As you know, our mission assignment is to teach Old Testament to young people (18-31 years old). To say WE THE TEACHERS are learning A LOT is an understatement! In recent weeks we discussed the 10 COMMANDMENTS. Yes, the ones we all memorized in Sunday School. But this year we discovered the FINE PRINT!
Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all they work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Exodus 31:13-16 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel [the Abrahamic Covenant adopts all people as God's children], saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.
14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death [actual physical death in Moses' day; spiritual death--separated from God--in our day]: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death [actual physical death in Moses' day; spiritual death--separated from God--in our day].
16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant [oath, promise].
17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Isaiah 55:12-13 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 56:1-2, 4-7 Thus said the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
4 For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant.
5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
6 Also the sons of the stranger [Gentile who comes into the covenant], that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices [our good deeds and service to others] shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
Isaiah 58:13-14 If thou turn away thy foot [our actions] from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Isaiah 62:2 And the Gentiles [followers of Christ] shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
Matthew 12 Jesus's example of healing on the Sabbath day and doing other good deeds gives us further light into what we can and should do on the seventh day.
Mark 2:27 And he [Jesus] said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.
1 Corinthians 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store [make temporal preparations on Saturday so Sunday can be enjoyed!], as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
Doctrine & Covenants 59:9-13 And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer [church] and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day [the Sabbath];
10 For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;
11 Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times;
12 But remember that on this, the Lord's day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord.
13 And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy may be full.
George Albert Smith: "...much of the sorrow and distress that is afflicting and will continue to afflict mankind is traceable to the fact that they have ignored his admonition to keep the Sabbath day holy."
Mark E Petersen: "Our observance or nonobservance of the Sabbath is an unerring measure of our attitude toward the Lord personally and toward his suffering in Gethsemane, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead. It is a sign of whether we are Christians in very deed, or whether our conversion is so shallow that commemoration of his atoning sacrifice means little or nothing to us."
Thanks, Brother Bean, for these insights!
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