11: The Sabbath - Hit the Mark | Sabbath School Net

And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27

We need the Sabbath. I am not primarily talking about a period of down time from our busy lives, although the Sabbath affords that. Our need of the Sabbath is deeper than mere rest. We need the Sabbath for our salvation.

The Sabbath reminds us that there is a God who created all things. Those sacred hours provide the time to turn our attention to His mighty creation. Our world, though marred by sin, still serves as a lesson book about the God we serve.

We see the beauty of His creation from the lowly flower full of intricate details to the lofty mountains that tower to the heavens. In each we see the hand of God. We read in nature’s pages the care and concern He has for us and we find assurance and contentment as we reaffirm each week who it is that controls our lives.

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Matthew 6:28-30

Those who are blessed to be able to spend a part of their Sabbath in nature are rewarded with fresh evidences of God’s redemptive power. He has designed that nature would testify of His power. To those who have ears to hear He speaks words of hope and promise. From the thrilling sunrise to the majestic sunset, God speaks of a time of peace. There is a rest to the children of God that transcends the challenges of life.

And as we fellowship with like believers during a portion of the Sabbath hours, we find an added avenue of strength and encouragement. Each testimony that points us to the goodness of God, each song sung for the glory of God, reinforces us for this Christian journey.

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17 NIV

The spoken word, aided by the power of the Holy Spirit, turns the attention away from man to the power and glory of Jesus Christ. The truth pierces hearts and brings re-commitments to the cause of God. We hear the voice of God speaking to us through His Word and we are changed in the process.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18

Happier still are those who so order their lives that the Sabbath is a welcomed event. Happy is the family that finds each member of the family together for worship at the beginning of each Sabbath. This time of singing, prayers and reading of the word is more than a ritual. It is a time of bonding that cannot be replicated in any other way. It is the time when each family member reaffirms their allegiance to the God of creation.

We need every opportunity to develop into the men and women God expects us to be. Those sacred hours, if rightly used, are designed to bring us closer to God. From Sabbath to Sabbath we see God’s love for man and in return, if we allow it, that love will lead us to love Him more. We need the Sabbath.

Here are a few Hit the Mark questions for this week’s lesson discussion:

What does “keeping the Sabbath” mean to you?
Is it possible to keep a day holy if the person is not holy? Why or why not?
Is it true that the main function of the Sabbath is to come together for worship? Why or why not?
Is it true that the best way to learn about God is through sermons? Explain your answer.
What, if anything, can be learned in nature that cannot be learned from a church service?
Self-reflection question: Is your Sabbath observance more about what you should not do or what you can do?
What, if anything, makes the Sabbath a burden?
Is the following statement True, Mostly True, Somewhat True or Not True: The more time you spend in church on Sabbath, the better your Christian experience should be. Explain your answer.

We close these week with some familiar verses from the Book of Isaiah. I believe we still have much to learn about what these words really mean:

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 58:13-14

Until next week, let’s all continue to Hit the Mark in Sabbath School!

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Although we claim that the Sabbath of Genesis 2 is a memorial of creation(God’s work), God says that he blessed and sanctified the 7th day because “in it He rested from all His work”, not because he worked or created. He also said “He was refreshed” on that day(Ex.31:17). God is Spirit so this rest is not “fleshly or physical rest”. So from the outset God established the rest, the True sabbath, to be brought to His people through His Son who declared,“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the True Worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth”; and “come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.....and you will find rest for your souls.”(John 4:23,24; Matt.11:28,29)

God gave to “Israel according to the flesh” the 7th day Sabbath, a definite physical rest, a commemoration of their “redemption, deliverance from Egypt”. Deut.5:15 “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day. The same thing is said of the 7th year(the Sabbatic year) and the Year of Jubilee(the Acceptable year).
In the 7th year the land must rest. Any Israelite who had become a slave must be “Released”- delivered, redeemed, freed, and have remission of debts. Deut.15:12-17 “If your kinsman is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.....You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today”.
The Jubilee has the same promise and significantly arrived at by counting off “seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years”(Dan.9:24) to the 50th year, the Jubilee. Lev.25:10 “You shall thus consecrate the 50th year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you and each of you shall return to his own property and to his own family.” So we see that all the sabbaths given to Israel were types and shadows of the True.

