Lesson 2
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*July 7 - 13 |
The Sabbath |
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I n Genesis, the first thing that God declared holy is not a place or a thing—but a block of time, the seventh day (Gen. 2:3). Though Creation dealt with earthly things (such as birds, the seas, and people), it was time, not space, that God first made holy. And that's because, besides space, time is the dimension in which earthly things (birds, the seas, and people) exist. Also, because the Sabbath exists in time, not space, no one has to seek it; Sabbath always comes to them, every week and without exception. Earthly things, such as shrines or holy places, can be destroyed; the Sabbath, lodged firmly in time, can't be. And finally, people can avoid holy things and holy places, but the Sabbath always finds them. No matter how fast or furiously they flee—the seventh day (and all that it contains) always catches them.
Skipping over no one, and yet beyond the destructive grasp of all, the Sabbath stands as an indestructible memorial of God's creative and redemptive work for the human race. As the prime symbol of our roots, the Sabbath helps tell us who we are, why we are here, and where we are ultimately going—all in just a mere twenty-four hours!
THE WEEK AT A GLANCE: Why is the Sabbath so important? Why does even the Old Testament teach that it's not just for the Jews? In what ways does Sabbath point to redemption? What does Jesus teach us about the Sabbath? This week's lesson looks at these questions—and more.
MEMORY TEXT: "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done" (Genesis 2:2, 3, NIV).
*(Please study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 14).
Read the first verse of the Bible and notice what it is not about: It's not about salvation, it's not about redemption, it's not about what did (or did not) happen at the cross, it's not about the Second Coming, nor is it about life in the earth made new. Instead, it's about one thing and one thing alone: God as our Creator.
Perhaps the reason the Bible begins with Creation, as opposed to these other truths, is that all these other truths—salvation, redemption, the Second Coming—no matter how crucial, make no sense apart from these words: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." This is not to say that Creation is more important than these other beliefs; it is to say, however, that these other beliefs are all rooted in Creation, and these truths can have no real meaning for us apart from the fact that God did create us.
Take a few minutes to think about some of the most basic doctrines we
hold, such as salvation, redemption, the Cross, and try to understand them
apart from the reality of God as our Creator. What meaning can they
have in a universe that was not created by God but by chance alone?
Because Creation is so important, so fundamental to all that we believe as Christians, no wonder the Sabbath—God's indestructible memorial to that Creation—is so important as well. The Lord wants to remind us, every single week, that we are here, not by chance, not by accident, but because He created us.
The Sabbath is that weekly reminder (Exod. 20:8-11). As long we keep that day the way He intends us to, we are never in danger of forgetting our roots. So important is that message that we are commanded to dedicate one seventh of our lives to remembering it. The Sabbath isn't about a day; it's about us being reminded every week!—of the most fundamental and basic truth about our existence, which is that we are beings purposely created by God.
Think of other reasons the doctrine of special Creation is so important that God gave us this weekly reminder of it. Take a moment to jot down your thoughts. _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________
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Read the account of the manna in
Exodus
16, dwelling on just how seriously the Lord expected His people to take
the Sabbath
commandment.
Many people believe that God revealed the Sabbath for the first time at Sinai and that, thus, it's only for the Jews, not the entire human race. Scripture, however (Exod. 16:4, 5, 13-30) shows just how wrong that teaching is, because here we see the Hebrews being told to keep the Sabbath even before Sinai.
Also, considering that the Sabbath is a memorial of Creation, and because all humans, whatever their nationality, exist as a result of that Creation, why would the Lord limit that memorial to just one people? If it were possible to find a group whose origins didn't trace back to Eden, then perhaps that argument would hold, but because no group of people like that exists, it makes sense that the Sabbath is for all those whom God created. Jewish philosopher Martin Buber wrote that because it is "rooted in the very beginning of the world itself," the Sabbath "is the common property of all, and all ought to enjoy it without restriction."
Imagine talking with someone arguing that the Sabbath was only for the
Jews. How would the following verses help you reply?
Gen.
2:2-4;
James
2:10, 11;
1
John 5:2;
Rev.
14:12. What others can you find to show the universality of the
Sabbath?
Though the Sabbath was created for all humanity, through apostasy it was lost, and when the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, the Sabbath became a specific sign (Exod. 31:12-18) between Him and the Hebrew nation, who were to proclaim the truth about God to the world. Included in that truth was the Sabbath, a sign of their covenant relationship with Him. Yet even in this context, that of Israel's special mission, look at what the Lord wrote about the Sabbath: "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" (verse 17, emphasis supplied). Even here the Sabbath is tied to the Creation week.
