What happened to the
Lord’s Day
Lesson 33
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I said to their
children in the desert, “Do not
follow the statutes of your fathers
or keep their laws or defile
yourselves with their idols. I am the
Lord your God; follow my decrees and
be careful to keep my laws. Keep my
Sabbaths holy, that they may be a
sign between us. Then you will know
that I am the Lord your God.”
But the children rebelled against me:
they did not follow my decrees, they
were not careful to keep my laws
– although the man who obeys
them will live by them – and
they desecrated my Sabbaths. So I
said I would pour out my wrath on
them and spend my anger against them
in the desert.
-Ezekiel
20:18-21
Most Christians
believe that Sunday is the
Lord’s Day, the day appointed to
worship God. However, since World War
II, the observance of Sunday as a
holy day in the United States has
changed significantly. Yes, Church
bells still ring and people still go
to church on Sunday morning, but
Sunday afternoon has become a
different story. If Sunday is the
Lord’s Day, why doesn’t the
observance of the Lord’s Day
last all day? For many people, Sunday
has become a holiday instead of a
holy day. Does God really care what
we do on His holy day? Does He care
if we work, go shopping, conduct
business, wash the car, watch the TV,
mow the lawn, clean out the garage,
attend ball games or go skiing? The
answer to these and the other
questions about the Lord’s Day
are found in the Bible. So, let us
take a look.
The First Lord’s
Day
After six days of
work, Jesus created something very
special. He created the seventh day.
His crowning act at Creation was a
gift to man. (Mark 2:27,28)
Jesus gave the Sabbath to man and He
made it a sign of allegiance between
man and God. (Exodus 31:16-17) His
action, of course, makes the Sabbath
as old as the world itself. “By
the seventh day God had finished the
work he had been doing; so on the
seventh day he rested from all his
work. And blessed the seventh day and
made it holy, because on it he rested
from all the work of creating that he
had done.” (Genesis 2:2-3)
Contrary to what many people say, God
did not make all seven days of the
week holy. According to the Bible,
the Lord made one day of the week
holy. Webster says the word holy
means to set apart or make unique.
For example, when a couple gets
married, their union becomes holy and
they are “set apart” from
the dating crowd. In like manner, at
the time of creation, God “set
apart” the seventh day of the
week and made it unique from the
other six days. The Bible says that
God rested on the seventh day from
His work of creating, blessed the
seventh day and made it holy. If
Jesus made the seventh day holy by
resting from His labors on the
seventh day, what do you think Adam
and Eve did on the Sabbath? Consider
this statement: There is a direct
link between observing the
Lord’s Day and exalting the
Lord. If the Lord’s Day is not
faithfully observed, subsequent
generations will soon forget the
authority of God. Review the opening
text in this study and you will
understand this important point: When
the worship of God is compromised,
the authority of God is lost. This
point is easily demonstrated
throughout the Bible. Both the
antediluvians and Israel refused to
worship god according to His
commandments and they ended up in
total rebellion against their Maker.
(See 2 Peter 2 and 3; Jeremiah 25 and
Ezekiel 20.) If history proves
anything, it proves how quickly
respect for God is lost. For example,
there are ten generations between
Adam’s creation and the flood.
Do you think the tenth generation
antediluvians doubted Noah when he
told them God was going to destroy
the world with a flood?
Is the Lord’s Day
Optional?
In the United States,
Christians overlook the sacredness of
the Lord’s Day. This is a
mystery since God elevated the
significance of the seventh day to
the same level as nine other
commandments. Think about it. The
Sabbath commandment is one of the Ten
Commandments. In God’s sight,
the Sabbath commandment is just as
moral, just as binding and obligatory
as the sixth commandment which says,
“Thou shall not kill.” It
is ironic that men will put a
murderer to death, but think nothing
of breaking the fourth commandment.
