WHY SABBATH IS THE SEVENTH DAY OF THE WEEK?
EXODUS 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day,
to keep it holy.”
20:9 Six days you shall labor and
20:9 Six days you shall labor and
do all your work,
20:10 but the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the LORD your God. [In it] you shall do no work you, nor your son, nor
you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger
who [is] within your gates.
20:11 For [in] six days the LORD made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that [is] in them, and rested the
seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath
day and hallowed it.”
20:10 but the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the LORD your God. [In it] you shall do no work you, nor your son, nor
you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger
who [is] within your gates.
20:11 For [in] six days the LORD made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that [is] in them, and rested the
seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath
day and hallowed it.”
I quoted these verses directly from the Bible, word for word. I added nothing and took away nothing. The words used in the Bible are simple English words and should be easy for anyone to understand.
What I want to do here is to explain why the Sabbath is the Seventh day of the week, and not the first day of the week. We know from history that the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great changed the Sabbath to Sunday, March 7, A.D.321. So, before that day the Sabbath was always on a Saturday.
Someone has argued, however, that the calendar may have changed. Well, I am not sure that our calendar has been changed. But let us assume that the calendar has been changed.
We know that the Jews have traditionally kept and observed the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week since the time of Abraham. And that the tradition has not changed. It’s still on the seventh day of the week. If you go to Israel today and ask a Jew he will tell you that the Sabbath is on a Saturday, the seventh day of the week. The Jews have kept the Sabbath tradition faithfully since the day of Abraham. So, why is it now changed to Sunday?
We have kept our Catholic tradition of observing Christmas on December 25th each year and Easter on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25. And we are still keeping those Catholic traditions of going to church and worshiping on Sundays even though many of us are not Catholics. We have reformed nothing other than our names. Aren’t we Protestants supposed to be the “reformists”? What have we reformed? Nothing, we have reformed nothing other than our names.
Why do we observe the Sabbath? We observe the Sabbath because God says so in the Bible. We believe in God’s words by obeying His commandments because He is our Shepherd and we are His sheep.
How can we show the world that Jesus is our Shepherd and we are His sheep if we don’t hear and follow Him?
Jesus said in John 10:27, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
Can we claim that Jesus is our Shepherd when we refuse to do what He tells us to do?
Jesus said in John 14:15, "If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
And in Matthew 7:21 Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
Do we know what the will of the Father is? In Exodus 20:8 God the Father said, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
There are two things that He wanted us to do for Him in Exodus 20:8. Number one is to remember the Sabbath. Number two is to keep it holy.
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