A
Day to Remember
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Once again, let's pray the Lord for His assistance:
Our heavenly Father,
We now know that Your Ten Commandments are the expression of Your will for each one of us.
Therefore, please enlighten us by the presence of Your Spirit, so that we may better
understand the content of Your perfect Law, and that we may have the power we need to keep
it.
In Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.
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John 16:12
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now.
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Dear friends, this lesson is very important.
Before going on, we strongly advise you to review the previous four lessons about God's
law, namely:
- «When God's Finger Writes»
- «The Law Reflects Its Author»
- «The Two Laws»
- «Under Law or Under Grace?»
By doing so, you will better understand the content of the present lesson.
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Matthew 5:19
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these
commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
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In our preceding lessons, we have seen the importance of God's Ten
Commandments.
Here, Jesus says that we must keep each one of these commandments, without breaking any
one of them.
Yet, one of the Ten Commandments, the fourth one, is kept by a minority of people only.
What does it say?
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Here is the complete text of the fourth commandment: Exodus 20:8-11
«Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
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: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor
your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
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.»
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Genesis 2:2,3
And on 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.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His
work which God had created and made.
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The commandment says: «Remember the Sabbath day...».
In fact, the institution of the seventh day as the day of rest does not date back to
Moses, but rather to Creation, when God blessed the seventh day, the Sabbath.
Now, when God blesses something, for how long is it blessed?
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1 Chronicles 17:27
For You have blessed it, O Lord, and it shall be blessed
forever.
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Ecclesiastes 3:14
I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever.
Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it.
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What God blesses is blessed forever.
So God blessed the seventh day, as early as the Creation of the world, so that we should
keep it as the day of rest forever.
In fact, the Word of God shows us that the Sabbath continues through the ages, from
Creation to the New Earth.
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Genesis 2:2
[God] rested on the seventh day from all His work which
He had done.
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Isaiah 40:28
The Creator of the ends of the earth neither faints nor
is weary.
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First, God Himself rested on the seventh day, not because He was tired, but
rather to give us an example.
The aims of the Sabbath are numerous, including: commemorating God's Creation, offering
rest to man, giving him the occasion to worship his Creator.
But the Sabbath is also a sign between God and His people, as we will see in a moment.
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Matthew 12:8
For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
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Luke 4:16
And as His custom was, [Jesus] went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day.
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1 Peter 2:21
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.
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Jesus declared Himself Lord of the Sabbath.
Indeed, no one ever kept the Sabbath as Jesus did, giving it back all the spiritual value
that had been removed by the Pharisees' heavy and useless restrictions.
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Matthew 12:11,12
[Jesus] said to them,
«What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the
Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?
Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.»
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The useless restrictions of the religious leaders had transformed the Sabbath
into a real nightmare for the Jewish people.
More than once, Jesus showed the utter nonsense of these restrictions and taught the true
way to keep the Sabbath, so that this day might be a blessing for everyone.
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Matthew 24:20
Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the
Sabbath.
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Jesus never taught that we no longer have to keep the Sabbath.
On the contrary, He expected His disciples to continue keeping the Sabbath, as we can see
through His words describing events which would take place after His departure.
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1 Corinthians 11:1
Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
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The apostle Paul said he was following the example of Christ.
Is there evidence, then, that Paul and the other apostles were also keeping the Sabbath?
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Acts 18:4
[Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and
persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
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Acts 17:2
For three Sabbaths [Paul] reasoned with them from the
Scriptures.
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Acts 16:13
On the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the
riverside, where prayer was customarily made.
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Yes, Paul and the apostles actually kept the Sabbath.
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Acts 13:42-44
The Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to
them the next Sabbath.
Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
And the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
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This scene took place in Antioch, a city in which lived Jews and Gentiles, that
is, non-Jews.
Nevertheless both, without distinction, came together on the Sabbath day to hear the
preaching of the apostles.
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Isaiah 66:22,23
«For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will
make shall remain before Me,» says the Lord, «so shall your descendants and your name
remain.
