The Perpetual Covenant
Exodus 31:13-16 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
- The Sabbath is a sign, which is synonymous with mark or Seal.
- The Sabbath is a perpetual covenant.
- The Sabbath is to be kept throughout the generations.
- God was speaking to Israel.
Who is Israel?
1. There is neither Jew nor Greek. All are one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
2. Gentiles are grafted into Israel.
Romans 11:13, 22-23, 25 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. ... Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. ... For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
3. The apostles taught the Gentiles on the Sabbath. The Gentiles asked to be taught on the next Sabbath. The Gentiles observed the Sabbath.
Acts 13:42, 44 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
Acts 17:2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
- The Sabbath was an integral part of the worship service and teaching by the apostles.
- If Paul kept the Sabbath as was his custom (as his manner was), taught the Sabbath on the Sabbath then he did not contradict himself concerning the Sabbath anywhere in his writings (the verses Christians like to use to dismiss the Sabbath).
- The Gentiles are Israel and are bound by the perpetual covenant of the Sabbath, to observe it and keep it holy.
The Pointing Backward and Forward
The Creation Account and Jesus' Own Words
Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Mark 2:27-28 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
- God rested from creation, not because He needed to, but as an example for man.
- God blessed and sanctified the seventh day as a day of rest because of creation.
- Jesus became Lord of the Sabbath because it was made for man.
- The account of Sabbath rest points back to creation, "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."
- The account of Sabbath rest points forward to perpetuity.
- Adam and Eve were created and placed in the garden of Eden with access to the tree of life which gives eternal life.
- God made Adam and Eve on the sixth day, and rested on the seventh.
- The Sabbath was made for man, which shows us that God rested with Adam and Eve as an example to them.
- God would later reiterate the Sabbath as a perpetual covenant to Moses.
- Jesus never relinquished the title of Lord of the Sabbath. In the statement He made He pointed back to creation, when the first Sabbath was observed.
The Law Spoken by God and Written in Stone—Twice!
Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
- God points back to creation as the reason He commands that we keep it and the reason He hallowed it.
- God points forward to perpetuity by telling us to remember what He knew we would forget.
End Time Observance
Matthew 24:20-22 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
- Jesus points forward. The Sabbath day is being observed in the end time, pointing to its observance at a future time; further solidifying the perpetuity of the Sabbath.
- Jesus points back to creation, to the beginning of the world.
- The great tribulation.
- The great tribulation Jesus is speaking of is on a world scale.
- Jesus links the Sabbath with the great tribulation ("for").
- The great tribulation affects all flesh.
- The Sabbath is binding for all flesh, but the majority won't be keeping it.
The First Angel's Message
Revelation 14:6-7 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
- Worship is the key issue of the end time.
- The angel points forward calling for perpetual worship.
- Fear God and give glory to Him.
- Why? For the hour of His judgment is come.
- Worship Him
- The angel points back to creation as the reason for worship.
- ...Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
- There is only one event in creation that points to worship. The blessed and sanctified seventh day rest, made for man.
The Sabbath in Heaven
Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.
- Isaiah points forward to perpetual osbervance of the Sabbath in the new heaven and new earth.
- This is the new heaven and new earth being described. Isaiah is not pointing back to creation as the former world has passed.
Does God Change?
Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
- God doesn't change.
- Jesus doesn't change.
Conclusion
At no point in time in scripture do we find God's people
not observing the Sabbath.
- The Sabbath is being observed creation to Sinai.
- The Sabbath is being observed from Sinai to Jesus.
- The Sabbath is being observed from Jesus to the apostles.
- The Sabbath is being observed from the apostles to the end time.
- The Sabbath is being observed from the end time to the new heaven and new earth.
- The Sabbath is being observed perpetually for eternity in God's kingdom.
Scripture repeatedly points back to creation concerning the Sabbath for a reason. It is the perpetual covenant of God, instituted at creation as a day of worship. It is a
sign.
The first angel calls for worship because His judgment is come, and points to creation concerning worship where we find the seventh day rest, the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. None of this is coincidence. The Sabbath is magnified by its link to creation, as a memorial of creation, and the only worship day God commanded to remember, to keep holy.