This phenomenon occurs because God
has given man the concept of
government. (Romans 13:1-4) Man
governs man. Is murder a serious
crime because it violates the right
of another person to live or because
it is a violation of the sixth
commandment? The answer is
“yes” to both questions.
Then the next question to be asked
is, what about the Sabbath? Is the
fourth commandment optional? Is the
sixth commandment optional?
Israel’s history confirms the
fact that when His chosen people
forgot to observe the Lord’s
Day, it was only a matter of time
until the nation was in complete
rebellion regarding God’s
supreme authority! Jesus spoke the
words found in Ezekiel 20 while the
nation of Israel remained in
rebellion and consequently, in
Babylonian captivity.
The Sabbath Brought
into Focus
About eight hundred
years after the flood, God sent Moses
back to Egypt to lead Abraham’s
descendants out of slavery. As a
condition for deliverance from
slavery, God required the slaves to
rest from their weekly labor on the
seventh day of the week.
GodNaturally, every ’s demands
were bittersweet. slave welcomed a
day of rest. Even more, every Hebrew
in Goshen wanted to be delivered from
Egyptian bondage. But after Israel
kept their first Sabbath, Pharaoh
realized he was losing control over
the Hebrews. To regain the upper
hand, Pharaoh required the slaves to
produce the same quota of bricks in
six days that they had been producing
in seven. On top of this, Pharaoh
increased their workload and required
them to gather all the necessary
straw as well! This unreasonable
demand pushed the Hebrews beyond
their physical ability. Failure to
meet quota provided Pharaoh the
“license” he wanted to beat
the Hebrews into submission. The
consequence for obeying God caused
the Hebrews to suffer unmercifully
since it was not possible to meet
Pharaoh’s demand for bricks.
This Sabbath “rest test”
put the Hebrews in a very difficult
position.
A Rest on the Seventh
Day?
Some scholars have
proposed that the work stoppage by
Moses and Aaron was to observe
God’s seventh day Sabbath.
Although the Bible does not
specifically say that the slaves were
required to observe the seventh day
Sabbath, I believe this issue can be
resolved by reviewing four texts:
From the creation of
the world to the end of the Exodus,
the Bible identifies one day of rest,
the seventh day of the week. (Genesis
2:2,3) By divine decree, the seventh
day Sabbath enjoys preeminence above
all other days of the week. Jesus did
not complete creating the world until
the seventh day Sabbath was
established and “set
apart.” The continued presence
of the seventh day (causing a weekly
cycle of seven days) confirms this
point.
The language Pharaoh
uses indicates that Moses and Aaron
had called on Israel to rest from
their labor. The word of Pharaoh in
Exodus 5:5, “You make them rest
from their labor” (KJV) or
“You are stopping them from
working” (NIV) reveals two
points. First, Pharaoh blames Moses
and Aaron for causing the slaves to
“rest” from labor by
emphasizing “You
…”Second, the word Pharaoh
used for the rest is Shabbat
(Strong’s #7673). This is the
same word and idea expressed in
Genesis 2:2 when God
“rested” or ceased from His
creative works on the seventh day. To
suggest that Moses and Aaron required
the Hebrews to rest from their labor
on any other day of the week other
than God’s holy day would be
inconsistent with God’s
declaration about the seventh day of
Creation and the Sabbath day
“manna test” that
transpired shortly after the Exodus.
(Exodus 16)
The Bible indicates
that God tested Israel with the
observance of His seventh day rest
before He spoke the Ten Commandments
from Mt. Sinai. (See Exodus 16.) This
proves two interesting concepts:
First, Israel knew about God’s
seventh day rest before Jesus spoke
the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai;
and second, by withholding manna on
the Sabbath further confirmed the
importance and holiness of the
seventh day before Jesus spoke the
Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai.
Given God’s consistent behavior,
we can conclude that God’s
regard for the holiness of the
seventh day did not change between
Creation and the Exodus, a period of
about 2,500 years.