Write down the various ways in which the Sabbath strengthens your walk
with the Lord. Share that list with someone who doesn't keep the Sabbath.
How could you present it to show just what a blessing it is for all—Jew
or Gentile—who keep it?
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Read the wonderful words of the Lord through the pen of Isaiah in chapter
56,
verses
1-7. In the context of yesterday's lesson, about the Sabbath not being
limited only to the Jews, what truths are taught here as well?
Isaiah clearly shows that a saving relationship with the Lord wasn't limited only to the Jews, but to all who would "join themselves to the Lord." Isaiah reveals that righteousness, salvation, and eternal life were for the Gentiles as well. "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" (Isa. 60:3). And because salvation is for everyone, the Sabbath is for everyone, too.
Besides being a sign of Creation, the Sabbath is a sign of redemption, which ultimately leads to a new creation, a new existence. The same God who first created the world will, one day, create it again. That's His promise (see Isa. 65:17; Isa. 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).
Find other Old Testament texts stating that the gospel was to go to all
nations, not just the Jews. Examples are
Isaiah
62:2,
Zechariah
8:23, and
Isaiah
52:10.
What we see in Isaiah 56:1-7 is the essence of the Adventist message, only a few thousand years before we started preaching it. Isaiah shows, not only the need to proclaim the gospel to the world (such as in the first angel's message of Revelation 14:6), but that the Sabbath—one of the commandments of God as expressed in the third angel's message of Revelation 14:12—is tied in with that message of salvation. Here, again, in the Old Testament, the notion of the Sabbath being only for the Jews is dispelled. If redemption is for everyone, the Sabbath is, too.
Besides being a symbol of Creation and even re-creation, in what other
ways does the Sabbath symbolize God's work of salvation in our behalf? Hint:
God rested on the Sabbath day because His work was complete.
| What does it mean to say that Christ's work for us was complete, and
what does that "complete" work mean for us personally? How do we understand
this "complete" work in relation to His high priestly-ministry?
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There's great irony in the common argument heard against the Sabbath, which is that Jesus abolished or changed it. After looking at how Christ related to the Sabbath, it's hard to see how anyone can come to that conclusion. On the contrary, nothing Jesus said or did regarding the Sabbath ever implied that it was abolished or changed. Christ's battles with the Pharisees were never over which day was to be kept or whether it was even still to be kept. The battles, instead, were over how it was to be kept. The logical question would be: Why would Jesus wrestle with the religious leaders over Sabbath keeping if He planned for the Sabbath to be abolished or changed to another day?
D.A. Carson, a Christian scholar opposed to the Adventist position on the Sabbath, nevertheless wrote in a book that: "There is no hint anywhere in the ministry of Jesus that the first day of the week is to take on the character of the Sabbath and replace it." (D. A. Carson, ed. From Sabbath to Lord's Day: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Investigation [Grand Rapids, Mich.: 1982] p., 85.)
Go through some of the texts
(Matt.
12:1-14;
Mark
2:23-28;
Mark
3:2-5;
Luke
6:1-6) that show Jesus interacting with the religious leaders over the
Sabbath. Study for yourself what the issues really were. See if you can find
even one hint, anywhere, that Jesus was changing the Sabbath day.
| Why did the Pharisees have such a problem with Jesus healing others on the Sabbath day? Perhaps the reason is that the Jews saw the Sabbath as a sign of the Messianic era, what we as Adventists would call the new earth. The Sabbath, the Jews believed, was a small taste of the olam haba, the world-to-come. Their theology taught that anything that would not be done in this world-to-come should not be done on the Sabbath, a foretaste of this future time. And because there would be no sickness in this new world, there would be no healing. For this reason, perhaps, they viewed Jesus' act of Sabbath healing as sinful. |
| Look at Jesus and how He kept the Sabbath. What principles can
we learn from Him that can help us enrich our experience with God through
obedience to this commandment?
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What relationship existed between the Sabbath and the earthly sanctuary?
Exod.
31:12-18;
40:20-23.
God wrote the Ten Commandments on tables of stone, signifying the permanence and importance of His moral law. He then directed that they be placed in the ark of the covenant. The ark was kept in the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary, which represented God's own dwelling place. The Sabbath, along with all the other commandments, was enshrined in the sanctuary under the mercy seat, which symbolized the throne of God.
