6 Exploring the Biblical Sabbath
Discovering the Biblical Truth about the Sabbath
This post is based on the transcript of my YouTube video.
I want to thank Michaele Hamilton for proofreading and editing this transcript.
Welcome back to another episode of our Prophecies of Hope series. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey.
As a reminder, the Bible is our primary source of information, so I hope you have your Bible and can follow along. We want to make sure the things we are learning are from the Bible. When you share this information, I want you to say, I was studying the Bible and I learned this information not, there was this guy that I saw online and he was saying. It's not about what I'm saying, it's about what the Bible is saying. My goal is to guide you on this journey and in the study of the Bible.
My name is Marlon Seifert. This episode is entitled, Created for Something Better, Exploring the Biblical Sabbath. We will look at this topic in the Bible and see what it has to say. Maybe you already have some opinions on this topic. Let's see what your thoughts are compared with what I'm going to share from the Bible. I’d love to know your thoughts. Leave me comments on the video. Let's interact. Let me know if you agree, if you disagree, questions that you might have. I want this to be helpful to you. If you do find it helpful, give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel so you can see more content like this coming in the future.
We're going to start this time in the Book of Revelation. This is a prophecy seminar after all, and we have not done a whole lot with Revelation yet, even though we keep dipping our toes in Revelation. I think as we progress and becoming more acquainted with the Bible, with what it teaches, we're preparing ourselves to dive into Revelation. It's the last book of the Bible. It assumes you have read everything that came before it. If we jump into Revelation too soon, my experience is, we tend to get a little bit lost and very confused.
We're starting on Revelation, but we're always going back and checking with the rest of the Bible to see if our interpretation of the book of Revelation fits with everything else God has been saying throughout the entire Bible.
It's a tall order; it's a lot to try to accomplish. I believe we can do it, but we do not want to do this on our own. I invite you to join me in prayer as we begin. Father in heaven, Lord, spiritual things are spiritually discerned. We need your help. Please guide us as we study the topic of the Sabbath, as we look at prophecy, as we look at the Bible. Lord, we want to be faithful to You. We want You to teach us the things that You want us to learn, and we want to learn them from the Bible. As we read them, inspire us. May Your Holy Spirit guide us in this study. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you so much for joining us. Let's turn to Revelation chapter 14. This is where we have what's often referred to as, The Three Angels Message. There are three angels described in Revelation chapter 14. These three angels are important because as soon as they're done with the three messages, we have the second coming of Jesus. Some argue that it's one message given in three parts by three angels. I don't disagree with that. Either way, this is the last message to go to the world before the second coming so it's important for us to familiarize ourselves with the message of these three angels. We will talk about the first angel this time.
Let's read from Revelation chapter 14, starting with verse six. Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people
The gospel here is referred to as ‘everlasting’. I love this description of the gospel. My understanding, this is not a new gospel. It's not a new plan that God came up with. “Oh, by the way, let's just save people by grace from now on”. No, I believe this was the plan all along.
Everything else that God revealed through the sacrificial system was pointing people to Jesus. Paul talks about this as well. The sacrifices, the blood of animals, was not enough to cleanse our sins, but it was a sign that people had faith the Messiah was coming one day.
Ever since sin came into this world, we have been saved. Humans have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The sacrificial system of the Old Testament was simply an illustration. It was how they demonstrated their faith that Jesus was coming. Now we have communion and other things that point back to the fact that Jesus came. We no longer offer sacrifices. We're all saved through the same means. It's through Jesus alone, by grace alone, through faith.
The everlasting gospel is the only gospel which has not changed, and it is the gospel these angels are preaching.
The word angel in Greek means messenger. Sometimes we associate the word angel with a being. I believe the word angel is associated with a function. In the Bible there are Cherubim and Seraphim. These are angelic beings. They often serve or behave as God's messengers. These are beings that the Bible describes as having wings and appear so bright, as if they were on fire. I don't want us to confuse Seraphim with angel. I believe Seraphim function as angels sometimes. Sometimes God Himself functions as an angel. Sometimes prophets function as an angel and we can function as an angel, as a messenger. I think this is a proper thing to keep in mind as we go through this. I won’t go too deep into this, but you can look this up or leave a comment, we can talk about it some more later.
