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Why did God command the Sabbath to be observed? And why is it almost universally misunderstood? Read on to get a biblical view of this subject.
by Larry Walker
merican radio personality Paul Harvey is famous for his opening line: "You know what the news is. Now stay tuned for the rest of the story." Now we will find out the rest of the story of the story of rest. We will take a chronological journey through the history of the promise of rest presented in the Bible.
The story begins right at the beginning of the Bible. The first chapter of Genesis chronicles the creation of the material universe. The second chapter begins with a summary statement. Starting in Genesis 2:2 we read about another creation event: the beginning of God's spiritual creation.
After creating the heavens and the earth, God created the Sabbath by resting from His work of physical creation. The Bible says nothing further about the Sabbath for quite some time. There is silence on the subject throughout the entire age of the patriarchs (Abel, Enoch, Noah, etc.).
Abraham was a pivotal figure, the last of the patriarchs and the progenitor of the nation of Israel. The book of Genesis condenses the 2,000-year patriarchal age into the first 11 chapters. The story then slows and goes into great detail beginning with the life of Abraham, emphasizing the relative importance of this man and his descendants.
Genesis 26:5 contains a landmark statement about this great man of faith: "... Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws."
What laws? The Bible doesn't say. The Expositor's Bible Commentary points out: "It is remarkable that this is precisely the way in which obedience to the Sinai covenant is expressed in Deuteronomy 11:1 . . ." Did Abraham know the law? If so, how? If not, what was the meaning of the words?
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