What relationship exists between the Sabbath and the heavenly sanctuary?
Rev.
11:19.
Revelation 11:19 talks about the "ark of his testament," another name for the "ark of the covenant," a reference to the chest in the Most Holy Place of the earthly sanctuary service. Because the heavenly sanctuary is the model for the earthly, Revelation 11:19 (by pointing to the ark of the covenant) directs the Bible student not only to the law of God, but to the sanctuary, specifically to the Most Holy Place. And because all the law, including the Sabbath, was in the Most Holy Place of the earthly model, the vision of the heavenly one also points directly to the commandments of God and, indirectly, to the Sabbath.
| "John 's vision of the ark above argues eloquently that in earth 's last hours God's great moral law is to be central in the thinking and in the lives of all who seek to serve God in spirit and in truth. "—The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 806. |
| Atheist Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that if there were no God, "everything
would be permissible." If we existed only by chance, with no God as Creator,
then, Sartre wrote, there is no "possibility of finding values" in this world.
Following this line of thought, some have argued that the Sabbath commandment
is the one commandment which shows why we should keep all the others because
it points us back to God, who alone forms the foundation for moral actions.
Discuss this
idea. |
FURTHER STUDY: Read
"The
Sabbath," The Desire of Ages, pp. 281-289.
The Sabbath was hallowed at the Creation. As ordained for man, it had its origin when 'the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.' Job 38:7. . . . The Sabbath was not for Israel merely, but for the world. It had been made known to man in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation. Of that law of which the fourth commandment forms a part, Christ declares, 'Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.' Matt. 5:18. So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator's power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. 'From one sabbath to another' the inhabitants of the glorified new shall . . . 'worship before me, saith the Lord.' "—Ellen G. White, The Faith I Live By, p. 37.
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SUMMARY: This week's lesson brought
out a number of crucial points: First, the Sabbath points us back to Creation,
the starting point of all that we believe. Without the doctrine of Creation,
nothing we hold as Christians makes sense. Second, because the Sabbath is
so foundational, it belongs to everyone, not just the Jews. Third, Sabbath
is a sign not only of creation but of redemption, and because redemption
is for all the world, the Sabbath is, too. Fourth, Jesus by His life and
teachings affirmed the importance of the Sabbath. Finally, the reality of
the heavenly sanctuary and Christ's high-priestly ministry in heaven adds
more validity to the Sabbath truth. In short, by keeping the Sabbath we're
on solid biblical ground, as solid and firm as Creation itself, in
fact.
Charlotte Ishkanian
Jin Jiang grew up in China. His family had no religion. But one day his mother met an old friend and was amazed at how healthy she looked. She had always been sickly. "What is your secret?" Jin's mother asked her friend.
"I have found Jesus Christ!" the other woman said. Because of her friend's influence, Jin's mother decided to try attending church. Maybe this Jesus could heal her health problems, too.
Jin did not go with his mother to church, but he listened as she told him what she was learning about Jesus. Perhaps I should seek after God for my own good, Jin thought.
Jin began to attend church with his mother. As Jin's knowledge about God grew, so did his faith.
Jin met one of his friends, Zhu, at church. Zhu told him about a house church he had visited and invited Jin to attend. Jin still had some questions about religion that no one had answered, so he accepted Zhu's invitation.
Jin was impressed with the way the house-church believers studied the Bible in detail. Things that had puzzled him became clear, When the group studied the Sabbath, Jin wondered why, if the Sabbath is Saturday, Christians keep Sunday holy. More and more Jin was drawn to the little group of believers.
Jin and Zhu often talked about the differing beliefs of the two religious groups. Ironically, Jin leaned more toward the Sabbath keepers' position, and Zhu leaned toward the Sunday church. The pastor of the Sunday church had offered to train Zhu for a leadership position, and his friend did not want to lose that privilege.
One day as Jin and his friend were discussing religion, Zhu surprised him. "You Adventists!" he said. "You have only a handful of believers. But the Christian (Sunday) church is filled every week!" Zhu was associating large numbers of believers with correct doctrine. But Jin's only answer was to point to the commandments of God.
"I will bring you some books to read," Zhu offered. "They will straighten you out!" With that the two went their separate ways.
(continued next week)
Jin Jiang is a Chinese Adventist. Charlotte Ishkanian is editor of Mission.
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