And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to
another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me.»
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The prophet Isaiah reveals that the Sabbath will be kept even on the New Earth!
Thus, we see a continuum in the observance of the Sabbath, from Creation to the New
Jerusalem, including the days of Jesus and the apostles.
So God asks us to keep the fourth commandment too, just like the nine other commandments!
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Isaiah 56:1,2
Thus says the Lord,
«Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My
righteousness to be revealed.
Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from
defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.»
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Mark 2:27
[Jesus] said to them, «The Sabbath was made for man.»
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The Sabbath was made for every man, not only for the Jews.
Indeed, when the Sabbath was established at Creation, there was no race, no ethnic group!
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Isaiah 56:6,7
Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the
Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants - everyone who
keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant - even them I will bring to My
holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house
shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.
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Whether we are Jews or «sons of the foreigner», God calls each one of us to
keep the Sabbath and to enjoy its blessings.
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Exodus 31:13,16,17
Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign
between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who
sanctifies you. (...)
Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout
their generations as a perpetual covenant.
It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever.
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We now tackle a crucial point: the Sabbath is a distinctive sign established by
God between Him and His people.
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Ezekiel 20:12,18-20
I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them
and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. (...)
Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile
yourselves with their idols.
I am the Lord your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them.
Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I
am the Lord your God.
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God's people will therefore keep the Sabbath as a distinctive sign
demonstrating that the Lord is their God.
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Revelation 12:17
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.
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Revelation 14:12
Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who
keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
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Furthermore, the observance of God's commandments, including the fourth one,
will be a mark of God's people in the last days.
We will come back on this important subject in a future lesson.
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Mark 16:1,2
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the
mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint [Jesus].
Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb.
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Here on earth, Jesus lived under the Julian calendar: the seventh day of the
Jews corresponded to the Roman Saturday, and the first day to Sunday.
Now, the week in use in Jesus' times is exactly the same as the one in our modern
calendar.
«But,» some people will say, «weren't there some changes in the calendar during the
last 2000 years?»
Excellent question.
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The weekly cycle has never been broken, in spite of change:
The Julian calendar
assumed that the solar year +====================+
had 365¼ days, when in fact it has some minutes | OCTOBER
1582 |
less. This error piled up through the years. In |====================|
1582, it was decided to rectify it by switching | S M T
W T F S|
to the Gregorian calendar. Ten days were then |--+--+--+--+--+--+--|
dropped from the calendar: Thursday October 4th | | 1| 2| 3| 4|15|16|
was thus followed by Friday October 15th. As we |17|18|19|20|21|22|23|
can see, the order of the days of the week re- |24|25|26|27|28|29|30|
mained the same.This was the only major change. |31| | |
| | | |
Therefore, our Saturday is the same as Jesus'. +====================+
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Nehemiah 13:19
So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be
dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must
not be opened till after the Sabbath.
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Leviticus 23:32
From evening to evening, you shall celebrate your
sabbath.
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According to the Bible, a day begins at sunset: «So the
evening and the morning were the first day.» (Genesis 1:5)
Thus, the Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday night and ends at sunset on Saturday night.
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Luke 13:14
Because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, [the ruler of
the synagogue] said to the crowd,
«There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and
not on the Sabbath day.»
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Mark 1:21,32
Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the
Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. (...)
Now at evening, when the sun had set, they brought to [Jesus] all who were sick and those
who were demon-possessed.
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Fearing the religious leaders, the crowd waited until after the Sabbath, that
is «when the sun had set», to bring to Jesus those who were
sick.
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Exodus 16:21,22
So they gathered [the bread] every morning, every man
according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted.
And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for
each one.
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Some people will say: «Keeping one day in the week, whatever the day, is what
really matters, isn't it?»
Let us, for a moment, study the miracle of the manna, the bread coming from heaven.
The Hebrews, wandering in the desert, depended on the manna given by God each morning. On
the sixth day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, a double quantity of manna was given.
