The Three Angels' Messages of Revelation 14:6-12

Hidden Sabbath Truths Part 2 - Sabbath in Redemption

In his second presentation Pastor Bohr deals with the other two dimensions the Sabbath points to that, unlike the first one, came as a result of sin. In a later version of the Ten Commandments, found in Deuteronomy 5: 12-15, the motivation clause for keeping it differs from the Exodus 20 account which gives creation as the motivation. In this version, God’s redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt is the reason given for keeping it.

They were to be kind to their servants by giving them rest on that day also, unlike Pharaoh, who had forced Israel to work hard all week with no rest on Sabbath. This foretold how Jesus was to come as our Passover, rescue us from our slave-master, Satan, and redeem us from our hard labor of sin so we could enter into His rest and become one with Him. Pastor Bohr also shows that the manna episode was given to Israel, not only as food to sustain them in the desert, but also as a prophecy that they could not live eternally on bread alone, but needed the coming Word and Bread of Life, Jesus, to save them.

As represented by the manna miraculously kept fresh on Sabbath, Jesus would rest in His Father’s care and promise on Sabbath in the tomb and would not in any way decay or stink. We are to “eat His flesh” of life by resting in death to self as He did and contemplating on Sabbath what He did for us on the cross when He said “It is finished”. Thus, Christ’s re-creating us spiritually on the sixth day, (as He originally did literally on Friday when He finished Adam and Eve’s creation), by taking our punishment and dying on the cross so we could be set free from sin’s curse and live, as well as His resting in the tomb on Sabbath after Passion Week as an example of us resting in His finished work of re-creation and redemption, is an additional reason why God asks us to keep the Sabbath holy.

The final dimension is still to come, when Jesus breaks His rest from creating and will once again create the earth in six days and meet with us literally for worship, communion and contemplation each Sabbath in the earth made new. The Sabbath and conditional immortality, the two major doctrines Satan has twisted with errors in most people’s minds and practices today, will be restored to their proper place as seen in Isaiah 66: 22-23. The earth will be wiped clean from sin and restored to what Eden once was and “all mankind” (not just Jewish people) will forever keep Sabbath holy as a sign, not only of creation and redemption, but also of God’s love in bringing us to eternal life in a restored world with Him. After hearing this series, there can be no excuse for anyone to neglect the Sabbath any longer.

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God's People to Keep the Sabbath

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. ~ Genesis 2: 2

God sanctified and blessed the day in which He had rested from all His wondrous work. And this Sabbath, sanctified of God, was to be kept for a perpetual covenant. It was a memorial that was to stand from age to age, till the close of earth's history.

God brought the Hebrews out of their Egyptian bondage, and commanded them to observe His Sabbath, and keep the law given in Eden. Every week He worked a miracle to establish in their minds the fact that in the beginning of the world He had instituted the Sabbath....

In the third month they came to the desert of Sinai, and there the law was spoken from the mount in awful grandeur. During their stay in Egypt, Israel had so long heard and seen idolatry practiced that to a large degree they had lost their knowledge of God and of His law, and their sense of the importance and sacredness of the Sabbath; the law was given a second time to call these things to their remembrance. In God's statutes was defined practical religion for all mankind. Before Israel was placed the true standard of righteousness.

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep.” Some, who have been anxious to make of none effect the law of God, have quoted this word “sabbaths,” interpreting it to mean the annual sabbaths of the Jews. But they do not connect this positive requirement with that which follows: “For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” ~ The Review and Herald, August 30, 1898

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The Blessings of the Sabbath

Since the law is spiritual, there is no escaping the fact that the holy Sabbath is a spiritual institution. It was a day of "holy convocation" (Leviticus 23:3). The joyful quality of the day is expressed by David in Psalm 42:4; "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, which a multitude that kept holyday."

The fact that the Sabbath was to be devoted entirely to the Lord, the fact that it was to be spent as a day of joy and praise, proves that the provisions of the fourth commandment contributed more toward making man spiritual than any other commandment of the ten. To deprive man of the spiritual advantages of the Sabbath, the enemy has always sought to lead man to profane the Sabbath day?" "What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day?" (Nehemiah 13:17). To profane the Sabbath day was, in the eyes of the Lord, an evil thing.

The thought that the Sabbath is a spiritual institution is beautifully brought out in Isaiah 58:13, 14: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." The Sabbath was always to be a refreshing time when men were in a special sense to delight themselves in the Lord.

A verse found in Acts will explain the spiritual advantages the Lord intended the Sabbath to bring to those who in spirit observe it: "On the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither" (Acts 16:13).

We see from this statement that, just as in Old Testament times, so also in the days of the Apostle Paul, the Sabbath was a day of gathering for prayer and worship. Supporting this thought, we read that "the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." Paul agreed to this, "and the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God" (Acts 13:42-44). Thus we find that, in apostolic times, the Sabbath was looked upon as the day for coming together "to hear the word of God."

The Sabbath is the Lord's appointed day for laying aside all thoughts and activities of a secular nature and for coming together to hear the Word of God. So when Paul said, "The law is spiritual," he included the institution of the Sabbath, which was to be devoted exclusively to things that are spiritual. We inquire: Was that gathering when almost the whole city came together to hear the Word of God of "intrinsic value" to those who were present? We find here - and there is no escaping the fact - that the same use was made of the Sabbath in New Testament times as in the days of the ancient prophets. The New Testament references are as clear and plain as those which we have cited from the Old. The institution and its purpose continued. It was not Sabbath rest, but man-made regulations as to how it should be kept, that was the yoke of bondage.

To the uninformed, certain attacks on the Sabbath day tend to breed a feeling of contempt and disregard for it, and that is just what Satan wishes. But it is the Lord's will that we call the Sabbath a delight. The word "delight" as here used suggests something that brings spiritual joy and happiness. This being the case, how it must displease the Lord of the Sabbath day to hear it belittled, denounced, and set at naught!

- The Law and the Sabbath, Allen Walker, p. 57, 58

Secrets Unsealed - Pastor Stephen Bohr

God's Sabbath and America in Bible Prophecy

Hidden Sabbath Truths

Study Notes by Stephen Bohr