Why is the Sabbath Important? Part 1

 The Sabbath is one of the most important aspects of the believer's life when it is rightfully set in its place in the Christian's understanding of the Character of God. Satan has accused God of being serve (Matthew 25: 24) and unjust and requiring a law that His creatures cannot keep.


The command to keep the Sabbath is found in Exodus 20:8 - 11, it is embedded in the moral law of God, and it reads


"[Earnestly] remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (withdrawn from common employment and dedicated to God). Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your domestic animals, or the sojourner 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. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [set it apart for His purposes]." (Exodus 20:8-11 AMP)

Firstly, The Sabbath command is a commandment. It is as eternal as God[1] It calls the Christian to remember the seventh day Sabbath to keep it holy. A day or any other of God's requirements cannot be kept, let alone kept holy apart from God doing it in and through us because we are sold out to sin[2]. The promise given to Israel was

 "For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." (Leviticus 11:45)

Holiness is because God is holy. God's very presence makes wherever He is holy by His very nature, oh praise the Lord! Therefore, keeping the Sabbath holy meant keeping Jesus Christ in the believer's heart to make the command effective. So from all eternity the principle of Sabbath rest was kept by God indwelling all His creatures by His Holy Spirit, making and giving rest.

---

[1] Psalms 111:7, 8

[2] Romans 7:14, Romans 8:7, Jeremiah 13:23, Ephesians 2:1

The Question of the Sabbath

Many persons are perplexed about the Sabbath, and rightly so. Popular religious teachings say "the Sabbath is abolished," or " We are no longer under Law but under grace" still another will say "the Sabbath is an old Jewish relic, it was for the Jews and Sunday is for Christians." Among all these discordant voices who is the sincere child of God to believe? Human tradition, religious reasonings of learned men? The plain word of God must be brought to bear on the question and by the guidance of His Spirit the weight of evidence must decide. Isaiah says "And when the people [instead of putting their trust in God] shall say to you, Consult for direction mediums and wizards who chirp and mutter, should not a people seek and consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? (Isaiah 8:19 AMP)To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them (Isaiah 8:20 KJV)"

So let us consider what the word of God says on this issue.