The seventh day of the Creation week—Adam and Eve’s first full day of life—was a day of rest. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made” (Gen. 2:2, emphasis supplied). The Sabbath is a monument that honors God as our great Creator. The reiteration of the fourth commandment in Deuteronomy 5:15 ties Sabbath observance to God’s work of Redemption. Therefore, God intended the Sabbath as a memorial of His creative and redemptive work. It is not designed to be a reward for our own work and toil throughout the week.
Teacher’s Aims:
Remind your students that God performed a manna miracle for 40 years before Moses reiterated God’s law on the borders of the Promised Land (see Deut. 4:1, 5:6–21). This miracle included a daily provision of manna (Sunday through Friday), as well as a Sabbath provision given on Friday.
Note that the fourth commandment calls God’s people to accord the universal, equal privilege of Sabbath rest to all people, including slaves and aliens. God’s injunction for Sabbath rest extends to our domestic animals too. Our belief in the equal privilege of Sabbath rest for all people and domestic animals must govern our thinking, our attitudes toward others, and our personal activities on the other six days of the week, as well.
Remind your students that even the land under the control of the Israelite nation was allowed to rest every seven years.
Draw your students’ attention to Jesus’ attitude toward healing on the Sabbath. Remind your students that Jesus’ attitude toward healing must govern their attitudes and actions on the other six days too.
Part II: Commentary
Illustration: “Eat your dinner! There are children in other parts of the world who are starving!” This parental cliché has been heard in many a home to prevent food waste. There is a spoonful of truth in this familiar rebuke. In the United States, for example, more than 35 million tons of food are thrown away every year, which constitutes 40 percent of all the food bought annually by that nation.
The story of the manna exemplifies the principle of taking only what we require of our God-given food supply to meet our needs, thereby avoiding waste. This principle should govern the way we meet all our other needs too. The Israelites had trouble trusting this principle at first. Rather than believe that God would repeat the miracle the next day, some people hoarded extra manna that they did not need, exchanging God’s miracle for maggots. This lesson from the manna distills a biblical precept that is repeated over and over in other contexts throughout Scripture. For example, invite the class to read Leviticus 19:9, 10 and Mark 6:34–44.
Discuss: What is the Lord, in Leviticus and Mark, asking us to leave behind for the poor? Is it food? Money? Time?
How does God view hoarding? (See Luke 12:16–21.)
What additional Sabbath principles do we see demonstrated in the provision of manna for the Sabbath?
How does the absence of manna on the Sabbath day, and the lack of maggots in the extra provision of manna collected before the Sabbath, teach us lessons of (1) trust in God and (2) the importance of preparation for Sabbath?
How does God’s mandate for His people to rest from regular labor on the Sabbath reinforce the principle of equality?
What other biblical principles does the absence of manna and the lack of maggots teach us?
Scripture: Creation and Redemption go together. The Bible connects Christ’s creative activity with His redemptive activity. Hebrews 1:1–3 describes Christ as the One who “made the universe” (Heb. 1:2, ISV). Immediately after this assertion, Paul mentions Christ as the One who “made purification of sins” (Heb. 1:3, NASB). Colossians 1:16, 20 presents a similar pattern, presenting Christ as Creator and Redeemer. To top it off, Paul called the Christian “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17, NRSV). Truly, Redemption is a creative act.
Deuteronomy 5:15 presents redemption from slavery as the reason for keeping the Sabbath. For slaves, that is fabulous news! They no longer need to work for their former masters, and freedom is part of their lives forever. Slaves cannot skip a day of work, but free people can. To keep the Sabbath is to exercise one’s freedom. Thus, on the Sabbath, freedom from work means freedom from bondage.
Discuss: How do you exercise your freedom on the Sabbath? What guidelines do you use? What is the difference between principles and rules? Share in class some Sabbath observance principles and some rules that can derive from these principles. Share and evaluate some rules that are not based on principles. How effective or good are these rules?
Illustration: Yes, the Sabbath is a day of healing. Seven of Jesus’ healing miracles take place on the Sabbath. The Gospel writers record these miracles as a testament to God’s intention for the Sabbath to be a time for healing. (See Matt. 12:9–15; Mark 1:21–28; Luke 4:38, 39; 13:10–17; 14:1–6; John 5:1–18; 9:1–41.) Through these healing miracles, Jesus makes a point of reeducating the minds of His people about Sabbath observance. His holy day had become a day plagued by the burdensome rules imposed on it, a day infected by the attitude of the rule-inventers.
