The Seventh Day Sabbath and Feast Sabbaths

Part II

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The Feasts were Temporary

Unlike the seventh day of the week, which is a memorial to Creation, each feast day was an object lesson that pointed forward to the ministry of Messiah and His execution of the plan of salvation. For example, the first Passover was an object lesson about judgment day. Moses told the people to kill a lamb and put the blood on the doorposts of their house. If a “believer” obeyed, the death angel ‘passed over” that household. If a person did not believe Moses and did not do what was required, the death angel killed the first-born. The object lesson to which this event pointed is huge and wonderful to understand. A day is coming when God will “pass-over” the household of each heart and if the blood of the Lamb of God is on the doorpost, he or she will escape the penalty of sin, which is death by execution.

 

With the passage of time, the apostles clearly understood how the feasts were shadows of things to come. When they begun to understand the object lessons to which the feasts pointed, they refused to impose the observance of the feasts upon new converts. The shadows in the laws of Moses disappeared in the wonderful light of truth. After his conversion, Paul did not observe the feast days. For example, all Jews were required to go up to Jerusalem to attend three feasts per year. (Exodus 23:17) Paul ignored going to the feasts for at least three years! (See Acts 18:11, 19:10) When he was with those who observed the feasts, he participated – not because they were obligatory, but out of deference to his brothers who felt compelled to continue with “tradition.” Paul’s respect for those who were weaker in the faith is clearly seen in Romans 14: 1-5. (It was considered highly offensive for a Jewish Christian to antagonize his Jewish brothers. For this reason, Paul was accommodating in practice, but not in principle. See Galatians 2: 11-13.) 

 

Paul specifically addressed a controversy over the observance of Passover in Corinth. The Pharisees were doing their best to get the Gentiles to observe Passover. Paul wrote, “Get rid of the old yeast* [that is, your sinful past] that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are [justified through the sacrifice of Jesus, our Passover Lamb]. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. [The laws demanding the slaughter of the Passover lamb and the observance of the feast died with Him.] Therefore let us keep the Festival [in our behavior toward each other], not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness [for one another], but with [better] bread without [the] yeast [of this world], the bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5: 7,8)

 

(*Note: Prior to observing Passover, the Jews were commanded to remove all yeast from their houses. The fist day of Passover was the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that lasted for seven days. The object lesson for the Feast of Unleavened Bread is beautiful: If you want the death angel to pass over your house, purify your hearts by removing anything sinful! “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out reverence for God.” (1 Corinthians 7:1)

 

Some people distort 1 Corinthians 5: 7,8 to make Paul appear as though he is endorsing the observance of Passover. This is not true, for if he had, Paul would have insisted on obeying the law and going to Jerusalem as God required. (Exodus 23:17; Deuteronomy 12: 13,14) Perhaps the best evidence of Paul’s attitude about observing the annual feast days is found in Galatians. Paul sternly rebuked the church at Galatia for backsliding into Jewish customs. He wrote, “…how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles [listed in the laws of Moses]? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.” (Galatians 4: 9-11)

 

On another occasion, Paul addressed the church at Colossae. Church members were upset because Pharisee believers insisted on the necessity of circumcision and observing the laws of Moses. Paul told the church that the laws of Moses commanded Israel to observe certain feasts, but these were shadows of Jesus and His ministry.  “[There is no further need for circumcision of the flesh because] In Him [Jesus} you were also circumcised, in putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried [into his death] with him in baptism and raised [out of the water] with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 

 

When you were dead in your sins [to spiritual things] and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ [God circumcised your hearts]. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code [of Moses], with its [many] regulations, that was against us [contrary to our carnal hearts] and that stood opposed to us [condemned us]; he took away, nailing it to the cross [with Jesus]. And having disarmed the powers [authority of the Jews} and [Roman] authorities, he made a public spectacle of them [showing their weakness], triumphing over them by [using] the [despised and degenerate] cross.