At times in the Old Testament, an angel shows up and later it turns out to be the Lord Himself, including here in Revelation chapter 14. It is prophecy. It is more symbolic than some of the other books of the Bible. I believe that these angels, even though there is a supernatural aspect, I think it also has to do with the work of the church.
In the last days, we are God's messengers. Me. You, listening to this video, those of us who are seeking God, learning about God. God calls us to be His messengers, to take the everlasting gospel to others. I say this because I don't want you to read this and say, “I will just sit around and wait for an angel to come fly in the midst of heaven, to proclaim the gospel to the whole world”. I believe the proper interpretation of this text; God is calling me to be His messenger, His angel, to go out and share the everlasting gospel with the world.
I don't want you to read this prophecy, this message about the three angels, and sit back waiting for somebody else to do it. Rather, we partner with God, we partner with the angels, the Cherubim and Seraphim, all of us going out there to accomplish this mission of preaching the gospel to the whole world. It has to reach everyone before Jesus comes back. We get to be personally engaged with this work of God.
Revelation 14:7: saying with a loud voice, “Fear God
Fear God. This idea of fear. We can see it in Genesis 22:12 and Psalm 33:8-9. It is not fear when you're scared of something that's evil and bad. This is fear in the sense you have respect for something that is powerful and awesome and amazing.
“Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”
This first angel's message ties in several things. The everlasting gospel that must go to everyone in the world. It ties in also the idea of fearing God, giving Him worship, honor, glory. Fearing God, giving Him glory, and in the context of judgment, the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him who made heaven, the earth, the sea, the springs of water.
Judgment is often seen as a negative thing. It's not so in the Bible. We'll talk more about this on the video coming up, but this is the context of the gospel. The good news is salvation in Jesus. The good news makes more sense.
It's even better news in light of judgment. Judgment is the thing that we cannot face on our own. We need to be covered by Jesus's righteousness. That's why He had to come. That's why He had to die. That's why we need Him as our Savior. We cannot face judgment on our own.
In light of judgment, the good news, the everlasting Gospel, is recognized for what it is. Good news. What do we do with this message? There is a gospel message, the everlasting gospel. Fear God. Give glory to Him. The hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.
The more you study revelation, the more you study prophecy in general, you will see that worship is a big part. Worship is a big part of our lives. We go through life and worship is something that shapes the way that we live. Worshiping God is a major part of our relationship with God. The Bible highlights this, especially in Revelation 14:7, the last part, “worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”
We live in the modern western world. It's more secular. It's more scientific. We don't really believe there are lots of gods out there. But when this was written, and even still today in many parts of the world, there is a belief in different gods for different things. There's the god of the rain, there's the god of the crops, there's the god of war, and there's the god of protection, there's the god of fertility, and there are gods of all kinds of things. The Bible points out that we should worship the God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water. That's how we identify who we should be worshiping, the creator God.
This is important. There are Christians, people who claim to believe in God, believe in Jesus, who say they have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but they deny the creation accounts. They think it's kind of embarrassing to believe in creation. They believe in evolution or some form of evolution where God maybe started things off with the Big Bang and then He kind of left things to evolve on their own, to die, to struggle, then to eventually evolve, and then the weak ones die, the strong ones survive. That was the rule for a long time until we get to humans and then God says, okay, now let's work together. I just don't see that in the biblical text. When we look at Revelation, if we take out creation, then how do we find out who to worship? If we're supposed to worship the creator God and there is no creator God, we're in trouble.
