Facts Concerning God’s Seventh Day Sabbath
Genesis 2:2, And on the 7th day God ended His work which He had Made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work. 3, and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from his work which God created and made.
This seventh day was sanctified meaning it was set apart for God’s Holy use.
The one thing that can be noticed about this 7th day is that it is different than the previous six days. The six days of creation mention that there was evening and morning with each day. This Seventh day Sabbath has no mention of an evening. Why? The 1st Epistle of John gives us the answer:
1st John 1:5, “This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”
Darkness is a type of blindness.
2nd Corinthians 4:4, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them who believe not lest the glorious gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God should shine unto them.”
Why Did God Create the Sabbath?
The pattern was set in Genesis 1:2; and Genesis 2:2, God worked for six days and on the 7th day He rested. What did the males and females , created on the sixth day, do on God’s seventh day rest? They came into God’s sabbath and feasted with him. This tells us that God’s sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. The Sabbath was a sign between God and His people, Exodus 31:13 ; Ezekiel 20:20. God prepared everything and man didn’t have to do a thing to enjoy His rest.
God works first and then He rests. God expects men to rest first by being taught first before working.The sabbath rest that God expects men to follow is God at work preparing something to benefit man for his instruction. God’s rest is a time for learning what God has prepared for the benefit of men. All of God’s rests are feasts. They, God’s sabbaths, are learning time periods where God has prepared increased instruction for our growth.
How do we know that they feasted together?
Leviticus 23:2, “Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. 3, six days shall work be done: bur the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein, it is a sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.”
Is the sabbath of the Lord a law or a feast? Leviticus 23:2 says that God calls it a feast.
Tree off Life Closed to all Humanity
When Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden, he was warned/ tested by God not to eat of the Tree of Good and Evil, and if they did, there would be a death sentence placed upon them as well as their progeny, Romans 5:12.
Adam was made in the image of God outwardly but now, we see in Chapter 2 that God wanted to fill him inwardly with the Tree of Life as his food. Adam failed and the Tree of Life was closed to all men.
The good news in all of this is that a prophesy was given to remedy the situation.
Genesis 3:14, And the Lord God said unto the serpent, “Because thou hast done this, thou are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shall thou go, and dust thou shall eat all the days of thy life. 15, And I shall put ementy between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.”
That prophesy is a direct reference to the birth of Jesus and the virgin who would become his Mother Mary. Jesus did have His heels bruised because of the crucifixion. He became our Redeemer and satisfied God’s requirement as the only sacrifice acceptable to Him.
During His earthy ministry, He announced that He was Lord of the Sabbath , Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5, as one qualified to replace Adam who had disqualified himself when tested in the Garden and failed. This is the same Sabbath Day created on the 7th day that we find in Genesis 2:2. Christ is Lord of the Sabbath because He created it as a help for man.
Matthew 11:28, “Come unto Me all ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29, Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls.”
Many think that the sabbath is a rest for our physical bodies and it is not. How did Jesus find rest for Himself as well as His disciples for their physical body?
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.
This rest was a physical rest for their physical body, not their souls. God has given us a brain so that when we get tired or exhausted we know our bodies need rest or we need to take a break. But what does Christ say?
Matthew 11:29, “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and you shall find rest for your souls.”
God is the creator of all souls, Ezekiel 18:4. You are a soul whether in a flesh body or in a spirit body. the Apostle Paul tell us that we have two bodies, 1st Corinthians 15:44. A natural body and a spiritual body. Paul explains this further where he says that man is composed of three parts.
1st Thessalonians 5:23, ” And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming four Lord Jesus Christ.”
We know what our physical body looks like. We are made in the image of God outwardly. In other words we look like God in a physical way. Our souls are made of spirit just as God is Spirit and are referred to scripture as our inner man.
2nd Corinthians 4:16, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet our the inner man is renewed day by day.”
Those who have believed the gospel and good news have left their old man Adam and are growing into a new man by the redempted work of the Holly Spirit, Ephesians 4:24. Our souls, created by God are made up of spirit won’t perish but will be judged by God. Our soul is the real you which will continue on into eternal life if we allow God’s Holly Spirit to nourish us and fill our inner man with His truth.
The more we learn af Christ, the greater our rest becomes.
The Nation of Israel Lack of Belief.
In Exodus 16, we read that God wanted to bring the nation into His rest by changing their diet and by providing manna for them as their food. This manna is called Angels food.
Psalms 78:24, “and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. 25, Man did eat angels food.”
This angels food, manna, is for the purpose of sustaining a soul as we read in Ezekiel 18:4, which is a spiritual body as the angels have a spiritual body.This then, gives life and growth to our inner man.
The Apostle Paul tells us in the book of Hebrews that the Nation of Israel was rejected by God because of unbelief, so they never entered into His rest. Although the Sabbath was a feast which God had prepared for them, it was rejected by them.
Hebrews 4:1 says that there is a sabbath rest for the people of God but it is based upon the belief in the New Covenant and will be brought in by Jesus Christ as our true manna.
. John 6:45, It is written in the prophets, “And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me.”
Jesus created the Sabbath, owns it and can do whatsoever he wants with it. We enter His rest because of believing the written Word and the Good News of the Gospel.