God declared “Therefore I swore in my anger, truly they shall not enter My rest”(Ps.95:7-11). The Sabbath they were commanded obviously was not God’s rest. But they “who believe enter that rest” - “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”(Heb.4:3-11). God later said of Israel’s rest: “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.”Isa.1:13,14. We see Christ demonstrating to Israel what their sabbath typified and what they should have known from Dt.5:15. Off course they accused him of breaking the sabbath. Lk.13:10-17. The woman was severely bent over, a sickness caused by a spirit. Without any question Jesus declared, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness”. He laid His hands on her and immediately she was made erect again. Jesus declares, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water ? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
So we see that the sabbaths given to Israel were types and shadows of the future good things to come through Christ. He read in Lk.4:18-21 from Isa.61. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives....to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord....Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. So is the favorable year of the Lord here. Is the Sabbatic 7th year present? Is the True sabbath day present? Yes it is Today! Heb.3:12-15....But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today”’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me”. Heb.4:3 “FOR WE WHO HAVE BELIEVED ENTER THAT REST, just as He has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.... He again fixes a certain day, “Today”,.... Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts”. v10 “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

But are we fixed on the shadow? The sabbath test will be on the Spiritual. Those who believe are in the Spirit. Isa.58 says about the sabbath: “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing you pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and honor it desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own words, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth....” Is that prescribed for one day of the week? then go back to our own ways, our own work etc.? Yes, if it is physical. We go back to our jobs for 6 days. But Christ’s deliverance or redemption is from SIN. Do we go back to that life? Israel in their heart went back to Egypt(Acts7).

Christ is Lord of Sabbath and was the ultimate sabbath observer. He “never” spoke His own words or did his own works or did his own pleasure or ever pleased himself. He said “the words that I speak are not mine and the Father in me does the works”.(Jhn.3:32-34;5:30,43;6:38;7:16-18;8:28;12:49,50;14:10,24;15:15). The Lord tells slaves now that they need not seek for freedom because they are God’s free men; whatsoever we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, do all in the name of the Lord. When we work work as unto God and not to men. Let no one judge you with respect to a sabbath. Are we serving days, weeks, months and years? One man considers one day better than an other let each be convinced in his own mind.

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11: The Sabbath – Hit the Mark — 10 Comments

Nellie Morrison on September 10, 2014 at 7:42 pm said:

I was blessed with this explanation of the sabbath and what it means to me. Thank you.

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- Curtis Hall on September 11, 2014 at 6:20 pm said:
  
  You're more than welcome. And what I shared is not all there is to the blessing of the Sabbath.
  
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Tonya Richard on September 11, 2014 at 5:55 am said:

I am a Seventh-Day Adventist who lives in Dallas. I love this site. The study is always aligned with the Word of God. It breaks the monotony of studying just our sabbath school lesson during the week. I will continue to visit this site and use the book I purchased to help our church sabbath school classes grow.

Thanks Curtis

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- Curtis Hall on September 11, 2014 at 6:22 pm said:
  
  Thank you Tonya. SSNET has been a blessing to people all over the world. I'm praying for your Sabbath school's success.
  
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Kalulu Ronald on September 11, 2014 at 8:15 am said:

I wish to state that i am happy to have studied this lesson and thanks for the preparation.

However, one question still disturbs me" if i have a hospital that is fully commercial and i am an adventist,what should i do? should i admit patients at no cost or i should not admit them, or if they were admitted on thursday and they are to spend another week in the hospital what should i do with the sabbath.

Another is about one if she or he is a police officer and has to protect the nationals on sabbath as is the work,advise me what to tell such without breaking the sabbath.

Thanks

Kalulu Ronald
Uganda
Tel +256-782368052

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- Curtis Hall on September 11, 2014 at 6:29 pm said:
  
  Kalulu, thank you for you question. Instead of an answer to your question I would like to suggest that, unless you are in the position of owning and or running a hospital, that you not trouble yourself with how to deal with that particular situation. God's word promises wisdom so I know for those who need an answer, there is one. But to try to answer hypothetical questions may not be the wisest thing to do. Let you and I primarily concern ourselves with our keeping of the Sabbath.
  
  The same I would answer for your second scenario. If someone is asking you for guidance on what to do, go to God in prayer for wisdom. But, if you are just talking about various difficult positions Sabbath keepers face, there is no set answer.
  
  Perhaps another reader will offer you an answer but unfortunately I cannot. Thank you for reading this week's article and I wish God's blessings on you.
  
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  - Kenny Springer on September 12, 2014 at 7:50 am said:
    
    Although we claim that the Sabbath of Genesis 2 is a memorial of creation(God’s work), God says that he blessed and sanctified the 7th day because “in it He rested from all His work”, not because he worked or created. He also said “He was refreshed” on that day(Ex.31:17). God is Spirit so this rest is not “fleshly or physical rest”. So from the outset God established the rest, the True sabbath, to be brought to His people through His Son who declared,“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the True Worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth”; and “come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.....and you will find rest for your souls.”(John 4:23,24; Matt.11:28,29)
    
    God gave to “Israel according to the flesh” the 7th day Sabbath, a definite physical rest, a commemoration of their “redemption, deliverance from Egypt”. Deut.5:15 “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day. The same thing is said of the 7th year(the Sabbatic year) and the Year of Jubilee(the Acceptable year).
    In the 7th year the land must rest. Any Israelite who had become a slave must be “Released”- delivered, redeemed, freed, and have remission of debts. Deut.15:12-17 “If your kinsman is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free.....You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today”.
    The Jubilee has the same promise and significantly arrived at by counting off “seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years”(Dan.9:24) to the 50th year, the Jubilee. Lev.25:10 “You shall thus consecrate the 50th year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you and each of you shall return to his own property and to his own family.” So we see that all the sabbaths given to Israel were types and shadows of the True.
    
