How often we hear the phrase, the “old Jewish Sabbath.” Yet Scripture is clear that the Sabbath existed long before there were any Jewish people. Its origin is found in the Creation week itself.

Look up Genesis 2:2-3 and Exodus 20:11. Where do they clearly, and unambiguously, place the origin of the Sabbath?

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Although Genesis 2:2-3 does not identify the “seventh day” as the Sabbath (this identification comes first in Exodus 16:26, Exodus 16:29), it is clearly suggested in the phrase “he rested on the seventh day” (Genesis 2:2). The word rested (Hebrew, shabat) is related to the noun Sabbath (Hebrew, shabbat). “The word ‘sabbath’ is not employed [in Genesis 2:2-3], but it is certain that the author meant to assert that God blessed and hallowed the seventh day as the Sabbath.” — G. F. Waterman, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1975), vol. 5, p. 183. Evidently, Genesis 2:2-3 teaches the divine origin and institution of the Sabbath as a day of blessing for all humanity.

Read Mark 2:27. Jesus says that Sabbath was made for, literally, “man,” meaning humanity as a whole, as opposed to the Jews alone. Why would God Himself rest on the seventh day? Did He need it? What other purpose might His resting have served?

Although some commentators have suggested that God needed physical rest after Creation, the true purpose for God’s resting was to provide a divine Example for humanity. Humankind also is to work for six days and then to rest on the seventh-day Sabbath. Theologian Karl Barth suggested that God’s resting at the end of Creation was a part of the “covenant of grace,” in which humankind was invited “to rest with Him … to participate in [God’s] rest.” — Church Dogmatics, vol. 3, part 1 (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark Ltd., 1958), p. 98.

God in His love called the man and the woman on the day after their creation to fellowship in rest, to establish intimate communion with Him, in whose image they had been made. That fellowship and communion was to last forever. Since the fall of humankind, it has offered a weekly high point of one’s life with the Savior.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:11; Exodus 16:1-36; Hebrews 4:1-4; Exodus 31:12-17; Deuteronomy 5:14.

Memory Verse: “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant” (Exodus 31:16).

The seventh-day Sabbath is like a nail that — Thwack! — with unbroken regularity returns us each week to the foundation of all that we are or could be. We are so busy, running to and fro, spending money, making money, going here, going there, going everywhere, and then — Thwack! — Sabbath comes and reattaches us to our foundation, the starting point of everything that follows, because everything that is anything to us becomes that only because God created it and us to begin with.

With unceasing regularity, and with no exceptions, the Sabbath silently hurls over the horizon and into every crack and cranny of our lives. It reminds us that every crack and cranny belong to our Maker, the One who put us here, the One who “in the beginning” created the heavens and the earth, an act that remains the irrefutable foundation of all Christian belief and of which the seventh-day Sabbath — Thwack! — is the irrefutable, unobtrusive and unyielding sign.

This week we look at this sign in the context of the Sinai covenant.

The Week at a Glance: Where does the Sabbath have it origins? What evidence proves that the Sabbath existed before Sinai? What makes the Sabbath such an appropriate covenant sign?

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 29.</

Sunday–>

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Support for the mission activities of the Seventh-day Adventist church has always been part of the Sabbath School program. This video is Mission Spotlight for this week.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlvIOhpfuI4&w=560&h=315]

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Further Thought:

Read Ellen G. White, “Controversy,” pages 607, 608 in The Desire of Ages; and “The Law and the Covenants,” pages 363-373, in Patriarchs and Prophets.

How does Matthew 22:34-40 help us better understand 1. the place and meaning of God’s law within His covenant and 2. the concept that covenant is synonymous with relationship?

“There must first be love in the heart before a person can, in the strength and by the grace of Christ, begin to observe the precepts of God’s law (cf. Romans 8:3-4).

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Obedience without love is as impossible as it is worthless. But where love is present a person will automatically set out to order his life in harmony with the will of God as expressed in His commandments.” — The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 484.

“In the precepts of His holy law, God has given a perfect rule of life; and He has declared that until the close of time this law, unchanged in a single jot or tittle, is to maintain its claim upon human beings. Christ came to magnify the law and make it honorable. He showed that it is based upon the broad foundation of love to God and love to man, and that obedience to its precepts comprises the whole duty of man. In His own life He gave an example of obedience to the law of God. In the Sermon on the Mount He showed how its requirements extend beyond the outward acts and take cognizance of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” — Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 505.

Discussion Questions:

Summary:

God’s law was an integral part of the covenant. Yet, it was a true covenant of grace. Grace, however, never nullifies the need for law. On the contrary, law is a means by which grace is manifested and expressed in the life of those who receive it.

<–Thursday

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