Page 7 - Online Lesson CC-10

God set aside a special (hallowed) one-seventh of the week to be a reminder of Him as Creator of His purpose for our existence. The Sabbath is time in which we can be spiritually rejuvenated by having close spiritual contact with God. It allows us time to think more about God, to pray to and worship Him (both in private and in fellowship with others who are like-minded), and to study the Bible to understand more about His awesome purpose for our lives and how to achieve it!
Sabbath Day Miraculously Revealed to Israel
From the time of creation week until the Exodus (about 2,500 years later), we find no specific mention of the Sabbath in the Bible. Obviously, however, “righteous” Abel (Heb 11:4), Enoch (who “pleased God” – Verse 5), Noah (a “just man” and a “preacher of righteousness” – Gen 6:9; 2 Pet 2:5), Abraham (the father of the faithful – Rom 4:16), Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and others kept God’s Sabbath. These men were righteous in God’s sight, and righteousness is keeping God’s commandments (Ps 119:172).
Let’s especially notice the example of Abraham.
1. Are we told that Abraham kept God’s Law, which would have included His seventh-day Sabbath? Gen 26:5.
COMMENT: The patriarchs knew and kept God’s Law. God would not have inspired Moses to write that Abraham kept His commandments, statutes and laws if he had kept the wrong day for the Sabbath or had not kept it at all!
2. Was God confident that Abraham would teach his children to keep His Law? Gen 18:19.
COMMENT: Isaac kept the seventh-day Sabbath, since Sabbath keeping is a part of God’s Law – His way of life. Jacob (whom God later renamed Israel) also kept the Sabbath, following in his father Isaac’s footsteps. However, by the time of Moses, their descendants, the Israelites, had lost much, if not most, of the knowledge of God’s way.
Recall that after the death of Joseph, the children of Israel became slaves in Egypt, a land in which time was not measured by weeks, but only by months and years. The Israelites were forbidden to worship the true God and forced to work seven days a week. For about a century, they were not permitted to keep the Sabbath. But shortly after delivering them from Egypt, God made it absolutely clear to the Israelites exactly which day is His Sabbath by specially revealing it to them.
3. One month after leaving Egypt, and about two weeks before arriving at Mt. Sinai, where God thundered out the Ten Commandments, what did God promise to give the Israelites? Ex 16:4. What did they call this bread? Verse 15. (Be sure to read all of this chapter before going any further.)
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