Five
Essential Bible Truths – Part 4
page 1
What
Happened to the Lord’s Day?
page : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 :
Most Christians today
recognize Sunday as the Lord’s
day, a day to attend church and
worship God. However, since World War
II, the significance of observing
Sunday as a “holy” day had
dropped dramatically. Yes, church
bells still ring and people attend
church on Sunday morning, but Sunday
afternoon is considered a holiday
instead of a holy day. The
Bible teaches that God Himself,
blessed the Lord’s day, called
it holy and rested from His work the
entire day. If God rested the entire
day, then shouldn’t we observe
the Lord’s day all day?
Has our society become so degraded
that we no longer know what holy and
scared means? Does worshiping God on
His holy day include shopping,
conducting business, washing the car,
watching TV, mowing the lawn,
cleaning out the garage, attending
ball games or skiing? Many Christians
believe it does. However, what was
God’s intention for his holy
day? Answers to these and other
questions about the Lord’s day
are found only in the Bible.
The Lord’s Day
Created
At Creation, the Lord
set aside one day of the week that
belongs to Him. He included a seventh
day in the weekly cycle at the time
of Creation for the benefit of man.
So, the Lord’s day is as old as
our world and God designed it to be
special. He did not make the first
six days of the week holy. Notice
this verse: “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 the
Lord 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) This
verse states that the Lord only made one
day of the week holy at the time of
Creation. Webster says the word holy
means “to set apart” or
“to make unique.” For
example, when a couple marries, God
makes their relationship holy and
they are “set apart” from
the dating crowd. In like manner, God
“set apart” the seventh day
of the week from His work of creating
our world; He blessed the seventh and
then declared it holy. If God Himself
rested from His labors on the seventh
day, what do you think He required
Adam and Eve to do each week?
Consider this profound point: There
is a direct link between observing
the Lord’s day and honoring the
Lord. If His people do not carefully
observe the Lord’s day, they
will eventually forget the Lord. Two
Biblical examples illustrate this
point. First, the antediluvians
forgot God and His laws governing the
universe, which include His weekly
day of rest. Second, the nation of
Israel also forgot God and His holy
day. (Genesis 6:5-6; 2 Peter 3;
Ezekiel 28) If history proves
anything, it proves that it does not
take long for succeeding generations
to forget the Lord. The time period
from Adam’s creation until the
flood is a mere ten generations. In
that short span of time, mankind
became so wicked that God grieved
that He had created man. By the
time of Noah’s birth, the world
had forgotten God and consequently,
Adam’s descendants eventually
neglected the Lord’s day.
Because of this neglect, it should
not be a surprise that the
antediluvians doubted the Lord’s
promise to destroy the world with a
flood.
Lord’s Day
Renewed
Eight hundred years
after the flood, God called Moses to
lead Abraham’s descendants from
Egyptian slavery to the Promised
Land. However, before God delivered
Israel, He required the slaves to
rest from their weekly labor on the
seventh day of the week as a
condition to obtain freedom.
God’s demand was bittersweet.
Naturally, every slave welcomed a day
of rest. Every Hebrew also wanted to
be delivered from Egyptian bondage.
However, after Israel kept their
first Sabbath, Pharaoh sensed he was
losing control of the Hebrews.
Therefore, he required the slaves to
produce the same quota of bricks in
six days as they had in seven. In
addition, he required them also
gather straw for the bricks as well!
This unreasonable demand pushed the
Hebrews beyond their physically
ability and stamina. Their failure
proved the “license” he
needed to beat the Hebrew slaves
unmercifully, since they could not
meet the demands for bricks. (See
Exodus 5.)
Note: Scholars
debate whether Moses and Aaron called
for God’s seventh day Sabbath to
be observed, thereby causing a work
stoppage. Even though the Bible does
not specifically say that, the slaves
observed the seventh day Sabbath,
this question can be resolved in four
texts:
- The language
Pharaoh used supports the
claim that Moses and Aaron
had called upon Israel to
rest from their usual labor.
Pharaoh’s words in
Exodus 5:5, “…You
make them rest from their
labor” (KJV) or
“You are stopping them
from working.” (NIV)
identify two points. First,
Pharaoh blamed Moses and
Aaron for leading the slaves
to rest from their labor by
emphasizing
“You…” Second,
the word for rest
Pharaoh used was shabath (Strong’s
#7673). This is the same and
idea expressed in Genesis 2:2
when God “rested”
or ceased His creative work
on the seventh day. To
suggest that God, through
Moses and Aaron, told the
Hebrews to rest from their
labors on any day of the week
other than His holy day is
inconsistent with the events
that soon followed in the
wilderness.