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Exodus 16:26-28
«Six days you shall gather [the bread], but on the
seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none.»
Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they
found none.
The Lord said to Moses,
«How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?»
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Whoever keeping a day of rest other than the seventh day would have fasted
twice a week:
- on his personal day of rest (unless it was not a real day of rest);
- and on the Sabbath, since the manna was not given on this day.
God blessed the seventh day, not the other days.
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Colossians 2:16,17
Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or
regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but
the substance is of Christ.
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On the other hand, some people, forgetting all the verses we have just studied,
present these verses as proof of the abolition of the Sabbath.
But as we have seen in our lesson «The Two Laws»,
there was a ceremonial law describing some feasts also called «sabbaths»,
distinct from the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, called «the
Sabbath of the Lord» (Exodus 20:10).
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Leviticus 23:27,32,37,38
The tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of
Atonement. (...) It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest. (...)
These are the feasts of the Lord (...) besides the Sabbaths of the Lord.
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These feasts, such as the Day of Atonement, were called «sabbaths»,
that is, days of rest. These are the sabbaths which were abolished by Christ's death on
the cross.
We must not make the mistake of confusing them with the «Sabbaths
of the Lord» - the seventh day of each week - which constitute one of the
everlasting Ten Commandments written by the very finger of God!
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Romans 14:5
One person esteems one day above another; another esteems
every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
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Galatians 4:10,11
You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am
afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
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The same comment applies to these verses which are classically used to prove
that the Sabbath is abolished.
But if we read the entire chapters containing these verses, we'll see that they do not
speak at all about the Sabbath.
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2 Peter 3:15,16
(...) as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the
wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of
these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which those who are untaught
and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
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Let's note that the three passages used to «prove» the abolition of the
Sabbath all come from the epistles of Paul, which are «hard to
understand» according to the apostle Peter.
Paul's teaching cannot contradict the rest of the Bible.
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Exodus 20:10
But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
In it you shall do no work.
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Matthew 12:12
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
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God wants us to put aside our everyday work and the cares of this life on the
Sabbath. However, this doesn't mean that we should sleep all day long!
The Word of God suggests many activities, to do good around us on the Sabbath.
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Leviticus 23:3
Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a
Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation.
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Acts 13:44
And the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together
to hear the word of God.
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God desires His people to gather together on the Sabbath day, to worship the
Lord, to share, to have fellowship, to study the Word of God.
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Nehemiah 10:31
If the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain to
sell on the Sabbath day, we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath.
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Luke 23:54
That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.
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So as to entirely consecrate the Sabbath to God, it is advisable to plan what
we will need on that day, so that nothing has to be bought after the beginning of the
Sabbath.
This is why the sixth day is also called the «Preparation».
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Acts 16:13
On the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the
riverside, where prayer was customarily made.
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The Sabbath can also be the occasion for a family excursion in nature, to be
filled with wonder before God's creation.
Generally, everything that can increase our gratitude and love for God, everything that
can strengthen our union with our Savior, may be done on the Sabbath day.
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Isaiah 58:13,14
If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing
your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord
honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure,
nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord.
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the
heritage of Jacob your father.
The mouth of the Lord has spoken.
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God's blessing truly rests on the Sabbath's holy hours. All those who have had
the experience of devoting this time to worshiping God, learning to know Him better, and
serving Him, can testify to this very special blessing.
And with such a promise transmitted by the prophet Isaiah, why wouldn't we want to keep
the Sabbath?
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Let's thank the One who gives us so many blessings:
Dear Lord,
It is written: «For this is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.» (1 John 5:3)
Among Your commandments, we find the observance of the seventh day as the day of rest,
Your holy Sabbath.
This is not a burden You want to put on our shoulders, but rather a priv
ilege which You grant us. Indeed, You know better than anyone that we need the Sabbath to
forget for a few hours the worries of this earth, giving us a foretaste of the wonderful
world You prepare for us.
Please help us to keep the Sabbath as we should, in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The test of Lesson 32 is waiting for you!