I feel, if we're going to study prophecy, and we are studying prophecy, and if we're going to take this message and apply it to our lives, we also have to accept the biblical creation account. If you take that out, then the book of Revelation falls apart. These are the bookends. We have the Bible, 66 books, all of these pages, and then we have the first book and the last book. You can't have one without the other. You take out Genesis, Revelation falls apart. If you have Genesis, but you don't look at Revelation, you don't see the ultimate fulfillment and culmination of all the things Genesis deals with. Genesis begins with a perfect world. Then there's trouble. In Revelation, we see that trouble solved and the new creation takes place. To understand everything in the middle, it's important to understand both Genesis and Revelation.
With that in mind, let's look at Psalm. We will go right to the middle of the Bible, not Genesis, not Revelation, but let's pause in Psalms for a little bit. This book has a lot to do with worship, a lot of worship songs and poetry.
Let's look at Psalm 33:8-9.
Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
Now, this is important because this ties in Revelation 14:7 that we just read. “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”
Who made the heavens, the seed, the earth, the springs of water? This also ties in with the creation account. Psalm 33:8-9 is saying, Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
The fear, the awe, the respect, the recognition that God is worthy of our worship, is connected to His power as creator, to His actions as creator. We worship God not only because He saved us and redeemed us through His son Jesus Christ, but also because He created us in the first place. God as creator is integral to the biblical understanding of who He is, His character, His power, what He is like, and our understanding of what He's doing and will do in the future as we look at prophecy.
Let's go back and review Genesis chapter one. This may be familiar to many of you, but there might be some that are new to the Bible and you're just discovering these things. Welcome to the journey. It's a lifelong journey. It's always fun to learn new things but also to review what we have already learned and to be reminded of things that we should never forget.
Genesis 1:1 says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The Bible begins by establishing God as the creator. The Book of Revelation, the three angels message just before the second coming of Jesus, is making the same proclamation. God is the creator and He is worthy to be worshiped. The only one that should be worshiped.
We had another video in this series that covered an enemy of God who wants to be worshiped in God's place. He will do anything he can to distract us from worshiping God, to confuse us, and to get us to stop worshiping God. Here's the secret. We cannot help but worship. If we don't worship God, we will worship something else. We have a tendency to spend money and invest our time into certain things, and it can easily take the place of God. For some people, it's their favorite sports team. They know the names of all the players. They know all the stats. They buy the season tickets. They never miss a game. They're always there watching. To me it sounds a lot like worship.
What does God require of us? Time, attention, effort. The Bible talks about donations and being a cheerful giver. It's not, oh, I have to give, but rather, I'm happy to do this. For example, a fan will buy merchandise for their favorite team. They'll get the shirt and be proud to wear it, they're happy to do it. They don’t say, why do I have to pay for this? I'm not talking about money necessarily. I am saying, the way we spend our money and our time says something about our hearts. It says something about our values. It says something about worship.
We will worship something, and Satan will try to get us to not worship God. He knows we will worship something else, whether it's ourselves, education, jobs, spouse, relationships, sports, money, power, drugs, pleasure. We will worship something. Not worshiping is not an option. God just says, direct your worship towards me. I am the only one that is worthy of it. I would agree. The things we worship shape our lives, our values, the way that we behave. When we worship God, when we behold God, we are transformed by that in the best way possible. As we worship, our focus, our attention, our time, our money, our efforts, are directed towards those things. They will shape our minds, our characters, the way that we go about life.
Let's explore this a little bit further.
Genesis 1:26. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
God gave them everything that they needed, the food, the place, the housing, everything is taken care of. We are created in God's image. God gives us all the trees, all the plants, all the seed-bearing fruit. We have more than enough to enjoy and to live a perfectly happy life. This is the God of the Bible. He created and it was very good. Not okay. Not, it needed to evolve a little bit. Not, it's this soup that's kind of alive and it's going to eventually evolve and get better after much death and suffering and struggle to survive. That's not the God of the Bible.
There is no death in this perfect world. That's part of the reason why God is placing every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Genesis 1:29. There is no death. It's a perfect world. There is no evolution. There is no survival of the fittest. There is no death of the weak. It's just a perfect world. This is what God created for us. This is the God of the Bible. The powerful God who deserves our worship.