- The Bible
identifies only one holy day
between Creation and the
Exodus, the seventh day of
the week. (Genesis 2:2,3)
- The Bible
reveals that God tested
Israel on their observance of
His seventh-day rest before
He spoke the Ten
Commandments from Mt. Sinai.
(See Exodus 16.) For example,
God’s provision of manna
proves two interesting
things: First, Israel knew
about God’s seventh day
rest before He gave the Ten
Commandments. Second, the
holiness of the seventh day
was important to God before
He spoke the Ten
Commandments. God’s
intention for the seventh day
– that it was set apart
and special – did not
change between Creation and
the Exodus.
- When the Lord
spoke the Ten Commandments
from Mt. Sinai, He expressly
required observing the
seventh day as a day of rest.
The fourth commandment begins
with, “Remember the
Sabbath day….”
(Exodus 20:8) If Sabbath
observance were a new concept
of worship codified in the
Ten Commandments at Sinai for
the Hebrews, as some scholars
maintain, why would the
fourth commandment begin with
the word “Remember?”
The wording of the fourth
commandment makes it clear
– the holiness of the
seventh day did not suddenly
begin at Mount Sinai. The
holiness of the Lord’s
day, God’s Sabbath rest,
began at Creation and the
patriarchs who walked and
talked with God knew of the
Creator’s holy day. In
addition, the word
“Sabbath” (Strongs
#7676), in the fourth
commandment, is a derivative
of shabath – the
word Pharaoh used when he
accused Moses and Aaron of
making the Hebrews rest from
their labor. Further,
God’s caution to “Remember”
His holy day is necessary,
for when it is neglected,
people soon forget the Lord!
Therefore, if we honor the
Lord by keeping the
Lord’s day holy, we will
not forget the Lord!
As we carefully
analyze these four points, it is
obvious that the work stoppage caused
by Moses and Aaron came because
Israel elected to honor God and His
Sabbath rather than submit to Pharaoh
demands. Obedience to God and
deliverance by God are inseparable.
It is possible for a person to
knowingly disobey God and at the same
time receive His favor. Moses told
the Hebrew elders that deliverance
form bondage was based on
Israel’s submission to the God
of Abraham. Israel’s faith in
the Most High God was to be tested by
observing God’s higher law and
disobeying Pharaoh’s lower law.
Further, when Moses explained the
corporate guilt of Israel to
Israel’s leaders, they earnestly
sought reconciliation with God by
asking Pharaoh for a three-day pass
to offer sacrifices for atonement, “…or
he may strike us with a plague or
with the sword.” (Exodus
5:3)
The Ten
Commandments
The fourth commandment
is the only commandment that requires
man to do nothing at the right time
each week! Here is the law: “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)
This command states
four principles that should be
carefully considered:
- Do not forget
to set the seventh day of the
week apart from the other
six.
- Do not work on
the seventh day.
- Do not allow
others who are under your
authority to work on the
seventh day, whether man or
animal.
- The seventh
day belongs to God. It is the
Lord’s Day because He
rested on the seventh day,
blessed the seventh day and
made it holy.
Principle 1
God was very specific
when He said, “Remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy.”
Amazingly, some people say, “It
does not matter which day of the week
I worship God.” God’s law
refutes this. Some people say,
“I worship God every day of the
week. Therefore, one day is just like
any other – every day is the
same.” God’s law refutes
this. Some people say, “The Ten
Commandments were nailed to the cross
and the observance of the seventh day
is a Jewish requirement – not
for Christians. If the Sabbath
commandment is so important, why is
it mentioned in the New Testament?
These statements are untrue. Jesus
said, “,The Sabbath was made
for man, not man for the Sabbath. So
the Son of Man is Lord even of the
Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27,28) If
Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath (has
dominion over the Sabbath), then He
can tell us how and when to observe
the Sabbath. If the Ten Commandments
were nailed to the cross, then
God’s grace is no longer needed
and we are not sinners. Sin is the
violation of the law. If there is no
law, there can be no sin. (Romans 4:
15) If the Ten Commandments were
nailed to the cross, then God has no
law against adultery (and judging by
what goes on today, many people
really believe the Ten
Commandments were nailed to the
cross.) So, if there is no law, who
needs grace from the penalty of a law
that does not exist? The fourth
commandment is mentioned in numerous
places within the New Testament,
including Hebrews 4. Paul clearly
says: “There remains, then, a
Sabbath-rest for the people of God,
for anyone who enters God’s rest
also rests from his own work, just as
God did from his.” (Hebrews
4:9,10)
Note: Many
Christians believe the duties and
sacredness of the seventh day Sabbath
were transferred to the first day of
the week when Christ was resurrected.
However, the Bible does not
explicitly place man under any
obligation pertaining to Sunday
observance. Part II includes a
presentation on the change from
Sabbath to Sunday observance.
