Sabbath Day
See also our article, “God’s Sabbath”.
To get an understanding of God’s Sabbath, we need to search the scriptures. Whenever the human mind thinks of the word Sabbath, it assumes automatically that it is a reference to a day of the week.To get a better understanding of the Sabbath day, we must go to the source of the one that created the Sabbath.
Genesis 2:4, we read, “ These are the generations of heaven and earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and heavens”.
The days it took of renewing heaven and the earth are talked about as one day, not six. As we continue this study, we will understand how God uses the word day throughout His Word.
Numbers 7:11 “And the Lord said unto Moses, They shall offer their offering, each prince on his day, for the dedication of the altar”. verse 84, “ This was the dedication of the altar , in the day when it was anointed by the Princes of Israel: Twelve charges of silver, twelve silver bowls, twelve spoons of gold”.
The twelve days of this chapter, for the dedicating of the altar is referred to as a day.
A careful study shows that these events, no matter what length of time, are referred to as a day. One needs to know the difference between a twenty four hour period and an all encompassing event.
Isaiah 11:16, “And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like it was to Israel in the day that he come out of the land of Egypt”.
We see that the whole period of the Exodus was written here as a day, an all encompassing event.
In the writings of the book of Jeremiah, our Father tells us of the covenant period of the Exodus to the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai as a day.
Jer. 11:4, “ which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey My voice and do them according to all which I commanded you: so shall you be My people, and I will be your God”.
Does any reader of Fathers word believe that Adam died the day, 24 hour period, he was disobedient to the command given him in the garden of Eden?
Gen. 2: 16, “ And the Lord commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat”: verse 17, : “ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”.
Yet Adam lived 930 years( Gen. 5:5). These verses tell us that God’s use of the word day is not always the way we would think of the word day, as a 24 hour period. Peter gives us God’s interpretation of the length of this day concerning Adam.
Peter 2:8,But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
Adam lived 70 years short of a thousand years, so he did die within the time frame according to scripture.
In the new testament, the ones who rebuked Jesus concerning the Sabbath were the religious leaders. Jesus disciples never asked a question concerning the Sabbath. They didn’t bring up a name or a number of a day of the week. Evidently, they understood the Sabbath .
Jesus uses the word day, John 11: 9, “are there not 12 hours in the day. And at another time He refers to the 3 days and three nights He would be in the tomb. The duration of time in those cases are an exact time frame. But what of the reference to the Day of the Lord, the day of visitation, or the day of Salvation etc:, when there is no inference to a length of time used with the word day? Those terms could determine a time period of indeterminate length. The seven in biblical numeric means completion. What God had completed was the physical re- creation of the earth. Then God rested.
First The Physical then the Spiritual
1 st Corinthians 15:45-48
Scriptures tell us that God is the eternal and He is Spirit. His life is an everlasting life. Now, the challenge to God is to create spiritual sons and daughters.
Heb. 4:11, “Let us labor therefore to enter that rest (Sabbath) lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief”.
Scripture tells us that we need to work to enter into Father’s rest.
2nd Tim. 2:15, “ Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
That’s our work today and the key to the understanding of God’s Sabbath. Some think that Father wants us to rest from our physical needs that sustain us in the flesh, like being an electrician or a computer operator, or housewife etc:, we can get physical rest from these at any appropriate time we choose. Jesus set us a example of knowing when to give our physical bodies rest.
Mark 6: 31, And He said unto them, “ come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while:” for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
Father expects His children to use their heads and take physical rest when they are exhausted. The manna that the people were expected to eat is described in
Ps. 78: 24, “And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven”. And verse 25, “Man did eat angels’ food”.
John gives us an account of Jesus talking to the woman at the well.
John 4:23, “But the hour is cometh and now is that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him”
The rest that Father describes to us is a spiritual rest, as well as a physical rest.
The Old Man vs. The new Man
In Ephesians 4: 22-24, the Apostle Paul tells us about the old man and the new man. What is Paul referring to concerning the old man and the new man? We could also substitute the first Adam vs. the last Adam, or the old covenant vs. the new covenant. These terms refer absolutely to God’s Sabbath Day.
