Wednesday: Sign of Sanctification
“You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you” (Exodus 31:13, RSV).
An exceptionally rich Sabbath passage is Exodus 31:12-17, which follows the Lord’s directions for the building of the sanctuary and the establishment of its services (Exodus 25:1 to Exodus 31:11).
The concept of the Sabbath as a “sign” — a visible, external, and eternal sign between God and His people — is expressed here in this manner for the first time. The text itself contains some fascinating concepts worthy of our study. Two new ideas are joined together in this text:
1. The Sabbath as a sign of knowledge.
2. The Sabbath as a sign of sanctification.
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
Consider the sign aspect related to knowledge. The Hebrew understanding of knowledge includes intellectual, relational, and emotional aspects. “To know” did not simply mean to know a fact, particularly when a person was involved. It also meant to have a meaningful relationship with the one known. Thus to know the Lord meant to be in the right relationship with Him — to “serve” Him (1 Chronicles 28:9), to “fear” Him (Isaiah 11:2), to “believe” Him (Isaiah 43:10), to “trust” Him and “seek” Him (Psalm 9:10), and to “call on” His name (Jeremiah 10:25).
Look up each of the texts in the above paragraph. In what ways do these texts help us to understand what it means to “know” the Lord?
In addition, the Sabbath has significance as a sign of sanctification. It signifies that the Lord “sanctifies” His people (compare Leviticus 20:8) by making them “holy” (Deuteronomy 7:6).
The sanctification process is as much the work of God’s redemptive love as is the saving and redeeming work of God. Righteousness (justification) and sanctification are both activities of God: “I … the LORD … sanctify you.” (Leviticus 20:8, RSV). Thus, the Sabbath is a sign that imparts the knowledge of God as Sanctifier. “The Sabbath given to the world as the sign of God as the Creator is also the sign of Him as the Sanctifier.” — Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 350.
| Consider the Sabbath day and the process of sanctification, that of being made holy. What role does Sabbath keeping have in this process? How can the Lord use our experience of keeping the Sabbath to help sanctify us? |
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The passage selected for today's study does not make easy reading. In our modern mind, we talk about God giving us free choice but a free choice with the threat of death if you disobey sounds a bit like a contradiction.
That is a pretty strong incentive to be sanctified. And it wasn't an idle threat. Someone went to pick up sticks on Sabbath and it cost him his life.
I am not entirely sure how to explain that one, but I also very much aware that something clearly went wrong with Israel's Sabbath-keeping. By the time that Isaiah came on the scene, God had this to say:
What had happened to the sanctification? In spite of their keeping Sabbaths and other ceremonies, their behaviour was despicable to God. Could it be that their religion was all ceremony and no action? Isaiah goes on to call out their lack of compassion for the poor and needy.
A couple of questions we could ask ourselves are:
How is the Sabbath a sign that we are compassionate to one another?
Do we think of the Sabbath in self-preservation terms - avoiding being killed?
Is our Sabbath-keeping a reflection of what we do the rest of the week?
"Is our Sabbath-keeping a reflection of what we do the rest of the week?"
This question floored me this morning as I have never thought of it in that way. God's Sabbath keeping on that first week was a direct reflection. I looked up the form of the word 'refreshed' in the Hebrew and it means to take a breath.
Can I take a true breath in God if I'm unsanctified in my heart all week long? I don't believe so. Your third question makes me think that Sabbath may need to be on our minds all week long; anticipation of the weeks culmination in Him.
As to the threat of death, I have no great answer for it. I see it as God being a protective Father who wants His children not to harm themselves by over work (spiritual and physical) which can lead to death (in both ways) so His deterrent is strong, to discourage that self-reliance.
Maybe not a "threat" of death, but an ample warning of the "wages of sin" in a "holy, just, and good" government where sin cannot exist once probation is over.
God is pleading with sinners: "Why will you die?".
Maurice, the question you ask seems valid until we realize that God intends to restore His government throughout all His creation. We are being shown the path to life or the path to death, and allowed to choose. It is that simple. God loves every soul enough to offer His "only begotten Son" as a propitiation, if this is not enough to help us realize His goodness, then we are out of options if we would find Life. There is no other means. Every evidence has been given to trust in the Lord with all our heart, but the choice is ours to make: Life or Death. There is no place in all of creation for sinners to find eternal life.