Now Genesis chapter two, starting with verse one says, Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished, which means created. It was done. It did not need to evolve. It did not need more work. It was done. It was perfect. Verse two, And on the seventh day, so six days God was creating, doing everything. Everything is done now. It's the seventh day. God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Now, let me ask you this. Is God tired? No, God does not get tired. The Bible tells us that. If you want those references, let me know in the comments. Does God get tired? There are several bible verses that say no. God is not tired. Why is He resting? We will get to that. God rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Verse three, Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it (made it holy), because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
God rested from all the work that He had made. He finished. He was done. All the work that needed to be done was accomplished. He rested. What did He do when He rested? I believe that God took that seventh day, the first full day after creation is completely done, and He took it to enjoy what He had created. To enjoy us, to enjoy this world, to enjoy the animals, to enjoy this relationship that we see when we read through the Bible.
God is longing for a relationship with us. The Bible is not a story of us trying to reach God, trying to get His attention or be better so that He would bless us. No. The Bible is a story of God seeking us, coming after us, chasing after us, loving on us, providing for us, and inviting us into a loving relationship with Him. That is the gist of the Bible.
I believe the Sabbath day of rest, the seventh day of the week, is God getting to do what He wants to do always; spend some time with us. He finished working and then on the first full day of the world being done and perfect, God says, I will rest. I will take a break. I am going to hang out with humanity, with Adam and Eve, with the earth, with the animals. That's my view on it.
Maybe the children of Israel began to forget this as they were in Egypt, as they were slaves for over 400 years. Then God sends Moses. God does powers and the wonders and brings them out of Egypt. There comes a time when God gives them the Ten Commandments. We have a whole video in this series on God's law. If you missed it, you can go back and look in the playlist. It's on our YouTube channel. Or if you listen to this as a podcast, it's also available there.
The Ten Commandments were given to the children of Israel after God had delivered them from Egypt, not before. God didn't say, start keeping these laws and then I'll come back and deliver you. He delivered them first and then said, here are some guidelines for you to live your life.
Here's an interesting thing. The children of Israel had been slaves. For years and years and years, for generations, they don't know what it was like to rest. They don't know what it's like to have that autonomy. They've been slaves for so long. That's all that they know.
Could it be that we live our lives in debt? We buy things that we can't afford, and then we are paying a lot more than it's worth because we're paying interest. You're caught in this rat race. Is that different from slavery? We feel like we can't stop. We need more. We're always hungry for more. One more thing, which keeps us working so we don't have time for the most important things in life.
I wonder if perhaps we have more in common with Israel in Egypt than we would like to admit. Slaves to sin, slaves to appetite, slaves to consciousness? We see things. We want the things, so we get ourselves in debt trying to get the things. It's just this cycle and we never stop. There's always something else to do. We feel like our value is connected to our doing. When somebody asks, we tell them what we do for a living because that's where our value comes from. If I stop doing, do I have any value? I wonder if the children of Israel were struggling with this as well. Their identity was connected to their work and how hard they worked.
I don't know what it's like in your country, but here in the US a common greeting is, “Hey, how are you?” People often respond, “busy, tired”. I hear that all the time, and I don't doubt it. It's a hundred percent true. The question is, why are we all so busy and tired? Yes, life is busy and things go wrong and there are challenges, but could it be that we also don't allow ourselves an opportunity to rest?
Let's jump into Exodus chapter 20, starting with verse eight. Verse eight says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. “
Interesting. “Remember”. The other commandments don't start with remember. Most of them begin with, “You shall not”. But this one begins with, “Remember”. Exodus 20:8. The fourth commandment. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. “
Let me ask a simple question. If God is saying remember, is He establishing something new? No. He's asking you to remember, to not forget something that existed from creation, from a long time ago. He's saying, remember. He is not saying, Hey, here's a new idea. Moses, you and the children of Israel and all the Jews from this point forward, here's what I want you to do. We talked about this when we talked about the Ten Commandments or God's law. This is not something new. This is something that has always existed. It's just formally being written down right now in tablets of stone with the finger of God, which separates this from anything else that we have in the Bible. The Ten Commandments are the only thing written by the finger of God in stone.
