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How do we observe the Seventh - day Sabbath from the light of the Bible?
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Samuel Smith
23 Jan'19
5
LESSON 12
HOW DO WE OBSERVE THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH FROM THE LIGHT OF THE BIBLE?
You are welcome to another edition of Insights from God's Word, a Bible study programme that is committed to sharing God's Word by allowing the Bible to speak for itself.In this edition, we continue with our series on The Sabbath Question. The topic for this study is: How do we observe the Seventh-day Sabbath from the light of the Bible? Through our previous studies in this series, the Lord has opened to our understanding several issues in relation to the Sabbath. Moreover, we have noted from the Bible that the Seventh-day Sabbath, which is enshrined in God's Ten Commandment Law is still binding upon all of God's children across the globe (see
Beloved, now that the Spirit of God has graciously led us to know about the Sabbath truth, our duty is to continuously remember the day to keep it holy (see
From
20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
(
1) WE MUST REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY
What this means is that as we go through the week, we must have the Sabbath time consciously embedded in our minds. We must remember throughout the week that on the Seventh day, we have an appointment with no mean a Person than the Creator of the universe. This act of remembering the Sabbath will help us to order our lives aright even as we wait to commune with God on the special day that He has uniquely blessed. Our remembrance of the day throughout the week will also help us to prepare adequately to receive our awesome Guest on the day He has specially set aside for Himself.2. WE MUST KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY
We must keep the Sabbath day holy basically because the Lord has sanctified the day or set it apart for holy use (seeA) We must prepare ourselves for the Sabbath very early within the week. We must make ready our clothing, food and all necessities that will be needed for use on this special day. This preparation is vital as we do not want anything to take away the memorable time the Lord has decided to spend with us.
To be able to prepare well for the Sabbath, we need to know when the Sabbath time begins and when it ends. The Scripture is clear friends, that the Sabbath time begins from sunset, Friday evening; and ends on sunset, Saturday evening (see
But beloved, this is the general reckoning of a day in Scripture. From Genesis 1, we read the account of the creation of our world. We encounter time phrases such as: "And the evening and the morning were the first day" (
Friends, the phrase "And the evening and the morning" teaches us a very important truth. That is, from Scripture, a day begins from the evening and ends with the morning. The evening time of a day is actually from sunset to dawn. During this time, all is darkness. The morning time actually begins from daybreak to sundown. During this time, all is bright.
At places where it is difficult to figure out the time of day through sunset and daybreak as a result of special heavenly phenomena, the closest reckoning of time to the biblical model is to be adopted for observing the Sabbath. At such places, the evening time can be reckoned from 6pm to 6am while the morning time can be reckoned from 6am to 6pm. The Sabbath will thus be observed from Friday, 6pm to Saturday, 6pm (which is the closest equivalent of our sunset to sunset).
Beloved, I believe you might have already discovered that the biblical reckoning of a day is different from how our world reckons a day. Instead of sunset to sunset as the Scripture stipulates, the world reckons a day from midnight to midnight. For instance, the Cambridge dictionary defines a day as follows: "A period of 24 hours, especially from twelve o'clock one night to twelve o'clock the next night". It is important to note that irrespective of how the world reckons the day time today, the biblical reckoning of a day is still the same; from sunset to sunset (review
Friends, this clear information about how the Scripture reckons a day helps us to understand why the Lord commands His people to keep the Sabbath day from sunset to sunset. Now, as we seek to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, we must endeavour to guard the clear edges of the Sabbath. Thus on Friday, before sundown, we must bring our preparation to an end, ready to embrace our heavenly Visitor. We enter the Sabbath hours with beautiful hymns of adoration and praise, thanking and welcoming the One who had created us, and loved us beyond what we could ask for or imagine. We must cherish our time with God on the Sabbath to such an extent that as the day ebbs away, we find ourselves thinking about the next Sabbath appointment with Him. On Saturday as the sun sets, we gently end the day with prayer and praise to our God.
B) Friends, to keep the Sabbath holy, we must do more than just remember the day and guard its edges. We must also keep the day holy by refraining from carrying out any secular work that earns us a livelihood. For instance, the teacher, farmer, engineer, lawyer, banker or any other professional must cease from carrying out their usual secular work, and set the day aside for holy use (see
Beloved, this cessation from labour on the Sabbath is not meant for us to observe alone. Our entire family, as well as other people who work on our behalf must also cease from their labour to honour the Sabbath of the Living God (see
C) Friends, it is important to note that besides refraining from secular labour on the Sabbath, we must also take care not to engage in activities that will lead us to profane God's holy day. From
D) Beloved, the fact that the Sabbath is a day of rest does not imply we should be lazy, idle or just sleep the day away. As Christ gave us an example, we must go to the temple of God on the Sabbath day to worship the Creator (see
Friends, in the text above, we are encouraged to come and bow down, and worship the One who made us all. The Sabbath commandment is the only commandment that links our worship of God to the fact that He created us (compare
E) To keep the Sabbath holy, we must also follow all the examples that Christ gave us in relation to Sabbath observance. Even though Christ always went to church on the Sabbath (review
F) Moreover, an important point that we must not lose sight of in relation to proper Sabbath observance is the recognition that the Sabbath day is a day of sweet delight (
3. Friends, the Scripture makes it clear that the Lord has reserved special blessings for people who hallow the Sabbath. From
From
4. Beloved, the devil knows that the Sabbath day is full of heavenly blessings. As a result, he is doing all in his power today to make it difficult for God's people to hallow the holy day. Satan is now working overtime to ensure that the seventh day is utilised for secular labour across the world. The arch deceiver is out to ensure that more school classes and their associated examinations are placed on God's holy day. And as we get closer to the final hours of this earth's history, the devil is going to ensure that anyone who chooses to observe the Sabbath will have to go through a "supreme sacrifice" to be able to do that.
Even now, many are those who have already forsaken lucrative jobs and promising business deals in order to take their stand among the people of God. Many are those who have missed vital school classes and examinations in order to stand true to the Sabbath commandment. Many are those who have borne the hatred of family and friends for choosing to honour God than attend a funeral ceremony on the Sabbath. Beloved, a time is coming, which is just ahead of us, when true Sabbath keepers will feel like strangers and pilgrims on this earth; for they will not just fit into the affairs of the world.
Friends, now is the time for us to pray for strength to be able to stand for the right in each Sabbath test today if we will stand in the brutal Sabbath crises which is just ahead of us. For it is THE SABBATH QUESTION that will soon polarise the world into the two main classes of people; that is, those who will be obedient to God and those who will not (see
Exhortation: From the lips of Christ, we learn how a profession of love to God is linked with the keeping of His commandments:
i) "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (
ii) "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (
My beloved friend, if you profess to love the Lord, then He is calling you to keep all of His commandments which also include the Seventh-day Sabbath. If it is your wish to begin keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath in a love response to Jesus, please send the word SABBATH to our WhatsApp numbers: +233243105287 / +233553152250, and we will keep you in our prayers and also provide you with directions as to what you need to do. May the Lord bless you for making this important decision to honour the Sabbath of the Living God.
In our next study, which happens to be the last in our series on The Sabbath Question, we will consider the topic: The Seventh-day Sabbath: the Seal of the Living God. The Bible study references for this study are
Stay blessed and keep shining for King Jesus.
Maranatha!
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