When the Lord spoke
the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai,
He expressly commanded a cessation
from work on the seventh day of the
week. The fourth commandment begins
with, “Remember the Sabbath day
to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8)
If the observance of the seventh day
Sabbath was a new concept codified in
the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai as
some scholars argue, why does the
fourth commandment refer back to the
original Sabbath day that took place
at the creation of the world? The
fourth commandment emphasizes the
holiness placed upon the seventh day
of the week at the time of Creation!
Notice: “For in six days the
Lord made the heavens and the earth,
sea, and all that is in them, but he
rested on the seventh day. Therefore
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and
made it holy.” (Exodus 20:11)
When these four texts
are aligned, we can be safe in saying
that Moses and Aaron caused the
Hebrews to stop working on the
seventh day. The Sabbath rest
infuriated Pharaoh and he began
persecuting the Hebrews. The actions
of the Israelites and Pharaoh confirm
the thorny presence of a Sabbath rest
test before the Exodus. The holiness
of the seventh day of the week did
not begin at Mt. Sinai as many people
claim. Instead, the holiness of
God’s seventh day began at
Creation and the patriarchs and
elders who walked and talked with god
honored the Creator’s holy day.
Evidently, Moses and
Aaron told the Hebrew elders that
deliverance from Egyptian bondage
would only be possible if they put
complete faith in God. Abraham’s
offspring were required to live by
faith. They had to obey the higher
laws of God in order to receive His
deliverance. Israel’s faith was
to be tested and the test centered on
observing God’s Sabbath. Would
Israel recognize the higher authority
of His law by disobeying the laws of
Pharaoh? A person’s faith in God
is revealed when there is both an
obedience and disobedience penalty.
If the Hebrews obeyed God, they
received the wrath of Pharaoh. If the
Hebrews obeyed Pharaoh, they would
receive the wrath of God. The elders
of Israel were afraid of God’s
wrath and begged Pharaoh to let them
go out into the desert and obtain
reconciliation with God saying,
“‘. Or He, ‘they said,
‘may strike us with plagues or
with the sword.’” (Exodus
5:3)
Observing the
Lord’s Day
If the Holy Spirit
brings conviction to a person’s
heart about the seventh day Sabbath
and that it should be honored, a
common question arises. “How do
I observe the Sabbath?”
Examining the fourth commandment and
investigating the intent of the law
determine the answer to this
question. Fortunately, the Bible
offers some good insight on observing
the Lord’s Day.
Since sin began, the
fourth commandment has stood in
direct opposition to the ways of the
world. For young and old alike,
observing God’s Sabbath produces
conflicts with family, friends, work,
entertainment, recreation and
shopping. However, the beauty of the
fourth commandment can be observed
through the act of obeying God, when
man exalts the demands of God above
the demands of this world. The world
runs 24 hours a day, seven days a
week without any rest. This was not
God’s intention for His created
beings. God created the Sabbath and
He commanded rest on the seventh day
each week for man’s benefit!
When we rest according to the
commandment, we admit and submit to
the authority of our Creator. When we
choose to obey Jesus, we are making a
statement. We say to the world,
“I love God’s law more than
anything the world has to
offer.” The commandment says:
“Remember the Sabbath day by
keeping it holy. Six days you shall
labor and do all your work, but the
seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord
your God. On it, you shall not do any
work, neither you, nor your son or
daughter, nor your manservant or
maidservant, nor your animals, nor
the alien within your gates. For in
six days the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, but he rested on the
seventh day. Therefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day and made it
holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
The fourth commandment
makes four statements to be
considered:
1. Do not regard
the seventh day of the week like the
other six, for it was set apart.
2. Do not work on
the seventh day, it is holy.
3. Do not allow others
under your dominion, whether man or
animal, to work on the seventh day.
4. The seventh day is
not a holiday. These hours belong to
God; it is “the Lord’s
Day.” He rested on the seventh
day from His labors, blessed it and
made it holy. He wants us to enjoy it
as He enjoyed it!
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