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Commentary on "Lord of the Sabbath"
Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, February 11, 2012 - Introduction
Overview
The Key Thought for this week is valuable:
The seventh-day Sabbath, in every way, points us to Jesus, our Creator and our Redeemer.
This statement is in complete agreement with the concept that the Sabbath was a shadow that pointed forward to Christ. Just as the sacrificial system, in every way, points us to Jesus, so does the Sabbath. And now that the reality of Jesus' incarnation and cross have come, the sacrifice and the Sabbath no longer need to point towards the Messiah. We have the Messiah, we don't need the shadows.
Observations
The memory text is a popular text in Seventh-day Adventism. Often times it is quotes as a partial verse. The second half of Mark 2:27 and the surrounding context greatly change the perception of what this must mean.
23 And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees were saying to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" 25 And He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; 26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?" 27 Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Rather than discussing to whom the Sabbath command applies, as SDAs would like to pretend this verse is saying, Jesus is discussing why the commands regarding the day are not to be enforced on His disciples. His disciples were picking heads of grain on the Sabbath. The Pharisees accused them of breaking the Sabbath laws. Notice how Jesus defends their actions, He compares the action with a law that even SDAs acknowledge is ceremonial in nature in order to show that the hunger needs of man supersede "ceremonial" law. Then He concludes that like this ceremonial law, the Sabbath law doesn't supersede the basic needs, even hunger, of man because the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Man is more important than the "ceremonial" day.
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised February 10, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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