The Seventh-day Sabbath: the Seal of the Living God

LESSON 13

THE SEAL OF THE LIVING GOD

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.

Friends, I want to thank the Lord so much for how far He has brought us. This study will be the last in our series on The Sabbath Question. In this last study, we will consider the topic: The Seal of the Living God. In particular, we are going to find out from Scripture, the seal or sign of God's ultimate relationship with His people.

From the last book of the Bible; that is, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass (Revelation 1:1), we read the following concerning the seal of the Living God: "1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. 2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, 3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" (Revelation 7:1-3). Beloved, some good questions we need to find answers to in relation to the text above are these:

a) What is this seal or sign that will set apart God's people from the wicked during earth's final crises?

b) Is this seal some physical mark that will be placed on the forehead; as the text suggests, or something else? As has been our practice, we will go to the Bible to find answers to these important questions.

Beloved, from the Old Testament book of Esther, we are given background knowledge of what a seal actually is. From Esther 3, we read the story of how king Ahasuerus was misled by his close ally, Haman to make a law that was to destroy all Jews in his kingdom. When king Ahasuerus found out later from his Jewish wife, Esther concerning what Haman wanted to do to her people, he wished he could do something to reverse this law that had been sealed with his own ring. But this was not possible because any law of the Medes and Persians that was SEALED with the king's ring was considered so powerful that not even the king himself could reverse it (Daniel 6:15; Esther 1:19). And so what the king could do for the Jews was to allow Mordecai, the queens 'father'; who had proven to be one of his trusted servants, to actually write another law that will counter in a way, the first one by Haman.

Beloved, from Esther 8:8, we read the following statement from King Ahasuerus to Mordecai: "Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and SEAL it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and SEALED with the king's ring, may no man reverse" (Capital Emphasis Added).

Friends, from this account in Scripture, we learn that the SEAL of a King has something to do with his LAW. It is the seal that actually authenticates the law. Just like an official seal or stamp in our days, it is the seal on a document that makes it authentic.

Beloved, we can observe from the seal of Kings and Governments across the world, that any good seal is actually composed of three important items. These three items constitute the name of the person in authority, the title of this person, and then the territory or domain of his or her rulership. From Esther 3, we can glean hints that the seal of King Ahasuerus contained all the three items which constitute a good seal. Now, from this background, we can infer that the seal of the Persian King Ahasuerus looked like this:

1. NAME: AHASUERUS

2. TITLE: KING

3. TERRITORY: PERSIAN EMPIRE

Beloved, when this seal is pressed unto a document, it carries with it the power of law. From the account of King Ahasuerus in the book of Esther, it is clear that a King's Seal has got something to do with his Law. Interestingly friends, we discover from another portion of Scripture that the Seal of the King of the universe has also got something to do with His Law.

In fact, we read from Isaiah 8:16 the following: "Bind up the testimony, SEAL THE LAW among my disciples" (Capital Emphasis Added). Thus friends, from this text in Isaiah, we are given a clue as to where we could look out for God's seal. And that place is no other place in Scripture than within God's Moral Law; His Ten Commandments, the only Law in Scripture that God considered so important not to delegate its writing to the prophets, but to write it with His own fingers on tables of stone (see Exodus 31:18).

Friends, as we noted earlier, a good seal should be made up of the 1) name of the person in authority, 2) his or her title and then 3) the domain of his or her rulership. Now, as we consider God's Ten Commandments one after the other, we come to realize that God's seal is placed right within the heart of His Law. It is interesting to discover that all the three items that constitute a good seal are found right within the fourth commandment in the Decalogue.

This commandment reads: "8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 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: 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" (Exodus 20:8-11).

