How to Keep the Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath Holy

 by Lorraine Day, M.D.

 

Q. How should we keep the Seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) holy?  I want to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) holy as the Ten Commandments tell us, and as Jesus did when He was on earth.  Can you please give me some help in learning how it should be kept.

A. The Bible tells us how to keep the Sabbath holy.  We are to spend it with the Lord, not doing our own routine things that we do during the week.  We are to put all our usual things aside and focus on the Lord.  He is to be the center of our thoughts, our words and our actions.  It is NOT a day to “do our own pleasure.”  We are to spend it “at the pleasure” of God.

 

a. The Sabbath is our special day to spend with the Lord.  It is a delight.

If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thine own pleasure on MY holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shall honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words.

Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high hills of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.  Isaiah 58:13,14

b.   The Sabbath is a memorial of Creation – God’s Creation of us and the world.  It is the Fourth Commandment.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labour and do all your work.  But the Seventh Day (Saturday) is the Sabbath.  In it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the visitor that is visiting you (stranger within your gates).

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested (stopped) the Seventh day: wherefore the Lord BLESSED the Sabbath day, and made it HOLY!  Exodus 20:8-11

We are not to do our regular work on the Sabbath, nor are our sons, daughters or any hired help, nor our visitors.  Even our animals are not to be working on the Sabbath.

The Bible tells us we are to WORK SIX days – Sunday through Friday - but not on the Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath, because God made that day HOLY!  And if God made the Sabbath holy, no human being can change it.

c.     The Sabbath is a memorial of Re-Creation – Our Redemption from sin.

Keep the Sabbath day holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.  Six days you shall labour, and do all your work: but the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your cattle, nor your visitor within your gates so your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.

And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.  Deuteronomy 5:12-15

The reference to our being a “slave in Egypt” and God’s deliverance of Israel symbolizes God delivering us from sin – our Redemption through the death of Jesus on the Cross.

d.    “It is lawful to do GOOD on the Sabbath.”  Mark 3:4

e.    The Sabbath was made for ALL mankind.  It is NOT “Jewish.”

The Sabbath was made for man and NOT man for the Sabbath.  Mark 2:27

The Sabbath was not made for the “Jews.”  The Sabbath was made for mankind – ALL mankind!  The word used here is anthropos in Greek, the root word for Anthropology – the study of humanity.

For more information on why the majority of Christendom wrongly worship on Sunday, the pagan day of the Sun god, see, “Was Jesus Really Resurrected on Sunday?” at www.goodnewsaboutgod.com

f.      The Sabbath was given to Adam and Eve and to their offspring.  Everyone on the earth is the offspring of Adam and Eve.  The Bible says, after He had finished the 6th day of creation:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on he Seventh day God ended His work that He had made, and He rested (stopped) on the Seventh day from all his work which He had made.

And God BLESSED the Seventh day, and made it HOLY because that in it He had rested from (Stopped) ALL His work which God created and made.  Genesis 2:1-3

God was not tired.  He did not “rest” in the usual terms.  God “stopped” his work because it was finished – because His work was Perfect!

God made the Seventh-day Sabbath HOLY as a memorial of His creation of the world and everything in it – including us.

g.    The Sabbath rest (stopping) is the day that we put away all our own efforts for one day and just spend it with the Lord.  The Sabbath looks forward to 7th 1000-year Millennial rest (stopping) when we will completely rest in the Lord.

If we are unable to stop our work for ONE day of the week – and rest in Him – how will we be able to learn to give our lives completely over to God for eternity?

In 2 Peter, Chapter 3, Peter is speaking of the Second Coming of Christ.  In the midst of the chapter he states:

“But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  2 Peter 3:9

God created the earth in 6 days, but the 7th day is for the Lord.  Each day of creation represents a thousand years.  There are 6,000 years for mankind, then Jesus will return to take the righteous to heaven.  The destroyed earth will remain dormant for the 7th 1,000-year millennial rest. 

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night: in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”  2 Peter 3:10

The earth must rest for 1,000 years because God ordered humanity to rest the earth (a sabbatical year, when no planting or sowing was done) every seventh year during the 6,000 years since creation.  But this did not happen because of the rebellion of man.  So now the earth must rest for 1,000 years.  

The earth will be uninhabited during the millennium, except for Satan and his demons who will be “chained” (by circumstances) to this earth, to live in the death and chaos they have “created.

    h.     The Sabbath is NOT to be burdened down with numerous irrelevant rules as the Pharisees did during the time of Jesus, nor as the Orthodox Jews do today.  It is meant to be a wonderful day of communion with the Lord.

“Jesus said, The scribes and the Pharisees . . . bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.  All their works they do to be seen of men. . . “  Matthew 23:2-5

i.       God set aside a particular, specific, special day to spend with us.  If we don’t spend that day every week, learning about Him, studying His Word, and learning to trust Him completely with our very life, we will NEVER be able to stand for Christ in the soon-coming time of trouble.

“Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”  Matthew 24:42

j.       The Sabbath is the Fourth Commandment.  If we keep God’s commandments, God promises that it will be well with us and our children.

“Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear (reverence) Me, and keep ALL My commandments always (including the 4th Commandment – the Sabbath commandment) that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!  Deuteronomy 5:29

 

Suggestions on what to do on the Sabbath 

Study God’s Word and Study God’s Creation

1. Have a home Bible study.

2. Visit the sick and shut-ins.

3. Have friends over for lunch.  Do the major part of preparing the meal on Friday so you can focus on Spiritual things on the Sabbath.  Make the meal Special – for a Special day.  Spend the afternoon studying God’s Word with friends.

4. Plan a Picnic and/or Hike – appreciate God’s wonderful creation.

5. Take appropriate books along on your outing.  Learn to identify different flowers, plants, trees, fish, and birds by name.

6.  Study about fish and birds, learning their names, their habitat and their life cycles.  Studying each of these groups (in No. 3) thoroughly will keep you busy for years.

7. Study different types of rocks, or if you live on the coast, find and identify different types of shells.

8. Identify edible plants.

9. Study the sky and different types of clouds and how they form.

10. Plan a trip to a Planetarium.  Study books about the sun, moon and stars.

11. Study about different animals, learning their behavior and how they care for their young.

 

DVDs/Videos appropriate for Sabbath viewing.

1.  Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution by Dr. Jobe Martin - a series of four or five videos/DVDs.

Try www.aofl.org  The Art of Family Living in Dallas, TX. or Amazon.com

2.  Mt. St. Helens: Explosive Evidence for Catastrophe

Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, CA

3.  Creation Seminars:  A whole series of videos/DVDs (including some on dinosaurs) by Dr. Kent Hovind
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www.drdino.com

4.  Creation vs. Evolution.  A DVD by Ralph O. Muncaster www.harvesthousepublishers.com

5.  Gods of the New Age.  A DVD/video at www.jeremiahfilms.com

6.  Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged
A video at www.jeremiahfilms.com

7. Fingerprints of Creation
Search the internet.  Try Amazon.com

Then of course, there are my nine DVDs on Health available on my website www.drday.com   On www.goodnewsaboutgod.com - my other website - I have two additional DVDs (plus the books that go along with them), "What Happens at the Judgment?" and "Was Jesus Really Resurrected on Sunday?" as well as several other books on important spiritual matters.

All of these can be watched or read more than once in order to understand them fully.

Plus, of course, there are well over 100 in-depth Bible studies on my website at www.goodnewsaboutgod.com and more are being added every month.  Click on “Spiritual Truth” on the home page.