How best can we study the Bible? We need not be stressed about this question, for we have a perfect guide; Christ. So how did our savior study the holy writ? He began at Moses and the prophets (Luke 24:27). Thus in a bid to understand about the Sabbath we too must start at the very beginning.
In the beginning; in Eden
Right there in Genesis, after the creation account in chapter 1, the second chapter begins with a sublime truth; one worth our consideration. It reads
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
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.
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. Gen 2:1-3.
After completing His work of creation, God rested, not that He was tired "The creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not neither is weary" He rested not as one weary but as one pleased with His work.
Following the rest that He had, He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it (set it apart as holy). He set it up as a memorial of His grand work of creation. It's like an artist painting a beautiful portrait then at the end of his work he puts his signature lest someone else claims ownership of the same. That is exactly what God did, after creation He places the Sabbath as a sign that this is My work. It is mine. I have created.
Then our loving God committed the Sabbath unto Adam as a representative of mankind, to remind him and his generations, of God as his Creator. To remember that they were subjects under His authority. It is in this sense that the Sabbath was made for man, Mark 2:27. God saw that a Sabbath was essential for man, even in Paradise. He needed to lay aside his own interests and pursuits for one day of the seven, that he might more fully contemplate the works of God and meditate upon His power and goodness. He needed a Sabbath to remind him more vividly of God and to awaken gratitude because all that he enjoyed and possessed came from the beneficent hand of the Creator *
After the fall to the time of the Israelites
Afterwards Adam and his wife fell into sin, and as they were driven out of Eden they still kept the Sabbath. His descendants kept the Sabbath, and when nearly all men had lost sight of the true God, Abraham was chosen to preserve the knowledge of God through his posterity (the Israelites). Later on the Israelites go down to Egypt, spend over 400 years in bondage and they also forget about the Sabbath: the memorial of creation. As God leads them out of bondage, He seeks to direct their minds back to Him and the most effective way is through the Sabbath. Thus God performs a threefold miracle, using manna as an object lesson, to teach them about the Sabbath (Exodus 16:23-26).
1) It would fall for six days and on the Sabbath it was absent.
2) On the sixth day (the preparation day) they would gather twice as much as they gathered on the other days, for the provision of the Sabbath
3) That which was laid up till the next day on a normal day would stink and have worms, but when Sabbath arrived and it was laid up it would not get spoilt.
God requires that His holy day be as sacredly observed now as in the time of Israel. The command given to the Hebrews should be regarded by all Christians as an injunction from Jehovah to them. The day before the Sabbath should be made a day of preparation, that everything may be in readiness for its sacred hours. In no case should our own business be allowed to encroach upon holy time. God has directed that the sick and suffering be cared for; the labor required to make them comfortable is a work of mercy, and no violation of the Sabbath; but all unnecessary work should be avoided. Many carelessly put off till the beginning of the Sabbath little things that might have been done on the day of preparation. This should not be. Work that is neglected until the beginning of the Sabbath should remain undone until it is past. This course might help the memory of these thoughtless ones, and make them careful to do their own work on the six working days. **
When the lesson was learnt, God proclaimed His holy law at Mt Sinai. At the heart of the commandments, there was the Sabbath. Spoken in awful grandeur, the Lord said:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor, 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
Many today claim, that the Sabbath was given at Sinai but as we have seen from the Bible the Sabbath was instituted in Eden to all mankind through Adam and the Israelites kept the Sabbath even before the law was given. Well would it be for us to remember this hallowed day, it is a sign between God and His people (Ezekiel 20:12) a sign of God's power to sanctify His people whereby we are refreshed (Exodus 31:13,17). And above all it's a foretaste of the heavenly rest (Hebrews 4:4,9).
Ah! Dear reader would you not want to be acknowledged of heaven as God's peculiar treasure? The Sabbath offers this acknowledgement, it gives us a chance to meet with Jehovah and in His presence there is fullness of Joy.
On the same note that we begun; we ought to look unto Christ… what is the relation between Christ and the Sabbath? Did He even keep the Sabbath? We will look into that in the part two of our series, may the good Lord bless you and keep you.
*patriarchs and prophets page 48 par 2
** patriarchs and prophets page 296 par 2
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