With that in mind, God is saying, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Keep the Sabbath holy. Remember it. That's the command. Wow. What do you mean? Well, the Bible has more description. Don't worry.
Exodus 20 beginning with verse 9. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: “
So maybe this is just for the Jews? Maybe this is just for the Israelites? Let's continue with the commandment.
It says “you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant,”
What if my servants are from a different country? Can I get them to work on the side? If they're not Jews, then they're not Jewish. If they're not Israelites, could I get an Egyptian servant or somebody from a different country? They're looking for work, I hire them and then they can work on the Sabbath because they don't have the same religion that I do. No, if they work for you, if they're under your sphere of influence, they get the Sabbath rest as well. Are you sure? Well, let's keep reading. I'm pretty sure this is what it means.
“nor your cattle,”
Creation is invited to rest on the Sabbath. Not just people who belong to a specific faith or culture or ethnicity? No. Everybody. Even the cattle. Even the animals,
“nor your stranger who is within your gates.”
If somebody came from Ethiopia to visit there in Israel, they got the Sabbath off as well. According to this, people from the surrounding nations, if they're visiting, they also get the Sabbath rest. If there's a stranger in my house and he wants to go and do work and mow my lawn, no, no, no, you, you get to rest today. But I don't have the same faith. I'm not from the same people. It's okay. You are invited to rest with us and enjoy this blessing from God. It's for the stranger. It's for the servants. It's for the animals. Anybody within your gates. Anyone within your sphere of influence, they get the Sabbath rest.
This is what God is telling Moses. This is what God is telling the children of Israel. This is what God has written in stone. This is what God is telling us. From creation there was a special blessing on that day. God made it holy. He's the only one that gets to do that.
He invites us to keep it holy. Don't profane it. Don't desecrate it. Keep it holy. He tells us how you do that. Everybody else, your pets, your animals, your workers, your employees, everybody that works for you, everybody within your sphere of influence, they get the Sabbath rest as well.
For what reason, verse 11.
“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (made it holy)
There's a special blessing on this day. There's a holiness about this day. God is the one who blessed it and we keep it holy along with God's plan for it from the beginning. In this commandment, God ties the holiness of the Sabbath back to creation, not to Moses, not to the Jewish people, not to faith, but to all of humanity, to all of creation. Everyone is invited to rest on the Sabbath regardless of your faith. Seems clear to me.
But why do we struggle with rest? Why is it that we who are Seventh-day Adventists, get accused of being legalistic when we are resting? We are accused of believing in salvation by works when we're refusing to do works. I wonder what causes people to consider that? Maybe you can leave me a comment below. How does resting count as me working for my salvation?
The way that I think about it, I have so much faith in God's grace and His power and His ability to provide for me, I don't have to be constantly working. I can trust in Him and in His ability and find rest in Him. I can stop for 24 hours when the sun goes down on Friday night to when the sun goes down on Saturday night. From that time, from sunset to sunset, is the Sabbath day made holy by God, blessed by God. I accept His invitation for me to rest, and join in His desire to spend some time with me on the day that He set aside, the day that He chose because He is God and I am not.
How hard do you have to work to earn your rest? Sometimes we have that feeling. I haven't finished everything. I haven't done all the things I need to do. God invites you to rest. You can either use your time better during the week or maybe you should take some things off of your plate and do less. I don't know what your personal situation is. I don't know what you're going through and struggling with. I'm not sure how that applies to your life. What I know is, God calls me to rest on the Sabbath day. If I'm a follower of God and if I trust in Him, and if I worship Him as creator, then I want to do His will.