Beloved, from the Sabbath commandment alone, we find the three elements that make up the Seal of the Living God .Now, the seal of God, as inscribed in the fourth commandment, will look like this:

1. NAME: The Lord Your God. (Exodus 20:10)

2. TITLE: Maker or Creator. (Exodus 20:11)

3. TERRITORY: Heaven and Earth. (Exodus 20:11)

Friends, we can see clearly from Scripture that it is within the Sabbath commandment that we find the SEAL OF THE LIVING GOD. It is within the Sabbath Commandment that we find the SIGNATURE of the Omnipotent. Thus, from this background, it is clearly evident that the Seventh-day Sabbath is the Seal of the Living God.

Beloved, the Sabbath is the sign of God’s ultimate relationship with His people. Right after the creation of our world, the Lord filled the Sabbath hours with abundant blessings, and gave it as a precious gift to the human race (Mark 2:27). From Genesis 2:1-3, we read these beautiful words: "1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."

Friends, thus right after creation, the Sabbath has been the sign of God's ultimate relationship with His children. The Sabbath has been the means through which the Lord sanctifies His people. For instance, when the whole world was wholly given to idolatry because of sin, the Lord chose the people of Israel to be a light to the world (Zechariah 8:20-23; Isaiah 2:2-3). Now, having chosen them as His own peculiar people, He commanded them through His servant Moses the following: "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you" (Exodus 31:13; see also Ezekiel 20:12).

Decades after Moses, God repeats this same commandment through the prophet Ezekiel. From Ezekiel 20:20, we read the following: "And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God." Beloved, the Sabbath is the SIGN of God's ultimate relationship with His people. It is the SEAL of the Living God that distinguishes the people of God from the wicked.

Friends, you may have realized from our study so far that the words sign and seal are used interchangeably in relation to the Sabbath. This is basically because the two words are synonyms and can be used as such. From Romans 4:11, we see a classic case of Hebrew Synonymous Parallelism where the words seal and sign are used interchangeably. From Romans 4:11, we read the following concerning Abraham: "And he received the SIGN of circumcision, a SEAL of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also" (Capital Emphasis Added). This text in Romans 4 makes it clear that the word 'SIGN' can be used in place of the word 'SEAL'. Thus, we can confidently conclude at this point from the evidence of Scripture that the Sabbath is the seal of the Living God.

Beloved, from our study so far, I believe it is clear to us now that the seal of God is not something physical that will be placed on the forehead of God's people. Rather, God's end time saints will decide with their entire MIND to keep the commandments of God, including the Sabbath (Revelation 14:12; James 2:10-12). From Hebrews 10:16, we read the following: "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their MINDS will I write them" (Capital Emphasis Added).

At this point in our study, an important question that begs for an answer is this: You have explained that the seal of God is the Seventh-day Sabbath. What about the quotation in Ephesians 4:30 which says believers are SEALED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT unto the day of Redemption? Friends, the answer to this question is provided by another Bible quotation. From Acts 5:32, we read that the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey the Lord. Thus beloved, the issue still comes back to obedience to the commandments of God. In fact, one cannot have the comforting assurance of the Holy Spirit when he or she knowingly disobeys the commandments of God. For instance, earlier you didn't know that the Sabbath is the sign of God's ultimate relationship with His people; and that He expected His children to remember and keep it holy (Exodus 20:8-11). Now that you know, the Lord requires complete obedience from you on the subject. From Revelation 14:12, we read the following concerning God's end time people: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus".

Beloved, the keeping of God's commandments, particularly the Sabbath, is what will distinguish God's end time people from the rest of the world. The final battle in the great controversy between Christ and Satan will still be over worship; and the Seal of God's Creatorship, the Sabbath; will be set in contention to the Mark of the beast (which is, Sunday Worship). The world will be brought to make a choice; and none would remain neutral.

Exhortation: "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil" (Isaiah 56:2).

"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 58:13-24).

(For a detailed step by step study that unravels the antichrist power of Bible prophecy; and the prophetic issues that relate to the end of our world such as 666, the Mark of the Beast and Armageddon, please request for our Bible prophecy series dubbed: The Final Events of Bible Prophecy).

Stay blessed and keep shining for King Jesus.

Maranatha!

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