Wednesday, November 21
Another crucial biblical teaching that Seventh-day Adventists believe and uphold is the seventh-day Sabbath. This is a key doctrine that brings unity and fellowship among us. It is one that, with very few exceptions in Christendom, we alone follow.
The Sabbath is God’s gift to humanity right from the Creation week itself (Genesis 2:1-3). At Creation, three distinctive divine acts established the Sabbath: (1) God rested on the Sabbath, (2) He blessed the day, and (3) He sanctified it. These three actions instituted the Sabbath as God’s special gift, enabling the human race to experience the reality of heaven on earth and to affirm God’s six-day Creation. A well-known rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel, has called the Sabbath “a palace in time”, a holy day when God meets with His people in a special way.
What do the following passages teach about the meaning of the Sabbath for humankind? Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Ezekiel 20:12, 20.
In our desire to follow Jesus’ example (Luke 4:16), Seventh-day Adventists observe the seventh-day Sabbath. Jesus’ participation in Sabbath services reveals that He endorsed it as a day of rest and worship. Some of His miracles were done on the Sabbath in order to teach the dimension of healing (both physical and spiritual) that comes from the celebration of the Sabbath (see Luke 13:10-17). The apostles and early Christians understood that Jesus had not abolished the Sabbath; they themselves kept it as well and attended worship on that day (Acts 13:14, 42, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4) .
Another beautiful dimension of the Sabbath is its sign of our deliverance from sin. The Sabbath is the memorial of God’s salvation of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the rest He promised in the land of Canaan (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). Despite the failure of Israel to enter fully into this rest because of their repeated disobedience and idolatry, God still promises that “there remains therefore a rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9, NKJV). All who desire to enter into that rest can enter it by faith in the salvation Jesus provides. The observance of the Sabbath symbolizes this spiritual rest in Christ and that we rely only on His merits, and not works, to save us from sin and to give us eternal life. (See Hebrews 4:10, Matthew 11:28-30.)
In what very tangible ways has the Sabbath helped you experience the unity and fellowship that Christ desires for His people?