Jesus also healed people on other days that were not recorded as Sabbath days. The Sabbath sets the tone for the work He did—and that He calls us to do—for the rest of the week. Abraham Joshua Heschel says, “The Sabbath is the inspirer, the other days the inspired.”1 The healing peace of the Sabbath flows into the new week, permeating our attitudes and our way of life.
Below are some illustrations that portray the reality of true Sabbath observance.
The Jewish Havdalah ceremony marks the closing of the Sabbath. In addition to lighting the Havdalah candle, with its twisted multi-wicks that symbolize Sabbath family togetherness, the worshipers place a goblet in a saucer and pour wine or grape juice into the goblet until it overflows. This act signifies the belief that the Sabbath has overflowed with joy and blessing for the family. It also symbolizes overflow of the Sabbath influence into the new week.
Then the family passes around a special Sabbath box filled with a mixture of spices called besamim. (One can be made by filling a small decorative box with cinnamon and cloves.) The besamim represents the fragrance of life that the family experiences with one another during the Sabbath. As family members pass the box to one another, they might say: “May the fragrance of the Sabbath remain with you throughout the coming week,”2 or something to that effect.
The Sabbath is like orange juice concentrate when mixed with water. When we concentrate on Jesus on the Sabbath, we receive a concentrated dose of Him. As we go through the week (whose days are symbolized by the water), we mix the “Sabbath concentrate” into our work, activities, and interactions with people. In this way, the weekdays take on the flavor of the Sabbath.3
Discuss: How does the Sabbath’s healing fragrance, or flavor, affect how we relate to the people around us every day? Read 2 Corinthians 2:15 for further insights.
Scripture: The Three Sabbaths
The Weekly Sabbath: Leviticus 23:3 echoes Exodus 20:8–11. Leviticus 25 shows us that the sabbatical concern extends from weekly Sabbaths to sabbatical years: the Sabbath of years and the jubilee.
The Sabbath of Years follows the pattern of the weekly cycle of six days, followed by the Sabbath rest day, extending the pattern to a cycle of seven years. The land, and not only the tenants, were included in the Sabbath rest. In the Sabbath of years, the pattern of the weekly Sabbath shows up again, for the weekly Sabbath “prioritizes from the bottom up and not the top looking down, giving first considerations to the weak est and most vulnerable members of society. Those who need rest the most—the slave, the resident alien, and the beast of burden—are singled out for special mention.”4
Jubilee: The year of jubilee joins the sabbatical year and provides care for the land and concern for those who are underprivileged. (This Sabbath was covered in lesson 2.)
Discuss: As Seventh-day Adventist Christians, how successfully do we apply the principles of the “Three Sabbaths” idea to our lives today? Is this question meant to suggest that we must observe all three Sabbaths literally? Why, or why not?
Part III: Life Application
God commands us to rest on the Sabbath from our weekly labor and to cease pursuing our own interests, financial or otherwise, during these sacred hours. Yet, the pen of inspiration tells us that, even on the Sabbath, we are beholden to God’s continuous sustaining power in our behalf:
“God could not for a moment stay His hand, or man would faint and die. And man also has a work to perform on this day. The necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be supplied. He will not be held guiltless who neglects to relieve suffering on the Sabbath. God’s holy rest day was made for man, and acts of mercy are in perfect harmony with its intent. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour’s pain that may be relieved upon the Sabbath or any other day.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 207.
How do the “acts of mercy” we perform on the Sabbath harmonize with Jesus’ teaching that the Sabbath was made for humankind (Mark 2:27)? Invite class members to share testimonies in which they put Jesus’ teaching into action. Perhaps, in their experiences, your students encountered people in need or in an emergency—people who were in the “ox in the pit” scenario (Luke 14:2–5). How did your class members maintain the sacredness of the Sabbath as they sought to alleviate the suffering of others on this holiest of days?
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The seventh day of the Creation week—Adam and Eve’s first full day of life—was a day of rest. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made” (Gen. 2:2, emphasis supplied). The Sabbath is a monument that honors God as our great Creator. The reiteration of the fourth commandment in Deuteronomy 5:15 ties Sabbath observance to God’s work of Redemption. Therefore, God intended the Sabbath as a memorial of His creative and redemptive work. It is not designed to be a reward for our own work and toil throughout the week.