God is offering Life to every soul, no one needs to perish in sin, unless that is their personal choice, and this choice God will never take from us against our will.
Maurice, it seems to me that context is everything. (Numbers 15:32) In the given context, God had just pronounced the Law in a solemn and grand display from Mt Sinai after delivering them from slavery in Egypt by unmistakable demonstrations of His love and power. It seems to me that in that context, violating a direct command of God would be an exhibition of a rebellious mind set deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit. It was also a time in which God was still teaching the people about the sacredness of His Law, and it was important to demonstrate the seriousness of violating it, because violation of God's Law always leads to death. Rebellion from the LifeGiver means cessation of life. In this case, God demonstrated the inevitable consequence in a more immediate way for all to see. It was both an object lesson and a warning.
It is clear that God didn't always take people out for Sabbath breaking, as circumstances changed. Yet the lesson is still there for us to read.
What is sanctification? Check out the rest of the passage from EG White above. Here is another extract.
The LORD says He is the one who sanctifies His people, He changes their hearts and minds through a process of revealing His Character step by step. Remember the disciples, by spending time daily with Jesus, John, the son of thunder, became John the beloved. The Holy Spirit through Paul says we are destined to be conformed to the image of Jesus.
Yes Shirley, the power is from God to sanctify(make holy). Yet notice that while it is "the power of God unto salvation", it is "to everyone that believeth"(Rom 1:16, John 3:16), meaning it must be our choice, through faith. Faith is ours to exercise or act upon, for God can do nothing with our unbelief.
Interesting that Paul calls it "the good fight of faith". So this is not a one-and-done decision, but an ongoing "fight" where we are to use the appointed "armor of God" which includes a sword.
We are given every advantage to be saved, but are still left to choose whom we will serve. For the vast majority of the world, "self" is the choice to serve, which is why the world is getting worse and not better. The power of God, while beyond our ability to comprehend, is powerless if I so choose.
Yes, Robert, the LORD puts enmity between our hearts and the devil, and then He works through the Holy Spirit to change our hearts and minds as we daily surrender ourselves to do His will. I believe it is a daily choice on our part, as a person with a transformed heart/mind puts the LORD's Principles into action.
Just a short response on the Greek words translated believe and faith. We know from James and many other writers that it is much more than believing and having faith, for even the devils believe.
I think it would be helpful to translate these words as faithful or faithfulness or those confirming faithfulness. Because if you study it out, it is allowed, and I for one encourage it.
The words believe and faith are nothing more than a mental assent to something or someone. Those words carry no action, and so many people get so very confused when reading them in the Scripture. So much so, that there are many in this world that teach "only believe" and you will be saved. They get this from poorly translated verses such as Jn 3:16. This kind of thinking can also lead to a 'once saved always saved' teaching. The term faithfulness or confirming faithfulness aligns with all the other many texts where it is stated that there has to be action. For example Jesus stated, "If you Love me keep My commandments". Also, "You are my friends if you do what I say". There are so many others, when translated properly, that build on this theme of action. If we do what we can do (our part in Him), then God will do what we can't do (His part in us). This is the abiding that Jesus referred to.
Let's take a verse like Jn 3:16 and translate it to be more in line with the rest of Scripture. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Kindred Son, that anyone confirming faithfulness to Him will not perish but may be inheriting eternal life. We can remove the word may if we are continuing to hold faithful. We all must continue to be faithful to Him in order to gain future eternal life. I am sure God is so saddened by the "only believe" mentality which does away with our part in salvation.
Good works (merits vs demerits--The Jews believed in this) don't save us, but we must have good works (obedience) if we are holding faithful to Him.
We all have a free choice, and can accept or reject Him at anytime, and sadly many have rejected our Lord and Saviour.
Just my 2 cents. Blessings Doug
Hi, Doug. You certainly make a good point, that mere intellectual assent is not faith in the biblical sense, and as the apostle James points out, faith can easily be falsified by declining to take action in keeping with our profession of it.
