Sabbath or Sunday Worship: Part 9 Series
Sabbath or Sunday Worship: Part 9
One of God’s plans is that His creation would not forget Him and that He exists through His commandments –the word to follow that He handed down to Moses. Moses received the commandments written on a stone. It was written on the stone, meaning it will never be erased or changed. Though the Ten Commandments were directed to the nation of Israel, God entered a unique covenant with the Israelites that rewarded them with inheriting the Promised Land. Do the ten commandments still matter today? Is there a hidden meaning we need to understand? Are the ten commandments also for us non-Jewish people? Before starting this dialogue, we have to list the 10 Commandments of God given to the Israelites. The Israelites are God’s chosen people, and why does it matter to the gentiles if we are not even chosen to be a part of it?
Many questions could have many answers, but the answer should also come from God, the author of the ten commandments. Nobody could edit it or make a new version of these commandments. Only the one true God could do it. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways are much more different. He is a Spirit, and we are not; His presence could be felt by those who acknowledge His existence. He provides the gift of salvation for us to be with Him for eternity. He can change the season and time and control the climate. He is faithful to His word when he says it; He will do it when He promises something, and we will have it. Although most of the time, it doesn’t come when we need it but comes in His own time.
With clean hands and pure hearts, we can easily reach Him because we see His presence in every open space; He must be expected. All the good things come from Him, so we can easily recognize that it is from Him. God will not tempt us; He is faithful and will not let us be tempted more than we can handle. He will also provide a way of escape from something beyond our ability, sadness, failures, depression, and deliver us from evil, gossip, lies, and deception. What more could we ask when we already have them all? He provides guidance and protection, love and care, and most of all, the gift of wisdom that bears the knowledge and understanding so we may live our lives with His goodness and wholeness.
The secret to living in His goodness and wholeness is to follow the commandments He wrote with His fingers on a tablet that cannot be erased. “The word of God is quick, powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” As stated in the book of Hebrew 4:12. Be aware that there are consequences when you add or deduct the truth that was written when you use the word of God for your gain that results in the pain and suffering of others; you can laugh now but cannot cry for help later. God has open arms for forgiveness, but not all that ask can be forgiven. The heavens can hear your cry for help for forgiveness, but what good does it give you when they only hear but do not act?
The first action for forgiveness is to go to the individual or group of individuals that you offended and ask for forgiveness, confess to them what you have done; you lied to them, deceived them, by stealing their money intended for food, twisting the word of God to get into the pocket of the faithful, ignoring the poor that don’t give much and royal treatment for the high roller. God sees all of these because, in every space, watchful eyes and clean ears record your wickedness.
The whole context of the fourth Commandments of God: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.” We must remember that Jesus did not overwrite this commandment; this is the misinterpretation of the phrase for many centuries: “we are not to be under the law but under grace.” The fourth commandment has nothing to do with law and grace, which Paul talked about in the New Testament, and refers to sin. Sins should have no control over us. The fourth commandment forbids us to do ungodly and careless harm to others where we should act responsibly. How about working on our worldly affairs for six days and giving just one day of living without sin? Can we do that? This includes lies, gossip, and swearing small unnecessary things, yet it is still a sin.
Exodus 20:9 “You are to labor six days and do all your work….” The fourth commandment teaches us responsibility. Probably, you already know that being a Christian is a responsibility, not an obligation we owe to anyone but to love one another. He who loves another has fulfilled the law of loving one another and a work ethic—the law of sowing and reaping. Choices have consequences. Children need to be taught responsibility.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” He came to fulfill the law and not to abolish it. We can make it simpler this way Jesus came to tell us to obey or follow the law of God and not to ignore or replace it, but replace it with what? Human convenience! Love is the fulfillment of the law.
Seventh-day is for the LORD, and God wrote this day on stone. Sunday can be an excuse in place of Saturday since our argument could be acceptable that Sabbath or Saturday is for the Jews, even though Jesus said that he came for the lost sheep of Israel. Since the Jews are God’s chosen people, they got more commandments than Christians. The Jewish tradition recorded 613 commandments in Talmud. Christians already have an issue with the ten commandments. Adding 603 more will undoubtedly result in a mass exodus.
The six days are for the world, but the seventh day is for the LORD. He authored this commandment for His glory, but many Christians took this day and placed it to honor Jesus Christ. Don’t you think, Christians, that God is not grieving for our disobedience, maybe the same grieving before He sent a deluge during the time of Noah? God is a jealous God! Don’t you think some Christians replacing God with Mary, Jesus, and Peter as the first Pope will not insult Him? Adding to injury with this insult is the claim that they are the ones ruling heaven. Does it mean that they have already overthrown God from His throne, and the kingdom of God is under their watch? The Bible has been manipulated for centuries, but the truth remains hidden behind those passages. The seekers of God’s face can still receive the revelation that alone can reveal. The same God that reveals to Jesus of things to come—Revelation 1:1-8
God forbids all these lies and deceptions and will never give up His glory or share it with anyone. When He said anyone, He meant it, and there were no exceptions. God is in control, God is good, and God is love. We can be here today and gone tomorrow when He pulls that grace of our existence.
Let us give glory to God!
God is all in all.