I have so many testimonies in my life, and the most recent one is developing a raging need for the Word. I have been a Seventh Day Adventist for quite some time now-and I have had numerous debates with people about why I choose to observe the Sabbath. In every debate, I have ended up with tears-not listening to anyone but my own voice. The truth really hit home when a friend of mine sat me down and showed me what the Word contained regarding the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is taken from the Hebrew sha·vath′, meaning “rest, cease, desist.” My first encounter with the word was in the Ten Commandments where God instructed, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
The first scripture we opened was Exodus 31:16-17 which reads, “The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign forever between Me and the Israelites, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” The first sentence clearly states that the Sabbath is subjected to the Israelites-and it further mentions that the Sabbath observance is a sign between God and the Israelites. If you are familiar with the bible you will know that Israel was the chosen nation-and that preparations (both by divine revelation and national experience) had to be put in place for the coming of our Redeemer.
Still sure that God expected us to follow in that Law, we looked at Romans 10:4 which reads, “Christ is the end of the Law, so that everyone exercising faith may have righteousness.” This means that keeping the Sabbath was part of the moral law (Ten Commandments) but God used Christ to bring that Law to its end. Romans 7:6 also reads “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” I sat in awe, and wondered why I was content with being told that keeping the Sabbath day was a manner of honouring God.
I've realized that during the week I don’t pay much attention to my bible-but as soon as Friday evening comes, I drown myself in the Word. I see this also happening with some Seventh Day Adventists, where we become devoted to God from Friday to Saturday evening. Galatians 4:9-11 elaborates on honoring certain days and reads “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.”
Another additional scripture to read through is Ephesians 2:13-16 which reads “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”
However, we must also understand that the Law was put in place for us to distinguish between what is right and what is sinful. Roman’s 6:15-17 reads “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.”
PS. Continue to work out your salvation, for the time is near.
-Andisiwe Mtengwane
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