Teacher’s Aims:
Part II: Commentary
Illustration: “Eat your dinner! There are children in other parts of the world who are starving!” This parental cliché has been heard in many a home to prevent food waste. There is a spoonful of truth in this familiar rebuke. In the United States, for example, more than 35 million tons of food are thrown away every year, which constitutes 40 percent of all the food bought annually by that nation.
The story of the manna exemplifies the principle of taking only what we require of our God-given food supply to meet our needs, thereby avoiding waste. This principle should govern the way we meet all our other needs too. The Israelites had trouble trusting this principle at first. Rather than believe that God would repeat the miracle the next day, some people hoarded extra manna that they did not need, exchanging God’s miracle for maggots. This lesson from the manna distills a biblical precept that is repeated over and over in other contexts throughout Scripture. For example, invite the class to read Leviticus 19:9, 10 and Mark 6:34–44.
Discuss: What is the Lord, in Leviticus and Mark, asking us to leave behind for the poor? Is it food? Money? Time?
Scripture: Creation and Redemption go together. The Bible connects Christ’s creative activity with His redemptive activity. Hebrews 1:1–3 describes Christ as the One who “made the universe” (Heb. 1:2, ISV). Immediately after this assertion, Paul mentions Christ as the One who “made purification of sins” (Heb. 1:3, NASB). Colossians 1:16, 20 presents a similar pattern, presenting Christ as Creator and Redeemer. To top it off, Paul called the Christian “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17, NRSV). Truly, Redemption is a creative act.
Deuteronomy 5:15 presents redemption from slavery as the reason for keeping the Sabbath. For slaves, that is fabulous news! They no longer need to work for their former masters, and freedom is part of their lives forever. Slaves cannot skip a day of work, but free people can. To keep the Sabbath is to exercise one’s freedom. Thus, on the Sabbath, freedom from work means freedom from bondage.
Discuss: How do you exercise your freedom on the Sabbath? What guidelines do you use? What is the difference between principles and rules? Share in class some Sabbath observance principles and some rules that can derive from these principles. Share and evaluate some rules that are not based on principles. How effective or good are these rules?
Illustration: Yes, the Sabbath is a day of healing. Seven of Jesus’ healing miracles take place on the Sabbath. The Gospel writers record these miracles as a testament to God’s intention for the Sabbath to be a time for healing. (See Matt. 12:9–15; Mark 1:21–28; Luke 4:38, 39; 13:10–17; 14:1–6; John 5:1–18; 9:1–41.) Through these healing miracles, Jesus makes a point of reeducating the minds of His people about Sabbath observance. His holy day had become a day plagued by the burdensome rules imposed on it, a day infected by the attitude of the rule-inventers.
Jesus also healed people on other days that were not recorded as Sabbath days. The Sabbath sets the tone for the work He did—and that He calls us to do—for the rest of the week. Abraham Joshua Heschel says, “The Sabbath is the inspirer, the other days the inspired.”1 The healing peace of the Sabbath flows into the new week, permeating our attitudes and our way of life.
Below are some illustrations that portray the reality of true Sabbath observance.
Discuss: How does the Sabbath’s healing fragrance, or flavor, affect how we relate to the people around us every day? Read 2 Corinthians 2:15 for further insights.
Scripture: The Three Sabbaths
Discuss: As Seventh-day Adventist Christians, how successfully do we apply the principles of the “Three Sabbaths” idea to our lives today? Is this question meant to suggest that we must observe all three Sabbaths literally? Why, or why not?
Part III: Life Application
God commands us to rest on the Sabbath from our weekly labor and to cease pursuing our own interests, financial or otherwise, during these sacred hours. Yet, the pen of inspiration tells us that, even on the Sabbath, we are beholden to God’s continuous sustaining power in our behalf:
“God could not for a moment stay His hand, or man would faint and die. And man also has a work to perform on this day. The necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be supplied. He will not be held guiltless who neglects to relieve suffering on the Sabbath. God’s holy rest day was made for man, and acts of mercy are in perfect harmony with its intent. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour’s pain that may be relieved upon the Sabbath or any other day.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 207.
How do the “acts of mercy” we perform on the Sabbath harmonize with Jesus’ teaching that the Sabbath was made for humankind (Mark 2:27)? Invite class members to share testimonies in which they put Jesus’ teaching into action. Perhaps, in their experiences, your students encountered people in need or in an emergency—people who were in the “ox in the pit” scenario (Luke 14:2–5). How did your class members maintain the sacredness of the Sabbath as they sought to alleviate the suffering of others on this holiest of days?