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Jesus Rescues the Sabbath
171
The Sabbath was not just for Israel, but for the world. Like
the other commands of the Decalogue, it is a permanent obligation.
Christ says concerning that law, “Till heaven and earth pass away,
one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law.”
Matthew
5:18
. As long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath
will continue as a sign of the Creator’s power. And when Eden
will bloom on earth again, everyone will honor God’s holy rest day.
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“‘From one Sabbath to another’” the inhabitants of the glorified new
earth will go up “‘to worship before Me, says the Lord.’”
Isaiah
66:23
.
The Sign of True Conversion
But in order to keep the Sabbath holy, men and women must
themselves be holy. Through faith they must receive the righteous-
ness of Christ. When God gave the command to Israel, “Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (
Exodus 20:8
), the Lord also said
to them, “You shall be holy men to Me.”
Exodus 22:31
.
As the Jews departed from God and failed to make the righteous-
ness of Christ their own by faith, the Sabbath lost its significance to
them. Satan worked to corrupt the Sabbath, because it is the sign of
the power of Christ. The Jewish leaders surrounded God’s rest day
with heavy requirements. In the days of Christ, Sabbath observance
reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary people rather than the
character of the loving heavenly Father. The rabbis virtually repre-
sented God as giving laws impossible to obey. They led the people to
look on God as a tyrant and to think that the Sabbath made a person
hardhearted and cruel. It was the work of Christ to clear away these
misconceptions. Jesus did not follow the rabbis’ requirements but
went straight forward, keeping the Sabbath according to the law of
God.
A Sabbath Lesson
One Sabbath, as the Savior and His disciples passed through a
field of ripening grain, the disciples began to gather the heads of
grain and to eat the kernels after rubbing them in their hands. On any
other day, this would have drawn no comment, for a person passing