If you're worried about how much you have to work before you earn your rest, let me ask you this. How much work did Adam and Eve do before they earned their Sabbath rest? They were created on the sixth day of creation. On the seventh day, God invites them to rest. I imagine Adam and Eve saying, “but we're not tired. We're just getting started.” And God says, “yeah, let's hang out.” Who hires you for a job and then gives you vacation right away? This doesn't make sense unless God did not create us to be busy working all the time, but to enjoy the life that He gives us.
Work is important. Right there in the commandment and in the creation story, God worked for six days. He created for six days. It's good for us to create. It's good for us to work, but our identity is not found in the work. Our identity is found in God, and God invites us to rest. It's okay for us to rest. It builds our faith. It reminds us of the God that we worship. We're not working for our salvation. We are resting in our salvation and in our identity in Jesus Christ.
Here's the thing that I think we struggle with. When work becomes an idol, rest feels like sin. Think about that. When my work becomes my idol, resting feels like sin, feels like I'm turning away from my lowercase ‘g’ god.
But what will happen to me? Work is what saves me, what provides for me. Our work, our job, is what we do to get money for the church. It's so interesting. Think about this with me. We refuse to rest because of work. I need money. I need all these things. I need to do all this work. Otherwise, who will take care of me? I have to provide for myself and my boss will provide for me. We raise it to the level of God because we want to work when God told us to rest. Because after all, this has to provide for me.
You are working really hard. Maybe you're a student, so you're studying, and the Sabbath hours come in. But I have a project, I have a final, so I must study on the Sabbath hours. You do what you think is best. Let's say in the process you get sick, horribly sick, and you can't go to school anymore. Are you going to pass your class? I don't think your professor will pass you. But maybe all the things that you study will heal you and all your good grades will restore your health. I don't think it works that way, even though I believe that people who study medicine or pharmaceuticals are able to bring healing, praise the Lord, please continue to do your work as God uses you to bring healing.
What if you're just making a lot of money? You set up your own company, your business is growing, you feel like you can't stop because there's money to be made, and then you get sick. Your health is struggling. Can the money solve the problem? Sometimes, not all the time.
What about when your marriage starts falling apart? Your relationship with your children is not great, and everything starts to fall apart. We're sacrificing our health, we're sacrificing our children, we're sacrificing our marriage, we're sacrificing our emotional wellbeing on the altar of work, money, education, you name it. We sacrifice all these things. These false gods, can those gods save you?
I don't know what it's like for you. For me, when I'm sick, I turn to God. I turn to doctors; I turn to medicine. I do what I can, but ultimately, I'm praying through the whole thing. I want God to bring healing because I know God can. He's able to save. These other gods can not. I don't want to sacrifice my health, my family, my mental health, my emotional health, my relationships with my children, and those around me on the altar of work or education or money. Something to think about.
Are we able to pause and rest? Can we trust that God knows what's best for us and He knows what we need? Can we trust God enough to join in this blessing that He wants to give us? God is our provider.
The Ten Commandments begin with the And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Exodus 20:1
I am the God that sets you free. I am the God who provides for you. Will you listen to Me and rest, or do you not trust Me enough?
Do we not trust God enough to rest when He calls us to rest? Have we become so used to thinking about ourselves? We are the ones who have to provide. We have to do everything. We feel like we are not sure if God can provide if we stop in faithfulness to Him.
I'm not talking about laziness. I'm talking about faithfulness to God when He says rest is important and I want you to rest with Me. I want you to spend time with Me. I want us to connect. I want you to connect with your family. I want you to take care of your health. Do we listen to God or do we say, “no, Lord, You don't understand how busy I am. No, Lord, You don't understand, I have bills. No, Lord, You don't understand. But my job. No, Lord, You don't understand. But this project, this professor is really hard.” Really! God doesn't understand. Or is it us or is it me? Maybe I don't understand. What's most important in God's plan for my life? Something to think about.
