Ten Commandments?
And God spake all these words, saying … Exodus 20:1
And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Exodus 31:8
NOTE: This is the only part of the Bible that was written with the very finger of God. |
