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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Reflections on the Seventh-day Sabbath

David Shin

Reflections on the Seventh-day Sabbath - Part 1

Reflections on the Seventh-day Sabbath - Part 2

Father in heaven, we thank You so much for this opportunity that we have to come apart from the cares of this life, to rest in the assurance that we can't make ourselves holy.

It is God that works in us, both to will and to do of Your good pleasure.

So as we spend a few moments this morning to reflect on the seventh-day Sabbath, we pray that You would speak to us, speak to our minds, inspire our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

For we ask these things in the precious name of Jesus.

On the screen, I have a photograph of a sculpture that was created by Michelangelo, arguably 1 of the greatest artists of all time.

And this sculpture is an artist's impression of Mary holding the limp body of Jesus after the crucifixion.

And Michelangelo completed this sculpture at the age of 24.

And this is considered by many to be the apex, the sculpture came at the apex of the Italian Renaissance period.

It's considered to be 1 of Michelangelo's greatest works.

And the story goes that as Michelangelo had just completed this sculpture, this masterpiece, that he overheard an individual credit the sculpture to another artist.

So later on he went back to this sculpture and he chiseled in the sculpture the sash of Mary, these words, and I zoomed in on the sculpture.

You can see it says Michelangelo's okay and if you do the translation here it is.

This is a literal translation of what he inscribed on the sash.

Michelangelo, I can't say this, Buonarroti, Florentine, made it.

He wanted no question as to who was the creator of this sculpture.

He had signed it in stone and inscribed it on this statue.

And this is the only work of art that Michelangelo actually signed.

Today we want to talk about another signature.

It's the signature of God, and it's not in a place or in an item.

And I invite you to go to the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 2 verses 1 through 3, as we look at the culmination of the creation week, Genesis 2 verses 1 through 3, thus the heavens and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished.

And on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done, then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." at the end of the creation week the Bible says that God rested He blessed and he sanctified the seventh day.

He made it Holy just a few observations This is before there was any Jew.

I don't know what they were, but they're original.

Jews came many years later, descendants of Abraham.

So, The idea that the Sabbath is a Jewish institution really is contrary to scripture.

And this was before there was any sin on the planet.

When everything was perfect, God instituted the Sabbath in Edenic perfection.

The Sabbath was instituted and the first complete day that Adam and Eve had the joy of experiencing was the Sabbath.

The first complete day was the Sabbath, the Sabbath rest, the first complete day that Adam and Eve were able to experience.

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy." We're familiar with this text.

I want to spend a few moments reflecting on the sanctity of this day that we call the Sabbath, a memorial of creation and redemption that God rested, he blessed, and he made it holy.

Now, when we look at these words in the Hebrew, by the way, Genesis is a beautiful work of literary genius when you look at it.

It's interesting because in Genesis chapter 2, 2 and 3, it says, and on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and this is exactly 7 words in the Hebrew, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done, again, 7 words in the Hebrew.

So God blessed the seventh day and hollowed it, 7 words in the Hebrew again.

Beautiful, just poetic masterpiece that was put together.

And you look at the other days that are mentioned in Genesis 1.

But then you come to the seventh day and it's Interesting because you come to the seventh day and it says the seventh day the seventh day the seventh day When you look at Hebrew syntax when the authors wanted to emphasize something as being important they would repeat it twice.

The seventh day, the seventh day, the seventh day.

Now, when your mother tells you something, right, and she tells you it, come on, we got some mothers in here, right, mothers in Israel, and she tells you something twice, it's important.

But when she tells you 3 times, it elevates the importance.

So here we come first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, the seventh day, the seventh day, the seventh day.

Just from the repetition of this text, these words shows you that this has importance.

This is something that we should pay attention to.

It's repeated, as we've just read in Genesis chapter 2 verses 1 through 3.

Now I want to go back to the beginning of the creation week and let's go to Genesis chapter 1, the very first words of the Bible.

You're familiar with the way the Bible begins.

And the Bible begins with an interesting way of framing the creation week.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Verse 2, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The Bible points out that prior to the creation week, there was something that was there.

I don't know what it was, but there was some sort of substance that was there.

It was without form and void, and there was nothing in it.

There was this mass that was there prior to the creation week.

Earth was without form and void, and the Bible says that there was water evidently on it.

When we look at the words without form and void in the Hebrew, Form, without form is the Hebrew word tohu, it indicates without shape.

There was no form or definition to this planet.

The other word, void, bohu, means that it was empty, there was no sense in it, it was uninhabited.

And when we look at the creative process, God goes through the creation week and forms the earth and then proceeds to fill it.

In the first 3 days of creation, he forms and in days 4, 5, and 6, he proceeds to fill it.

Muscala and this is a chart that he describes in 1 of his scholarly articles that he published, peer-reviewed, and here it is.

Remember the earth was without form and void.

It did not have shape and there was nothing in it.

So God proceeds to form the earth and then to fill it.

So in the first 3 days, you can see on the left side of this column, God proceeds on day 1 to separate the day from the night.

Now how do you give something shape and definition?

There has to be a process of distinction, of definition, of separation and division.

So the creative process involves a separation and division and this is the first 3 days of creation.

God goes on day 1 and separates the day from the night.

On day 2, he separates the water and the sky.

Series

Reflections on the Seventh-day Sabbath

Reflections on the Seventh-day Sabbath - Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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Jesus on Prophecy

13 How to Observe the Day of Worship?

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The Sabbath: A Memorial and a Battlefield

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Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Sabbath and Sanctuary

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03 Rhythms of Rest

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Antichrist: The One You've Never Known

Antichrist, Episode 11: Seal

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Finding True Rest

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Which Way, America?

06 The Land of the Stress-free

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The Big Questions (Evening Meetings)

7. How to Ace Your Exams and Still Be Normal

1h 13m

What Jesus Said

9. Relief From Stress

1h

Sound Doctrine