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Commentary on "The Man of God: Obedience Is Not Optional"
Day 2: Sunday, November 28, 2010 - The Politics of Religion
Things aren’t going so well in the Nation of Israel, this of course is because of sin, sin that has caused a plethora of problems one after another after another. Why is this going on because the Nation of Israel has not conquered the land, and neither have they as individuals or as a nation committed to God.
Solomon is dead and His sons have divided the Nation of Israel. Jeroboam is in charge up in the Northern kingdom, Israel and Rehoboam in charge in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
Jeroboam made a number of significant not to mention wrong choices based on making things easier for the people. Including setting up two places of worship, along with golden calves at each location, which is just silly. I mean, let’s totally tempt fate knowing we’re going to fail, what happened during their Exodus isn’t that far removed that they can’t remember what they did then.
They did exactly what they’re going to end up doing now; they’re going to break the 10 Commandments.
It is here that the study moves into interesting territory Jeroboam can’t get any real Israelite Priests to lead at these locations. So instead he takes ordinary Israelites and sets them up as priests. Which was not just a slap in the face to the real priests and the Holiness of their position but a slap in the face if you will of God.
This sort of wholesale disregard for God and his Law is dangerous however it has no connection at all to supposedly changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. In fact even to this day Sabbath for the Israelite/Jew is still the Sabbath on Saturday. However none of us our Israelites we are in fact Gentiles, and the Gentiles were never ever commanded to keep the Jewish Sabbath.
The Sabbath
The Sabbath is first noted as a rest after creating.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Gen 2:3 (NASB)
"For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. Ex 20:11 (NASB)
"It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed." Ex 31:17 (NASB)
The blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day do have regard to the Sabbath. The Sabbath was to be kept by the people of ISRAEL once it was instituted; yet just because resting is mentioned at the end of the creation week in Genesis doesn’t mean that Sabbath was instituted there.
The first time we can say it WAS instituted was by Moses in Exodus 16: 23-29:
...then he said to them, "This is what the LORD meant : Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning."24 So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it.25 Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.26 "Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none ."27 It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.28 Then the LORD said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions ?29 "See, the LORD has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." Ex 16:23-29 (NASB)
Once again it is given to and meant to be kept by the children of ISRAEL. Not long after this of course it was written down as the fourth commandment. The Sabbath was meant as a way to keep the Nation of Israel bound together and to keep them separate from everyone else.
Two reasons are set down for ISRAEL to observe the seventh day.
- God’s resting on the Seventh Day of Creation.
- And ISRAEL’S being rescued from Slavery in Egypt by the outstretched arm of God.
'You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day. Deut 5:15 (NASB)
The Sabbath is for ISRAEL to be kept through all future generations as a perpetual sign between the Nation of ISRAEL and Jehovah forever.
Sabbath Observance
Sabbath was observed in the following manner:
No labor/working: This included, no kindling of fire for cooking which is outright forbidden. Gathering wood was a transgression. No burden bearing or travel (further narrowed to a Sabbath Day’s journey 2,000 paces). Not trading, in fact they would even close the city gates.
A Holy Assembly: The doubling of the daily offering by two lambs of the first year with the meat and drink offerings that went along with them hand in hand.
The reason that practically everything stopped was so that the nation of ISRAEL could come together was to draw themselves together spiritually, to worship with Jehovah with all of their body, spirit and soul.
REWARD
"Also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them" Ezek 20:12 (NASB).
As can be seen above it was supposed to be a Sign between Jehovah and ISRAEL of the eventual eternal rest that would be shared when all things were complete.
TYPOLOGY
The Sabbath commemorates God’s creation rest. It marks a finished creation. After Sinai it was a day of legal obligation. —New Unger's Bible Dictionary
You’ll notice that the Sabbath was for Israel, to commemorate God bringing them by His mighty right hand out of Egypt.
And to make things clear once again we are not Israel, Israel is Israel, that’s why Israel is a nation. That’s why the focus is on Israel from all around the globe, it’s simply because God is still going to fulfill His Covenants, ones that He alone made with Israel.
