September 12: HAPPY SABBATH TO ALL!
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. Genesis 2:2-3
The Creator marked His very good (1:31) creation with a special day: His unique signature. He is the One who creates and sanctifies. The first angel of Revelation 14 concludes his urgent message: worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water. (Revelation 14:7) It is deliberately and strategically connected to the fourth commandment’s conclusion: 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. (Exodus 20:11) When the Sabbath was instituted, it was declared holy – meaning sanctified, set apart for holy use – as a sign of what only the Creator can do. Only He can create. Only He can sanctify. This is at the core of life and salvation. His redemption is about re-creating. King David, in deep humility and repentance, understood his own helplessness to change. So, he prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:10-11)
The re-creation of our character to be like Christ is a process that He is completely in charge of – yet He will not do it apart from our cooperation and consent. Scripture goes on to thoroughly communicate that the weekly Sabbath is important to God. If it is important to Him, it should be important to each of us! He says, “Moreover 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… Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.” (Ezekiel 20:12, 20; see also Deuteronomy 5:12-15)
We are taught that Gentiles who accept Christ’s salvation become sons of Abraham (Galatians 3:7) or spiritual Israel (according to Romans 2:29, 2 Corinthians 3:5-6, and Galatians 3:7-8, 29). God says that He gave us His Sabbath as an intimate token, signifying His exclusive role as both Creator and Redeemer. His holy covenant includes this sign in the fourth of the Ten Commandments. When we hallow His weekly Sabbath, we are agreeing with Him regarding that which only He can do for us. Our response of love and loyalty to the Savior is to honor the Commandments (John 14:15).
The world’s fallen religious system called Babylon in Revelation (14:8; 17:5; 18:2) also has a mark. Part of the Catholic catechism is written: “Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept? Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her—she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.” The papacy proudly says that it “changed” (see Daniel 7:25) the Sabbath to Sunday and that “all” churches accepted its new holy day (Revelation 13:3). Thus, the papacy claims that Sunday as a holy day is the mark of her authority.
“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27-28 (Go deeper: Exodus 16:28-30; 20:10; 31:13-18; Isaiah 56:6-7; 58:12-14; Matthew 24:20; Mark 6:2; 16:1; Luke 6:9; 13:10-16; 23:56; John 5:9; 7:23; 9:14; 19:31; Acts 13:14,42,44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4)