SDA Sabbath School Lessons
Sunday November 24, 1996

The Happiest Of Days
(Exod. 20:8-11)

To discover the meaning of the Sabbath, match the following texts to the answers below: (a) Exod. 31:13; (b) Heb. 4:1-10; (c) Exod. 20:11; (d) Rev. 14:9-12.

______ The Sabbath is a memorial of God's creatorship.

______ The Sabbath is a sign of sanctification.

______ The Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to God.

______ The Sabbath is a sign of righteousness by faith and of resting in Christ.

Christ Himself customarily worshiped on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16). And when He spoke to His disciples about the persecution that would befall them after He returned to heaven, He urged them to pray that their "flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath" (Matt. 24:20 (KJV), NKJV). After His death, He even rested in the tomb over the Sabbath, thereby signifying that He had accomplished our redemption.

The apostles likewise held the Sabbath in holy regard. When Christ died, the disciples suspended His burial arrangements in order to observe the seventh day (Luke 23:56-24:1). And Paul is well known for attending church on Sabbath during his evangelistic journeys (Acts 13:14; Acts 17:1,2; Acts 18:4).

Isaiah 58:13 states that the Sabbath is a day of delight. How does the Bible's guidance on Sabbath keeping and Christ's example help it to be so? Exod. 20:9,10; Matt. 12:12; Mark 2:23; Luke 14:1.

"To remember the Sabbath day. . ." (Exod. 20:8), we must think of the Sabbath throughout the week and make the preparations necessary to observe it in a manner pleasing to God. We should be careful not to so exhaust our energies during the week that we cannot engage in His service on the Sabbath." - Seventh-day Adventists Believe, p. 263.

A beautiful as the newly created world was, "the greatest gift God could give to ... [Adam and Eve] was the privilege of a personal relationship with Him. So He gave them the Sabbath, a day of special blessing, fellowship and communion with their Creator." - Seventh-day Adventist's Believe, p.249. How might you reorder your work week so you can have more energy to observe the Sabbath as a day of fellowship with your Creator?