We can read of the six days of creation and the seventh day was a Sabbath rest created by God. Man, male and female were created on the sixth day and brought into the seventh day to rest with God. That was man’s first day while it was God’s seventh day. There was food and rest available to everyone. There was no sin, no Satan, just eating and resting. God as a loving Father, had given everything necessary to his children.
One more thing was necessary for God’s purpose to be complete. That is to instill His very life, His eternal life, within His children. To continue with His creation process, He then placed Adam before the Tree of Life to feed on. This Tree represents Christ as His nourishment and would have given Adam and Eve God’s very Life within them. There is a saying, you are what you eat. Instead, Adam and Eve took of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Because of disobedience, God then put them out of the Garden and closed off the Tree of Life.
To God, this Adam became the old man and of the old creation. God now, for His purpose, had to find another way to establish His relationship with His children. The other way would be with the promised seed mentioned in Genesis 3:15. This promised seed would not be seen until he appeared in the Gospels according to the New Testament, born of A virgin, Luke 1:27. He would be of a new creation and called a new man, 2nd Corinthians 5:17,Ephesians 4:24.
We Were Born of The Similitude of Adam
Because a death sentence was imposed upon Adam, all born after the similitude of Adam were subject to death also.
Romans 5:12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
For God to supply what was needed for His children, He had to send the second person of the God-head, Jesus as the last Adam, or new man, to do what was lost in the first Adam. Here we see Adam, who was subject to a death sentence, as the first Adam or also called our old man.
Why Did The people profane God’s Sabbaths?
God never intended to give His people His law. His purpose was to lead His people into the promised land, not by giving them His law and have them journey into the promised land themselves. They were taken captive for their own protection six times in the book of Judges, they were later divided into two houses, the House of Israel and the House of Judah. God divorced the House of Israel and they were scattered throughout the world and the House of Judah was taken captive by a Gentile king Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 1:1. Because the people rejected their God and King, everyone did what was right in their own eyes, Judges 21:25.
The New Man
Because God was rejected in the Garden, God had to send His beloved Son, Luke 20:13, as God’s savior, perhaps they shall reverence Him. Instead, He was brought to the Cross. On the cross Jesus uttered the words, “it is finished”. From that time forward, everything of God would need to be in resurrection, meaning being raised out-from the dead and the start of a new creation. Because of what Christ did at the cross, Satan has been defeated, but still active in the world among God’s people if they allow his subtle ways to influence them. All those who believe the Gospel, and have submitted to the teachings of the Gospels, are now in Christ,1st Corinthians 1:30. The hand writing of ordinances, the law, will now be raised from the letter of the law to the spirit of the law, Romans 7:14. We, who were deserving of death are now, because we are lead by the Spirit of God,quickened, Ephesians 2:1, made alive.
The law, which was once written on tablets of stone and were outside of man, are now found within man as man’s spirit is mingled with God’s Spirit. This is the fulfilling of Ezekiel 11:19. Now God’s laws are established within us and are a fleshy heart.
The Law and its Demands
The reason God never intended to try to make man comply with the law because it was outside of man’s ability to fulfill. The law makes demands on us that it is impossible for us to honor no matter how hard we try. The law say’s, husbands love your wife, and wives are to respect their husband. The law also says, to forgive one another and to love one another. This again is also a demand and impossible for man to keep. The law tells us about our temper, anger, cursing, and other habits which are impossible for us to overcome without God’s help. This is why all men need God’s savior, Jesus Christ. We call upon Christ to help in eliminating everything within us that is negative for God’s purpose. We can only subdue our negative thoughts or actions with our own effort, which never works, but Christ is able to eliminate them.
Seventh Day or Eight Day?
In Genesis chapter 2, man and God were resting together on God’s seventh day Sabbath. After resting, man was placed before the Tree of Life on a new day, the eight day. If the seventh day Sabbath is on a Saturday, according to Jewish tradition, then following the seventh day, Saturday, would be a new first or the eight day, a Sunday. If we are of the similitude of Adam and deserving of death, then being baptized into Christ would be very merciful to a believer. Without death resurrection is impossible. Christ was put to death to undergo resurrection. The laws of God are within us and are of the Spirit and not of the letter, Romans 2:28-29. Because we submitted to the teaching that Christ died in our place, we were brought to the cross also to allow the same power that raised Christ will also raise us into a new beginning.
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