Sunday (The Lord’s Day)
Sunday is the first day of the week, adopted by the first Christians from the Roman calendar (Lat. Dies Solis, Day of the Sun), because it was dedicated to the worship of the sun. The Christians reinterpreted the heathen name as implying the “Sun of Righteousness,” with reference to this rising.
"But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall." Mal 4:2 (NASB)
Sunday was also called Dies Panis (Day of Bread), because it was an early custom to break bread on that day. In The Teaching of the Twelve it is called the “Lord’s Day of the Lord” (Kuriaken de Kuriou).
Jewish Christians for a short time continued to go to the Synagogue and temple services. However it wasn’t long at all before the “first day of the week” took the place of the Jewish Sabbath as the regular time of public worship at many of the churches of Jewish Christians.
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. Acts 20:7 (NASB)
On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. 1 Cor 16:2 (NASB)
The main reasons were that Jesus Rose from the Dead on Sunday assuring our Redemption, a lot of His (Post Resurrection) appearances to His disciples occurred on Sunday, and it was on a Sunday at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit was poured out.
Once the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem stopped the sacrifices at the Temple by making such services impossible, Sunday became the recognized day of assembly for fellowship and celebration of The Lord’s Supper.
It should be noted that the Gentile Christians (everyone other than the Jews) kept only The Lord’s Day from its institution. In other words All Christians (bar the Jews) worshipped on Sunday from the moment they became Christian.
No one ever commanded Gentile Christians to worship on the Saturday Sabbath, in fact when the question arose of what rules the Gentile Christians should follow the book of Acts describes the decision of the council of Leaders at the Jerusalem Church.
"For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials:29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell." Acts 15:28-29 (NASB)
(Excerpts are taken from my article at the www.thebiblerunner.wordpress.com)
So as gentiles even the new believers of Christ in the month after Christ’s death were in fact worshiping on Sunday, the Lord’s Day.
One last thing on worshiping on the Lord’s Day, the Jews who became Christians through the teaching of the Apostles just days after Jesus’ death and resurrection had to be certain of their beliefs. They heard the preaching and they were certain that they could trust the offer of Salvation being offered. They were giving up all of the temple, all of the priestly intercession every last bit of it, including The Jewish Sabbath. These were things they’d been doing for years and yet they were certain of their choice to trust in Christ for their Salvation.
An Adventist Quote on Sunday
From Authoritative Quotations on the Sabbath and Sunday by the Voice of Prophecy
Sunday (διεσ−σολισ, of the Roman calendar, day of the sun, because dedicated to the sun), was adopted by the early Christians as a day of worship. The sun of Latin adoration they interpreted as the “sun of righteousness.” … No regulations for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor, indeed, is its observance even enjoined (Schaff-Herzog, Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1891 ed., Volume 4, Article on Sunday).
Note the ellipsis marks within the above quote, below is the quote in its entirety from the Encyclopedia and note how the above quote from the Adventist publication removed huge chunks of the actual quote:
The Full Quote
Sunday (διεσ−σολισ, of the Roman Calendar, day of the sun, because dedicated to the sun), was adopted by the early Christians as a day of worship. The sun of Latin adoration they interpreted as “the sun of righteousness.” SUNDAY WAS EMPHATICALLY THE WEEKLY FEAST OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, AS THE JEWISH SABBATH WAS THE FEAST OF THE CREATION. IT WAS CALLED THE “LORD’S DAY,” AND UPON IT THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH ASSEMBLED TO BREAK BREAD (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2). No regulations for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor, indeed, is its observance even enjoined; YET CHRISTIAN FEELING LED TO THE UNIVERSAL ADOPTION OF THE DAY, IN IMITATION OF APOSTOLIC PRECEDENCE. IN THE SECOND CENTURY ITS OBSERVANCE WAS UNIVERSAL. (Sentences in capital letters were omitted by the writer of the Adventist pamphlet on page 22. This mutilation of authoritative sources first occurs in The Present Truth, Volume 1, Number 9, published in the 1880s. So our Adventist brethren apparently failed to check the quotation’s validity.)
Are you going to worship on the Sabbath of Israel? Are you going to worship on the Lord’s Day entering the true Sabbath Rest through the death of the Lord of the Sabbath? (Hebrews 4)
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