 

Therefore [since Jesus has come from the tomb and you have come to life with Him} do not let anyone [among the Pharisees] judge you [condemn you] by what you eat and drink [we know idols are nothing], or [condemn you] with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration [Numbers 10:10] or a Sabbath [feast} day. [All of] These are a shadow of the things that were to come; {now that He has come] the reality, however, is found in [ministry of] Christ.” (Colossians 2: 11-17) 

 

At Calvary, the shadows to which the laws of Moses pointed disappeared. The practices of an entire religion became obsolete on a single day – although it took many years to figure this out. Now that Jesus has ascended, says Paul, the laws of Moses are impossible to observe. (Hebrews 7:12) The Mosaic system was only a shadow of things to come. The sacrifices of sheep and goats never atoned for sin – they too, were object lessons. (Hebrews 10:4)

 

Paul came to understand that obedience was not a prerequisite for salvation. Obeying God’s Ten Commandments will not produce salvation, but faith in God for salvation does not eliminate the demands of the Ten Commandments. God gave the laws of Moses to Israel as a vehicle to teach how the plan of salvation would be implemented. (Galatians 3-4) God personally spoke the Ten Commandments to Israel to declare His sovereign will for all mankind. After Jesus died on Calvary, the “schoolmaster” (the laws of Moses, Galatians 3:24,25, KJV) was no longer needed because human beings, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, have enough information to figure out the dimensions of the plan of salvation.

 

Works and Salvation

 

Many people have a hard time sorting out the relationship between faith, works, and salvation. The road to Heaven is lined with two ditches. On the right side of the road is the ditch of fanaticism and self-righteousness. Some people, like Paul, are born in this ditch and they may never climb out. Some may jump out of this ditch only to land on the other side of the road in the ditch of affluence, indifference and neglect. These ditches exist because it is far easier to be casually religious or a religious zealot than to practice the principles of faith and love. The devil is pleased to have us in either ditch.

 

I once asked a young man, very zealous about the law, if he sinned anymore. He said “Oh, no.” I asked again, “Do you knowingly commit sin?” Again, he said “Oh, no.” Then, I said, “Your righteousness is made because the moral law of God reaches beyond your ability to recognize sin. Once you have learned what is wrong, then you must learn what is right!” In other words, sin is more than commission it is omission. “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” (James 4:17) For this reason, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) John wrote, “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives… If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” (1 John 1: 10; 4: 20)

 

God’s requirements for the human race are surprisingly light. His yoke is easy. (Matthew 11:30) You may ask, if this is the case, then why did Israel fail? The problem is love. The carnal heart loves itself more than it loves God and others. Unless we are born again, the kind of love that God wants is missing. The gift of salvation is free, but obeying God costs everything. (Matthew 7:21) The rich young ruler could not follow Jesus because he could not let go of his money. (Matthew 19: 16-22) He loved wealth more than God! He was in the ditch on the left side of the road. The problem with ancient Israel remains the problem with Christians today. We do not love God enough to live by faith. We either want to make up our own rules for salvation or we want to “improve” on God’s requirements by adding 2,000 more. God says that ten rules are enough for born again people. Are the Ten Commandments binding? Yes. Will obedience save me? No. Will my faith in Jesus save me if I am following His calling? Yes.

 

The Great Tribulation

 

Previously, I wrote that a time is coming when God will notify the whole world that he requires us to worship Him on His seventh day Sabbath. This may sound farfetched at the moment, but the book of Revelation predicts that God is about to send a series of fourteen destructive judgments upon the Earth (seven trumpets and seven bowls). The first four judgments will kill 25% of the world’s population. (Revelation 6: 7,8) At that time, a politically and religiously diverse world will awaken to the reality that God is angry and, corporately speaking, the world will conclude that God’s wrath must be appeased or everyone will quickly perish. To appease God, the nations of the world will, among other things, enact a series of laws that will require everyone to worship God. A great controversy regarding worship will materialize during the Great Tribulation. (Revelation 13)

 

During the Great Tribulation, God’s servants, the 144,000, will call mankind to worship the Creator as He commands. (Exodus 20: 8-11; Revelation 14: 6,7) A conflict arises because God demands that we rest on His holy day, Saturday, the seventh day. This will be in direct opposition to the “worship laws” which the religions of the world are supporting. Through this controversy, the enduring nature of the Ten Commandments – particularly the fourth commandment – will surface. Everyone on planet Earth will be talking about this matter. Of course, many people will defiantly rebel against God’s commandments, just like they did in Noah’s day. Revelation 11:19 points forward to a day near the end of the Great Tribulation when God will literally present the Ten Commandments to a rebellious world. The whole world will see the tablets of stone written by the finger of God. The wicked will see the very law they refused to obey. What greater evidence can there be than to literally see the law that so many people refused to acknowledge?

 

I hope you will prayerfully consider these matters. I also hope you will examine on this web site these two articles written on the Sabbath. They are titled, What happened to the Lord’s Day? and From Sabbath to Sunday.  Let me conclude this study with a summery text that everyone should respect: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12: 13,14)

 

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