That said, translating "faith" as "faithfulness," while not completely incorrect, would seem to emphasize our reliability to God as opposed to our reliance on Him. Yet Jesus, as quoted in John 6:44, said:
This, of course, puts God in the driver's seat, not us. Our free will certainly gives us the ability to foolishly resist God's efforts and initiative to save us, or to respond favourably to these. But, given our helplessness to even so much as produce, on our own, the inclination to resist Satan, much less the power to do so, it leaves absolutely no room for creature merit, as best I can see.
Doug, just wanted to say that I believe your "2 cents" is really a testimony taken from the infinite wealth of God's Word.
If I understand you correctly, you are saying that faith = the sanctified life, which is the life-time work of faith(fulness). I also believe this is what Jesus counsels Laodicea to "buy of Me", by being zealous to "repent and believe the gospel"(Rev 3:18-22, Mark 1:15).
May the goodness of God lead us all to this repentance.
Maurice you said- 'In our modern mind, we talk about God giving us free choice but a free choice with the threat of death if you disobey sounds a bit like a contradiction.' Maurice I have children and grands, if I take my bank card and give them and say, take it and go get yourselves a gift for your birthday. I do not expect them to go and get a house and a land for themselves and return an empty card to me, even leaving me in debt. That is why the Lord spent time explaining in details what he expects of his people in the covenant of sabbath keeping. When he spoke of the blessings and the cursing is the same. We are promised the sabbath will be a blessing 'IF' we obey. We can choose to disobey like the man who went gathering sticks, or the people who went out looking for manna on the sabbath or those who leave back manna from Friday. What I found out a long time was, humans like to have it both ways. Do wrong and still be bless. E.g Cain, Esau, Balaam, the evil Kings and Judges, The prodigal son, Sampson etc, etc.
In this command, "keep My Sabbaths", the Sabbath is shown to be a very intimate part of our relationship to Jehovah. Nothing in this passage limits this relationship to those who literally came out of Egypt with Moses, or to any one nation, rather, it speaks to every believer of God's Word when we consider the message of Rev 14:6,7 as going to the whole earth. If Christ is our Lord and Savior, then the Sabbath is a sign of our relation to Him by faith.
"In what ways do these texts help us to understand what it means to “know” the Lord?"
I would sum up these passages with “In all thy ways acknowledge Him”(Prov 3:6). To live “by every word that proceeds from God” requires knowledge that is searched for and understood, keeping in mind the words of the angel to Daniel that “none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand”(Dan 12:10). Jesus defines those who obey as being wise(Matt 7:24).
"What role does Sabbath keeping have in this process(of sanctification)?"
Every activity or reminder of God, His love, character, purposes, and government, will keep us in remembrance of our covenant with Him. Every obedient act will strengthen our faith and help us in overcoming(Dan 4:27). The Just shall live by faith.
Perhaps an Adventist biblical commentary will help us understand Exodus 31:14 ...
The Sabbath is holy (Gen 2: 1-3); therefore it is a sin to introduce into their sacred hours what is secular (see on Exo 12:16; Exo 16:23). The Sabbath is desecrated when unnecessary work is done on it. Acts of mercy, those that may be indispensable, or religious observance are not prohibited on that day (Mat 12: 1-13; Mark 2: 23-28).
About He will die. This severe penalty was to constantly remind them that the violation of the Sabbath broke the covenant relationship between the Lord and the people. The Sabbath was the distinctive sign of loyalty to God and, therefore, violation of it was a very serious offense, an act of treason against the divine government (Exo 35: 2; Num 15: 32-36).
What i found out in all these comments if u not keeping the sabbath seven day u don't have a chance to go to heaven.
H'mm ... I took a look at "all these comments" and did not find the suggestion that "not keeping the sabbath seven day" keeps anyone out of heaven.
The focus of the lesson is on the Sabbath as a "sign" of sanctification of God's people. The comments focused a bit more on the importance of the Sabbath as a sign of loyalty to God. However, it is true that willfully rejecting God's sovereignty in our lives by rejecting any of His revealed would make us unfit for heaven and keep us out. (There's no room in heaven for unreformed rebels!)