    God declared “Therefore I swore in my anger, truly they shall not enter My rest”(Ps.95:7-11). The Sabbath they were commanded obviously was not God’s rest. But they “who believe enter that rest” - “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”(Heb.4:3-11). God later said of Israel’s rest: “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.”Isa.1:13,14. We see Christ demonstrating to Israel what their sabbath typified and what they should have known from Dt.5:15. Off course they accused him of breaking the sabbath. Lk.13:10-17. The woman was severely bent over, a sickness caused by a spirit. Without any question Jesus declared, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness”. He laid His hands on her and immediately she was made erect again. Jesus declares, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water ? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
    So we see that the sabbaths given to Israel were types and shadows of the future good things to come through Christ. He read in Lk.4:18-21 from Isa.61. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives....to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord....Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. So is the favorable year of the Lord here. Is the Sabbatic 7th year present? Is the True sabbath day present? Yes it is Today! Heb.3:12-15....But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today”’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me”. Heb.4:3 “FOR WE WHO HAVE BELIEVED ENTER THAT REST, just as He has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.... He again fixes a certain day, “Today”,.... Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts”. v10 “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
    
    But are we fixed on the shadow? The sabbath test will be on the Spiritual. Those who believe are in the Spirit. Isa.58 says about the sabbath: “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing you pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and honor it desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own words, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth....” Is that prescribed for one day of the week? then go back to our own ways, our own work etc.? Yes, if it is physical. We go back to our jobs for 6 days. But Christ’s deliverance or redemption is from SIN. Do we go back to that life? Israel in their heart went back to Egypt(Acts7).
    
    Christ is Lord of Sabbath and was the ultimate sabbath observer. He “never” spoke His own words or did his own works or did his own pleasure or ever pleased himself. He said “the words that I speak are not mine and the Father in me does the works”.(Jhn.3:32-34;5:30,43;6:38;7:16-18;8:28;12:49,50;14:10,24;15:15). The Lord tells slaves now that they need not seek for freedom because they are God’s free men; whatsoever we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, do all in the name of the Lord. When we work work as unto God and not to men. Let no one judge you with respect to a sabbath. Are we serving days, weeks, months and years? One man considers one day better than an other let each be convinced in his own mind.
    
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Tyler Cluthe on September 11, 2014 at 8:44 am said:

Curtis, I find a lot of meaning in what you say about the Sabbath. To me it is indeed a special day for after God created all the life on this planet He said, “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” (Ex 20:11 NKJV). The word hallowed is the same as sanctified. He blessed the day and set it aside for special purpose just like Jesus was sanctified for His mission (Jn 10:36).

I think the Deuteronomy version adds quite a bit because the command is about ceasing from our insane work-a-holic routine. It is a freedom from our enslavement in this world, not just as a prophetic pronouncement for the future but for today also, and that idea is to have a ripple effect. We are to give that same kind of freedom to those under our care and to those around us as the command states:

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: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deut 5:13-15 NKJV)

To me it is a call for us to treat others as God has treated us in giving us rest. So it is a call for man to release his tight fisted control of people for one day not just so he can rest but so that those who God has put under his control may also rest. It is a selfishness breaker!

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- Curtis Hall on September 11, 2014 at 6:30 pm said:
  
  Thanks Tyler. I always love your input. You have added some great seasoning to what I prepared. Thanks!
  
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Joy Wogu on September 12, 2014 at 7:03 am said:

I don't nor will I ever own a hospital. I am not a police officer, fireman/woman or EMT; yet I think I can offer a reply to the question asked what to do with patients during the Sabbath and Sabbath police work.
If you live in a country with access to good hospitals, fair and just law enforcement and emergency services, count yourself blessed. These services should not be interrupted because of te Sabbath and they are available because people are willing to "man their stations" 24/7 in order that others are safe. That is living up to the example Jesus left.
I have a son who works as a prison guard. When he goes in to work on the Sabbath hours I remind him that he is carrying with him the Sabbath blessing to inmates and other prison staff and that others will receive a blessing from being in contact with him.

If you need emergency medical help or just a visit to the urgent care or if a fire or burglar is threatening your property on the Sabbath, you will be thankful that others are at work helping you in the Sabbath.

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11: The Sabbath – Hit the Mark

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