I think there's a story that illustrates this, and it's before the Ten Commandments are given. Let's look at Exodus chapter 16 verses four and five.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
“And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”
If you're familiar, the children of Israel are going through the desert heading to the promised land, there was no food and God provided them manna, which is bread from heaven. I would encourage you to read the whole chapter of Exodus 16. For the sake of time, we won't. We will jump down to verse 15.
So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread (manna) which the LORD has given you to eat.”
Now listen to the command. God is giving them bread. He didn't give a command first. First, He provides for them, just like He brought them out of Egypt before the Ten Commandments, before the laws are given formally written in stone.
“This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.’ ”
Take enough for your household. One Omer. This was a measurement at the time. How much was an omer? Doesn't really matter for this study. The idea is, each person takes enough for each day. This reminds me of when Jesus teaches the model prayer to His disciples. He says, give us this day our daily bread. This is what the manna was, enough for each day. Take enough for that day, according to the number of people that are in your tent, in your household.
Verse 17: Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less.
So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need.
And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it till morning.”
You eat it for the day, don't store it for the next day. Don't fill up your pantry with extra manna. You will not lack. Don't get more than you need to save up for the next day.
Verse 20: Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted.
If you keep it overnight, it begins to stink. Worms come out. It's terrible. You can't hide it. When the sun would come up, it'd become hot, it melted, it disappeared from the ground. Then the next day you would get more.
And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’ ”
Now it is different. Now you keep it until the next morning. Prepare it all today. Apparently there is something special. We call it bread. We don't really have a word to translate it to. Bread is also used in the Bible as food, sustenance. They're calling it bread from heaven or sustenance from heaven, food from heaven. They could boil it, bake it. I'm sure if it was nowadays, we would deep fry it. Do all of that on Friday.
Continuing, verse 24: So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it.
Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.
“Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”
This was before the Ten Commandments, and God is already teaching the people. Six days you gather food, six days you do the work for the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, seventh day, you rest. He's teaching these people who were brought out of slavery, the meaning of rest. He is commanding them to rest as He provides for all of their needs.
Now, verse 27 says, Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none.
They went to gather the manna, but there was none.
And the Lord said to Moses, verse 28, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?”
This is before the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments written on the tablets of stone have not happened yet. Moses going up to the mountain. God speaking to the people through the mountain, as the mountain was shaking, this has not happened yet. Yet God refers to getting the manna, working the six days, resting on the Sabbath, as My commandments and My laws.
God says, I'm doing My part in providing for you. Why don't you do your part in obeying Me? God is providing. Why aren't you resting? I'm taking care of you. You don't trust Me? You don't obey Me? Do you think that life will be better when you go against My will?
Something for us to think about. Do you think that about the other commandments? Life will be better if you just commit a little bit more murder or if you just steal a little bit more, or if you commit a little bit of adultery. If you just do a little bit of these things, life will be better. No, it makes life worse every single time. When you steal, it makes life worse for you and for others. When you commit murder, it makes life worse. When you commit adultery, it makes life worse. When you lie, it makes life worse.
The laws of God are there to protect us, that includes the Sabbath rest, the special day that God blessed from creation, part of His original plan before the fall. Now He's reminding Israel as He provides for them bread in the desert, food in the desert. We wonder if we can rest on the Sabbath! We question whether God will provide for us!
I don't think this is a matter of legalism. I believe this is a matter of faith. I think we don't trust God enough when we don't feel safe resting on the Sabbath. Maybe we question His grace. Maybe we question His power. Maybe we question His ability to provide. Maybe we question His love. We're so afraid and God is saying, rest.
Why won't you listen to Me? Why won't you obey My laws and My commandments?
Let's go back to Revelation. We looked at Genesis, we looked at Exodus, we looked at some Psalms that talk about worship and singing praises to God, and God is creator. Now we're looking at keeping God's law as a part of God's will for us.
Revelation chapter 14, where we have the Three Angels message. Let's look at verse 12. Revelation 14:12 says, Here is the patience of the saints; Do we want to be a part of that group? In the last days, the saints, those were faithful to God.
Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
The two of them together. Both the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. There are people who think these two are mutually exclusive. There are those who keep the commandments of God and don't have faith in Jesus, and there are those who have faith in Jesus and they disregard the commandments of God.
The Book of Revelation says, no, it is both. The same God that gave us Jesus is the God that gave us the Ten Commandments. If God is all knowing, all wise, all powerful, if God is love, then the Ten Commandments are a reflection of His character, of His love, of His kindness. He knows what is best for us, so He tells us what to do.
For example, if you get a brand-new car, you want to know the type of gas to use, how often to change the oil, how often you should rotate the tires, and how much air you should put in the tires. You want to take care of your investment; you want to follow the instructions. This is true anytime you buy anything.
God is saying, for your life, here are 10 guidelines. The best way to take care of your life, to take care of yourself. We say, no, no, no. I don't want that. That's for the Jews. That's for the Old Testament. God's saying, no, no, no, this is for all of humanity. Everybody benefits from this regardless of their faith.
Revelation 14:12 says in the last days, the saints, those who were faithful to God, God's children, they're identified as those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Most of us will agree on not committing murder or not committing adultery. We should be honest, but for some reason we don't think it's important or necessary. It's a minor thing when it comes to the Sabbath rest. It's right there on the stone with all the others. We wouldn't say that worshiping other gods is okay, but why don't we want to worship God the way that He wants to be worshiped? Something to think about.
Revelation chapter 12, verse 17, talks about a battle between the dragon and the woman. This relates to Genesis 3:15, when God talks about the enmity, enemies, between the serpent and the woman, the serpent’s offspring and the woman's offspring. We see this played out in Revelation as well. The serpent, now being referred to as the dragon. Revelation 12:9 says, the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan. Same being.
Revelation 12:17, it says the following: And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Remember, Jesus was part of the seed of the woman. He had the victory. That's why the dragon was cast out of heaven. But now there's the rest of the offspring of the woman, that's us, the followers of Jesus. The part of the remnant that has remained faithful to God throughout scriptures from Adam, down to Jesus, down to the early church, all the way down to the last days. The seeds, the offspring of the woman.
Who are they according to Revelation 12:17? They are those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Once again, commandments of God, testimony of Jesus, the two, together.
This is what the Bible presents to us. The Bible in its entirety, the word of God, God's plan for our lives. It involves the Ten commandments. It involves the commandments of God. God would not commend us to do something that is harmful to us. But there's also the faith, the testimony of Jesus. He died for our sins. We are not perfect. Jesus is perfect. We receive His perfection as a gift, as we stand before God on the day of judgment, someday in the future.
We need both. The testimony of Jesus and the Ten commandments, one does not cancel out the other. Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12.
The gospel of John, chapter 14, starting with verse 1.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
Jesus says, I'm coming back. I'm going, preparing a place, I'm coming back.
As we continue, we make it down to verse 15, John 14:15. Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Ultimately, it's about love. God invites us to rest. God invites us to live our best life possible, and that will be a life in line with His commandments, which means keeping His commandments, not as a means of saving ourselves, but as a way of showing our love for God.
It's up to you. What will you do? Do you choose to rest? Do you choose to follow God? Do you want to experience the life that He has for you? The choice is yours. I encourage you to choose rest, to choose God, to try out His law and see that it is good. There are blessings waiting for you as you make these choices.
I hope that you'll choose to rest on the Sabbath. I hope that you'll choose to make the Ten Commandments a part of your life, not as a means of salvation, but as a way of experiencing the life that God has in mind for you. There are blessings in store. Trust me.
I'd love to know your thoughts on this. If this was helpful, give this video a thumbs up. Subscribe to our channel so you don't miss future presentations.
We have another episode coming up. It's called Exploring the Sabbath Sunday Debate: A biblical approach. How come so many people worship on Sunday? We will talk about that a little bit.
That is not as important as what we talked about today in this video about the importance of the Sabbath. Please let me know if you have any questions. We can talk about those maybe in a future video. Until next time, may God bless you.