I believe there will be many in heaven who have never heard of the Sabbath or the Bible, for that matter. (See John 1:9 which tells us that Christ appeals to the heart of *ever* person born on this planet.) But the Bible addresses those who read it and thus have access to truth which they can reject and thus be lost, even when Jesus would like to save them. That said, many do not realize that the Lord's Sabbath is Saturday and not Sunday, and the Lord accepts their service even though their understanding is incomplete. (See James 4:17 and Acts 17:30)
I went back to read all of Isa.43:1-28KJV to gain a better perspective. This chapter gives great insight into the LORD’S workings to establish His Name, to be known by the children of Israel and the nations around them.
I am sure everyone agrees that before one would listen and do that which someone says to do, one wants to know the person who does the telling. Throughout their generations, the children of Israel where struggling to get to know their God. This chapter is full of statements by God to let them know that it is He that brought about everything that they benefited from and that they should trust Him.
Isa.43:1KJV - ”But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.”
Isa.43:4KJV - ”Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life.”
Isa.43:10KJV - ”Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.”
Isa.43:11KJV - ”I, even I, am the LORD, and beside me there is no saviour.”
Isa.43:15KJV - ”I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.”
Isa.43:18KJV - ”Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.”
Isa.43:19KJV - ”Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
Isa.43:21KJV - ”This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.”
Isa.43:22KJV - ”But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but though hast been weary of me, O Israel.”
Isa.43:25KJV - ”I, even I, am he that blotteth out they transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”
Sanctification starts with accepting the One who offers to sanctify, honoring Him by doing that which He tells/has shown will sanctify the heart and mind of man. We can learn from Israel’s struggles and shortcomings experienced throughout their process of becoming ‘familiar’ with their LORD.
We are greatly blessed as we live in the time of the fulfilment of God’s promise to send His Saviour. We have His testimony, the Gospel of Christ Jesus, the Son of God who came to teach and show us that man is sanctified by living the Faith of Christ Jesus, the Gospel of the Sanctifier. Experiencing the Sabbath Day is enjoying 'Rest in Him'.
My son was a bit too big for this rocking chair upon which I rocked my children when they were very young, thus, it had particular sentimental value to me. As he sat on it, it collapsed in pieces. I stared at it, thinking how much I would miss it nestled in its special spot. After some while, as I prepared to give the parts a proper send off,I thought, just maybe I could repair it, although it looked far beyond that possibility. Nonetheless sentimentality overtook me and I resolved to give it a shot. I lovingly glued, braced, screwed, and re-stained the apparent wood pile into a near, original state. For days, I couldn’t help but go by the chair and stare at the miraculous result. I was so pleased with the outcome that it took me awhile to soak it in. Here was a total, seemingly irreparable, wreck now restored to its original beauty. And I loved being in its presence simply because I wanted to have it back. Scripture assured us that God doesn’t give up either. He wants us back in our original form he meant us to be. I truly believe that his delight and the desire to be close to his restoration project must surely match my feelings after reclaiming that old chair.
Thanks Ronald for your story, it’s a good example for our lesson today.
I like the way Tom Bradford explains Exodus 31:13-14. The ending words of Ex. 31:13 says “so that you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy”. The word “holy” or “sanctify”, is translated from the Hebrew root word “kadash”, which means “holy” or “be holy”…to be set apart. The significance of it is explained in vs. 14. “Observe the Sabbath for it is holy to you..” In Hebrew, the word for holy used here is “kodesh”; altho taken from the root word kadash, it has a slightly different meaning. kodesh, means “holi-ness”. literally it reads “Keep the Sabbath because it is holiness for you”. So, vs. 13 says, I’m going to make you holy and vs. 14 says, I’m going to do this by transmitting the holiness inherent in my Sabbath to YOU….IF you obey and observe My Sabbath.
This helps us understand what Christ meant when He said: “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”. He was saying that it was NOT necessary for the creation of Man in order to bring holiness to the Sabbath, but it WAS necessary that the Sabbath be created in order that holiness might be brought to Man.