Many have said that God doesn’t care, but He changed my life with it. He rested on the 7th day of creation after all, and He never changes although we do.
IF YOU DOUBT: MORE INFORMATION
A few people in the Bible we read kept sabbath:
God (Genesis 2:2-3) Moses (Exodus 16:30) Nehemiah (Nehemiah 13:19) Jesus (Luke 4:16, Mark 1:21) Mary (Luke 23:56) Paul (Acts 17:2, Acts 18:4)
I’d like to give you some context on what was going on in the times when Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath, because context is so very important. He lived in a time where certain religious leaders started creating their own traditional laws around God’s laws. So you had God’s holy law, and then they made their own laws that were laws of man. For example, many Jews today still hold dear to these laws of man – such as not touching woman to keep themselves from falling into adultery. All these things have good intentions, but they are imperfect laws of man, and ultimately cause people to start living in legalism. Legalism is doing things to be just before God, so instead of embracing God’s grace for their failures, they went into a performance mindset.
This was one of the main things Jesus and Paul spoke against, they did not speak against God’s law, but the laws of men. I’m sure you know of Matthew 5:18-19:
“For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Whoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (everything has not been accomplished yet)
He is talking about laws such as the Sabbath, He is trying to make sure we know that He is not speaking against God Himself, but that He is speaking against laws of man that are not the will of God – laws that bring people into bondage instead of freedom. God’s laws or instructions, were given to protect us.
Think of it like this, you have a teenager daughter, and you tell her to be home by 23:00 every night. You do this for her protection, because you love her. In the same way, God created us, He knows our bodily functions and knows we need to rest. He also knows what is good for our bodies. Because He loves us, He instructs us from Father to child to rest, and when the child doesn’t obey – He forgives. When Jesus came our bodies didn’t suddenly not need physical rest. God created the Sabbath with creation and says that it is eternal.
Exodus 31:16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.
We are grafted into Israel:
Romans 11:16 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others (israel) and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, (share in what they received).
We will even be keeping the sabbath in the millennial reign of God:
This is at the end of time: Isaiah 2Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” [For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.]
Continued: In the New Heavens and the New Earth:
22“For just as the new heavens and the new earth Which I make will endure before Me,” declares the LORD, “So your offspring and your name will endure. 23“And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the LORD.
(They will come on Sabbath for their date with Jesus)
So God will be teaching the nations His law. So now I must ask, did God give His law to Moses, then nail it to the cross with Jesus, just to give it again? While we might change, He stays the same and it doesn’t fit His character in my opinion.
At the end of the day I just want God’s truth to prevail, and I know you desire it just as much, if not more. So I know God will lead both of us into absolute truth. The only reason I’m sharing this is because 6 years ago I had a struggle with this and did some deep study into it. So I would just like you to have a look into this, the enemy has stolen our rest at various levels, and we need to take back God’s Kingdom and bring as much as we can from what the Kingdom will be – into todays time while we can.
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MUSIC CREDIT
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“Prepare the Way”, sound recording belongs to: (00:01)
MATTIE MONTGOMERY
