Stephen
Terry, Director
Sabbath: Experiencing and Living the Character
of God
Commentary
for the December 19, 2020 Sabbath School Lesson
"There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the
people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works,
just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that
rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience." Hebrews
4:9-11, NIV
As a small child,
dreaming Christmas dreams in December 1960, I longed for the most popular toy
for boys my age. For weeks, we had seen Marx Toys' "Alamo Play Set" advertised
on television. It was a little boys delight. It had dozens of soldiers, both
Texans and Mexicans. There were horses, cannons, climbing ladders and various
other props. Best of all, it had a model of the Alamo Mission. The walls were
sheets of interlocking metal stamped with mission graphics on both sides. The
main building was similarly made. The gate of the compound was made of plastic
with raised letters proclaiming this was the genuine Alamo.
The image shown here is from a 1972 reissue of the playset when Quaker Oatmeal
bought out Marx Toys. Despite being rebranded as one of a series of Heritage
Playsets, the product was the same. They can be bought today for around $250.00.
I do not remember what they sold for originally. I doubt they were inexpensive.
I had little hope of seeing one under the Christmas tree, as we were poor and
with four children what money we had did not stretch far. But come Christmas,
there was one under the tree. My great grandmother had discovered my dream and
made sure it came true. She and I became close over the years and many of the
positive influences in my life came from her. Living on a small farm, she taught
me much of what I know about growing fruits and vegetables. She also gave me my
first real job caring for, picking, and selling her raspberries. That income
allowed me to have my first bicycle, and I loved riding that bicycle to her
place, about four miles from our house. When I attended her funeral many years
later, it was as though a major part of my life was gone.
Gifts are often a way of
showing our love for someone. This is true when the gift is given from the
heart instead of from a sense of obligation. Too much of what takes place at
Christmas is the latter. We give things they do not really need to people we do
not really care about to make ourselves feel we did what was expected. But a
gift given out of love and reflecting the real desires of the recipient, like
my great grandmother's gift to a small boy, will have an impact that can last a
lifetime. Her gift was not a one-time gift to be given and forgotten. Instead,
it represented her desire to be involved in my life and to help me grow into a
responsible and caring adult. Her compassion helped me to have a heart open later
to a compassionate God, and receive the greatest gift, the gift of salvation.
While salvation is offered to everyone by a loving God, it is not the only gift
his love gives us. The Bible tells us that from the very beginning, God set
aside a day of rest[i]
as a blessing to all who would receive that gift. It was a holy memorial in
time to Creation and our relationship, as created beings, to our Creator. How
do we know it is a gift and not simply just another part of Creation like a
tree or a rock? We know because Jesus said it was made for us, "made for man."[ii] For many millennia, an
unbroken line of the faithful held that day sacred. When Israel was enslaved in
Egypt, they could not rest for their lives were no longer their own, but when
Moses led them out of captivity, one of the Commandments God wrote with his
finger at Sinai read, "Remember the Sabbath." With that command God
acknowledged that they had forgotten his gift, and now that they were free,
they could remember it again and receive the blessings it provided. We might
wonder how someone raised in Pharaoh's court, as Moses was, could help the
people to remember what the Sabbath was all about. But Moses had forty years
with another tutor, his father-in-law, Jethro, who was a priest in Midian and
who likely gifted Moses with enough knowledge about God that he could speak to Moses
from a burning bush and find an open heart. Jethro and his household may have preserved
an understanding of the Sabbath that Israel forgot during their captivity.
Some may ask, "How can
we know which day is really the Sabbath after all this time?" God confirmed the
correct day for forty years as Israel wandered in the wilderness. He provided
them with Manna each day, with a double portion on Friday to carry them through
until Sunday when the Manna returned.[iii] This allowed the Israelites
to rest on Saturday, the seventh day, instead of going out to gather the Manna.
This lesson repeated weekly until they reached the promised land and could live
from the produce of their new territory.[iv] The knowledge of the correct
day for the Sabbath has been known, without interruption, by the Jews to this
day, and they continue to observe Sabbath and attend synagogue in remembrance.
At this point, we
might ask, "Why do the Jews observe Saturday as Sabbath while most of
Christianity keeps Sunday sacred?" This is easily discovered with a review of
early church history. We do not find the change in the Bible, for Jesus and his
disciples continued to observe the Sabbath God created. Over eighty instances
of this are recorded in the New Testament. But two significant events occurred
that supplied a catalyst for change. These were two revolts by the Jews against
Roman rule, one in 70 AD and a second in the early second century. By the time
of the second revolt, the Romans had become so fed up with the Jews that they
were banned from Jerusalem. Two primary factors then contributed to a split
between Judaism and Christianity.[v] First, the Jews were incensed
against the Christians for not supporting the revolts. One can hardly blame the
Christians. When someone persecutes you, killing and torturing the leaders of
your faith and then asks you to support them in a revolt, you might have second
thoughts about getting involved. No doubt the Jews also resented the Christians
who were still able to enter Jerusalem.
The second factor contributing to the split was the need for the Christians to show
the Romans that they were indeed not Jews. Jewish households were easy to spot
every seventh day when they withdrew for rest and worship. To avoid Roman
scrutiny some may have begun to gather for worship on a different day. There also
began to develop a strong current of anti-Semitism within Christianity at this
time, perhaps encouraged by this need to separate themselves from Judaism.
Justin Martyr's anti-Semitism is pronounced and can be seen in his second
century work "Dialogue with Trypho." Some Christians began to call those
observing the seventh day Sabbath "Judaizers," and started preaching against the
practice. It was born not as a command of God but in the fires of anti-Semitism.
Nonetheless, many continued to keep the proper Sabbath for centuries. The Canons
of the Council of Laodicea in the latter part of the 4th century
ruled against continuing the practice. The strength of the desire to honor the
biblical Sabbath instead of Sunday is affirmed that the practice should be strong
enough to be condemned by this council even after Constantine converted to
Christianity. He looked to unite the various religious factions in the Roman
Empire, placing his imperial might and resources behind the effort. He convened
the first council brought together by state decree in the town of Nicaea as
part of that effort.
Constantine was faced
with two competing factions in his empire. He had the pagans who worshipped their
various idols and venerated the sun on Sunday. He also had the Christians,
various factions of which were competing for the Emperor's support. It seems
like the emperor would favor whoever could supply a solution that would unite
the most people under his rule. Switching a holy day from Sabbath to Sunday would
make it easier to unite both pagans and Christians on the same day of worship.
A faction of Christianity was able to provide him with a rationale if they
could offer that Christ rose on Sunday and suggest that observing Sunday officially
would unite both pagan and Christian. This also could aid the church and justify
excommunicating those who continued to "Judaize." This probably supplied the
later foundation for the canons of Laodicea.
It required the
creation of a new country in North America where religion and the state were no
longer hand in hand to challenge this union of church and state. The First Amendment
to the US Constitution set religion free from governmental control. Denominations
were free once again to accept God's gift of the seventh day Sabbath and the
blessings that come with it. Several denominations have done so, including Seventh
Day Baptists, Seventh Day Church of God, Seventh Day Methodists, and by far the
largest global denomination, the Seventh-day Adventists. For over fifty years,
I have found the seventh day Sabbath to be a blessing and offer it to you, dear
reader as well. It is a gift hand made and given with love by God for all
mankind.