Friday: Further Thought ~ Experiencing and Living the Character of God
Further Thought:
Read Ellen G. White, “The Sabbath,” pages 281-289, in The Desire of Ages.
“No other institution which was committed to the Jews tended so fully to distinguish them from surrounding nations as did the Sabbath.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
God designed that its observance should designate them as His worshipers. It was to be a token of their separation from idolatry, and their connection with the true God. But in order to keep the Sabbath holy, men must themselves be holy. Through faith they must become partakers of the righteousness of Christ. When the command was given to Israel, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,’ the Lord said also to them, ‘Ye shall be holy men unto Me.’ Ex: 20:8; Exodus 22:31. Only thus could the Sabbath distinguish Israel as the worshipers of God.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 283.
“Then the Sabbath is a sign of Christ’s power to make us holy … . As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God.” — The Desire of Ages, pages 288, 289.
Discussion Questions:
|
(22)
I hope that I am not running a spoiler on next quarter's lesson today when I refer to Isaiah 1. Perhaps we can regard it as a preview.
Isaiah 1 is a damning condemnation of surface religion. Listen to this:
That is pretty tough language coming from God. And while we might console ourselves by saying he is talking about the feasts and ceremonial Sabbaths, I suspect he is talking about all "surface religion".
Why the condemnation? Read further:
The specifics of the sin of the people was evident in their treatment of one another. That is deep religion! If we ignore the needs of one another then all our religious show, including Sabbath-keeping is the sort of stuff that God finds so distasteful. For our Sabbath-keeping to be meaningful, it has to be backed up by compassion, understanding, and selfless love.
Why do we keep the Sabbath? To show apostate Christianity they are wrong? To show we are true commandment keepers? Because the ten commandments, including the fourth, were never done away with? Or, do we keep it as evidence that we are loving caring Christians sharing the saving grace of Jesus with others?
When we wish one another, "Happy Sabbath!" do we ask ourselves if we have indeed made the Sabbath a happy experience for others? Or are they just hollow "surface religion" words?
I believe that the LORD established this special day in space and time for our benefit and as a sign that He is the Creator and King of the Universe.
I think we make the Sabbath less special than it is when we say we or even Jesus lived the Sabbath all week. I believe we and Jesus live/d the character of the LORD all the week and that the Sabbath is a weekly reminder of His Character and for us to rest and trust Him for our salvation, protection and provision of our daily bread.
At Creation, the LORD named the 7th day the Sabbath and I am not concerned that the others in later years have named it after their gods. But it is interesting to discover the name of the seventh day in many languages is in fact sabbath like: sabato, subota, sabatu.
Amen to Sabbath keeping, a day of rest from the previous six says of labor. By design that this weeks lesson follows our discussion of labor. For us it is a day of rest followed by Sunday with a 1/2 day of honey dews, and 1/2 day of fun with hobbies. Then back to gainful work on Mondays.
Happy Sabbath 😊
Experiencing and Living the Character of God.
'Every false religion teaches its adherents to be careless of human needs, sufferings, and rights.'
EG White reading for today said it all. I don't even need to add to it. I was perfect and to the point about man relationship to his Creator, sustainer and redeemer and to each other.
The land of Israel is situated between two continents- Asia to the East and Africa to the West. All travelers doing business on those continents had to pass on the highway bordering Israel or through Israel. No one can miss Israel because of its location. That was purposefully done by my Creator, the Great Architect of this world. By doing so, all the other heathen nations visiting Israel and beholding their system of doing business would get to know about the Monotheistic nature of their God.
“No other institution which was committed to the Jews tended so fully to distinguish them from surrounding nations as did the Sabbath.'
While passing through on the Sabbath day, the other nations would notice no business operated on the sabbath. All stores and the hassle and bustled of the week ceased. The only thing they were supposed to observed were men and women, boys and girls going to the temple to worship a Holy Monotheistic God.
The Lord used Israel to be an example to the entire world at that time. As Lot(he was not a Jew) invited the weary travelers to his home to spend the night, so the Israelite could have invited the heathen to their homes to spend the night and tell them about the love of God and the reason for not doing business on the sabbath. All the lodging homes/business were supposed to be closed.
Neh said about the people coming to sell wares on the sabbath and what he did. Neh 10:31.
We read about Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon and what was her conclusion about his God. 1 Kings 10:1-13
'As the Jews departed from God, and failed to make the righteousness of Christ their own by faith, the Sabbath lost its significance to them.'
Today, my wife and I have been asked to help a homeless father and son move into a small place because we have a truck (or Lorry as some down under may refer). The pair are not Adventist’s, however, in making arrangements for the load up and transporting to the new accommodations, he apologetically explained that he might be required to move on Saturday and that he understood that we couldn’t help him because he knew it was our Sabbath. I Thanked him for his concern and told him that we Adventist’s look forward to doing good works on any day, including the Sabbath and that, if we could help, as soon as services were over we would be there to get him and his son into shelter.
What is our focus regarding the Sabbath? Is it the proper manner of "keeping", or is the focus more on not "breaking" the sacredness of the day? Isn't either one is focused on the day and the commandment regarding it? Imagine that first Sabbath on earth, and what Adam and Eve were focused on.
Do we believe the idea spoken in Rev 4:11? Do we consider this idea on Sabbath? What about Rev 15:3? What would our Sabbath be like if we thought of our Lord in this manner?
Robert- that site is from the above reading, all our questions are fully answered in that reading.
Ronald- the reading gave us a clear description of what Jesus did on the sabbath. I had a SDA friend who used to go and help her non SDA brother and wife cook on the sabbath because according to her they cant help themselves. She will cook pork for them with a glove. She died and they remained alive.
“The Sabbath,” pages 281-289, in The Desire of Ages.