Morning Devotional Reading January 24, 2015 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. This is the message written in nature, which the Sabbath is appointed to keep in memory. When the Lord bade Israel hallow His Sabbaths, He said, They shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am Jehovah your God. Isa. 40:18-29; 41:10; 45:22; Ezek. 20:20, R. V. The Sabbath was embodied in the law given from Sinai; but it was not then first made known as a day of rest. The people of Israel had a knowledge of it before they came to Sinai. On the way thither the Sabbath was kept. When some profaned it, the Lord reproved them, saying, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? Ex. 16:28. The Sabbath was not for Israel merely, but for the world. It had been made known to man in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation. Of that law of which the fourth commandment forms a part, Christ declares, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law. So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creators power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, Gods holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. From one Sabbath to another the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up to worship before Me, saith the Lord. Matt. 5:18; Isa. 66:23. No other institution which was committed to the Jews tended so fully to distinguish them from surrounding nations as did the Sabbath. God designed that its observance should designate them as His worshipers. It was to be a token of their separation from idolatry, and their connection with the true God. But in order to keep the Sabbath holy, men must themselves be holy. Through faith they must become partakers of the righteousness of Christ. When the command was given to Israel, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, the Lord said also to them, Ye shall be holy men unto Me. Ex. 20:8; 22:31. Only thus could the Sabbath distinguish Israel as the worshipers of God. As the Jews departed from God, and failed to make the righteousness of Christ their own by faith, the Sabbath lost its significance to them. Satan was seeking to exalt himself and to draw men away from Christ, and he worked to pervert the Sabbath, because it is the sign of the power of Christ. The Jewish leaders accomplished the will of Satan by surrounding Gods rest day with burdensome requirements. In the days of Christ the Sabbath had become so perverted that its observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather than the character of the loving heavenly Father. The rabbis virtually represented God as giving laws which it was impossible for men to obey. They led the people to look upon God as a tyrant, and to think that the observance of the Sabbath, as He required it, made men hard-hearted and cruel. It was the work of Christ to clear away these misconceptions. Although the rabbis followed Him with merciless hostility, He did not even appear to conform to their requirements, but went straight forward, keeping the Sabbath according to the law of God. And the Lord says, 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; . . . then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord. Isa. 58:13, 14. To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christs creative and redeeming power, it will be a delight. Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in Him. The Sabbath points them to the works of creation as an evidence of His mighty power in redemption. While it calls to mind the lost peace of Eden, it tells of peace restored through the Saviour. And every object in nature repeats His invitation, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Matt 11:28. Chapter 29—The Sabbath - The Desire of the Ages
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 03:02:31 +0000
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