The Fourth Commandment? Our Sabbath, (part 2)
We read of God creating the Sabbath on the seventh day, Genesis 2:3. When we examine the creation days we know that man was created as males and females on the sixth day, Genesis 1:26. Those who were created on the sixth day immediately entered into God’s rest. It was God’s 7th day but it was man’s 1st day. An important principle is that God works first and then He rests. Man needs to rest before he will be put to work. God’s sabbaths are always after God does something for the benefit of man in order that man will enjoy a greater degree of rest with God.
In Genesis 1, God divided the waters, raised the land beneath the water which produced grass and other plant life. He now could create the beast of the field. When He had everything suitable for man’s needs, He created mankind. This is a progression illustrating God’s creating process. This was the work of God, man didn’t participate in any of the creation process. Everything of the physical creation was completed for man, now God could rest. What did man do on the first day of his existence? He came into the seventh day sabbath and rested with God. Man didn’t have to do anything to rest, God had prepared it all.
The Law, Given At Mount Horeb Or Mount Sinai?
Moses, who was God’s representative, was given as a token or sign to the people that he was sent by God when he brought the people to God’s Mountain, Exodus 3:12.
Exodus 3:1, Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
Malachi 4:4, “Remember ye the law of Moses My servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgements”.
Horeb was the mountain for those who wanted God to speak to them directly. He addressed these people as Israel. Mount Sinai is the mountain where they told Moses, “Speak thou with us and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” This is one mountain called by God with two different names. Which name depended upon the attitude of the people. Joshua and Caleb were accepted by God along with Moses, Numbers 14:6-9, and 24, because they were of another spirit. [ See our work on the two fold Significance of Mount Horeb, the Mountain of God]. So Horeb was the Mountain of God, not Mount Sinai. Not only that, but Exodus 18:16 says that the law was known before we read about it in Exodus 20.
Exodus 18:16, (last part of verse) “I do make them know the statues of God and His laws.”
This article focuses on the Ten Commandments given in a formal way at Mount Sinai. Of the ten laws, nine are moral laws and one, the fourth is a ritual law.
Websters dictionary says of a ritual:
1 Done as part of a ceremony or ritual
2 Always done in a particular situation and the same way each time.
In the case of the fourth commandment, the Sabbath, it is in type a shadow until the real thing came along, namely, when Jesus was crucified and shed His blood on the cross. He was the reality of the ritual ordinances. Jesus became our Passover, 1st Corinthians 5:7; became our manna from heaven, John 6:31,32; became our tabernacle ( Dwelt ), John 1:14; His body became our temple, 1st Corinthians 6:19 and many other things, including that He became our (sabbath) rest, Matthew 11:28.
Sabbath is a Feast
Leviticus 23:2, ” Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feast of the Lord which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. 3, Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein; it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.”
We can read in Genesis 1:26 that God created man males and females. What did these males and females do the next day which was the created seventh day sabbath? They ate what was provided for them and rested with God. They did not need to do anything to enjoy God’s sabbath. how about today? Has God provided for us a way that we can rest with Him?
Hebrews 9:24, “For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear into the presence of God for us.”
Christ replaced all the copies and rituals that were made an enmity to men. Jesus Christ was the real deal, a reality of all them all.
Colossians 2:14, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.”
Christ was nailed to the cross along with the types and shadows which the Apostle Paul calls rituals.
We are under the dispensation of grace which means that we not only keep the law but also the spirit of the law. Why? Because He became everything to us by fulfilling the law.
Colossians 2:16, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect to a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.”
Why? Because Christ fulfilled all the copies, patterns, types, shadows and figures concerning the law of commandments contained in ordinances.
The New Man
God has taken us from the old man Adam, and with our consent, has raised us into a new man, Christ Jesus, Ephesians 4:22,24. In the old man, we were all separate because of difference nationalities, cultures, beliefs, opinions and so on. Those in Christ are of a new birth and of a new beginning. God’s law will exist always no matter what age we are referring to but the law of commandments contained in ordinances, Ephesians 2:15 which was an enmity to us will never bring true peace to us and had to be removed.
Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, Who had made both one, (Jew and gentile), and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15, Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one man, so making peace.”
All the obstacles, division, nationalities, cultures, opinions are over with. The ordinances that were an enmity against us have been removed by Christ at the cross, thereby making peace possible to all men. This is what brings about the sabbath rest spoken of in Hebrews 4:9.