The Sabbath Law in the Wilderness

RESTORING LAWFUL CHURCH WORSHIP
"IV. Church In The Wilderness: SABBATHS"

translations: ABP=Apostolic Bible Polyglot; BBE=1965 Bible In Basic English; all others, KJV

church (Eng.)=ek-klesia (Grk.); klesia = "called"; "ek"="out"; hence, "called-out" assembly; civil or religious

worship ≈ sacrifice, Exodus 3:18b; cf. 5:3; Abraham takes Isaac to sacrifice; he tells servants he calls it "worship": Genesis 22:5.

covenant^G1242= LXX: Grk.: "a compact,testament"; OT includes binding laws for man with promises of God.

This series is on restoring the church of the Bible is in answer to the assertion that we should restore all the church of the whole Bible, not just "the NT" church.

When one considers restoring the church in the wilderness, one may respond, "Who if any would even consider restoring the church in the wilderness?" Actually, in my judgment, this is more common than you might imagine. In fact, even Jesus in a sense was doing it during His earthly minnistry.

MY EXPERIENCE: A CHURCH WHO RESTORES ITS LAWS. After I became a Christian, while in my teens, I wanted very much to learn more about the Bible. A Bible correspondence course, promoted by California's Voice of Prophecy radio program, came to my attention. It was an attractive program printed in color with required memory work and provided personalized graded responses. A key promotion was that their church "believed in the whole Bible" whereas my affiliation did not. In fact, I believe it to be fair to say that they emphasized following the Law that was given to the church in the wilderness; especially the portion on tables of stone which is called the Ten Commandments. They emphasised observing the seventh day of the week sabbath commandment while to my memory without equal consideration to the other sabbaths required of the church in the wilderness.

A CHURCH THAT "CHANGED" THE SABBATH LAW. And then there is the western Catholic Church that claims that they have the authority from Heaven to apply by changing the church in the wilderness's commandments to fit their dogma; e.g., they explain that they were authorized to change the 7th day sabbath (Saturday) to the 1st day (Sunday) observance (Cathecism of the Catholic Church, Part 3, Section 2, Chapter 1, Article 3, 2175ⁱ).

SUNDAY IMITATIONS. There are those that would prepare Sunday's meal on Saturday imitating the law that God required of Friday's gathering of manna of the church in the wilderness. They will not work on Sunday or excuse their actions to rescuing the ox (Luke 13:15).

So, in these senses, there are plenty of religious people that either knowingly or are unwittingly deceived into claiming to restore some or all of the Law given to God's "church in the wilderness."

To restore an organization or entity such as the church in the wilderness, it is paramount to know its genesis. In order to re-establish the entity that we've identified, there must be a renewal of its beginnings. How was it establishedⁱⁱ? The English word bylaw is appropriate. It is from Old Norse or Old Danish "town law"ⁱⁱⁱ; hence "a standing rule of a corporation or association for regulation of its organization and conduct." The bylaws which identified the church in the wilderness is called God's Covenant between Him and the children of Jacob sometimes listed under the umbrella^iv terms, (1) "the Ten Commandments" (Deuteronomy 4:13) or (2) "Living Oracles"^v (Acts 7:38; cf. Romans 3:2^vi). The Living Oracles certainly included both what is called "the Ten Commandments" but also that which accompanied them described as statutes and judgments.^vii

HIS COVENANT. "And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire [at Mount Sinai in the wilderness]: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments [ρηματα^G4487, LXX]; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the LORD commanded me [Moses] at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it" (Deuteronomy 4:12-14).

The church in the wilderness was founded upon the covenant called by such epithets as the "Ten Words"^viii, "Two tables of testimony, tables of stone"^ix; "the Law [Torah, Hebrew] of the Lord"^x , "the Law of God ^xi", "the Law of Moses^xii", "Book of the Law"^xiii, "covenant of the Lord" ^xiv, "this law"^xv, "upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments"^xvi, and "the Teaching and the Commandment."^xvii

We know that the founding covenant was unique to the church in the wilderness. According to Deuteronomy 5:1-3, Moses called Israel (Jacob's family) together and reminds them that at Sinai (Horeb) God had made "the covenant" with them who were alive that day and had not made it with their fathers (which includes Abraham, Isaac and even Jacob himself). Moses rehearses the basic "Ten" but reminds the people that at this point God is interrupted by the people begging that God speak indirectly to them through Moses. God had allowed them to be absent while He continued giving the covenant's contents to Moses who would teach them to the people.

1. The covenant of that church is identified by the expression, the Ten Commandments (4:13).

2. This Covenant was not given to anyone from Genesis 1 to Exodus 20. This included Israel's fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and even Jacob himself.

3. Since this is the first time that the seventh day sabbath is commanded, the sabbath "law" was for all intents and purposes given exclusively to "the church in the wilderness", the children of Jacob.

FROM THE BEGINNING. But my correspondence course from the Voice of Prophecy claimed that the specific law of the sabbath was given as a command in the Garden; hence, it is an eternal law for all men. But the only laws or commands given in the Garden were (1) to procreate, (2) have dominion, (3) to keep and cultivate the garden, and (4) to eat only of certain trees. Did I miss any? Two of them are unique to the Garden.

COMMANDS IN THE GARDEN. But God did not command it. The reference that God "blessed and sanctified the seventh day" (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:11) was not a command for Adam and Eve to observe privately or in a holy convocation. For it to have been a command, God would have to have told Adam and Eve themselves to sanctify it as such. For example, in the wilderness (Exodus 19:10) Moses was commanded (imperative, LXX) to sanctify the people for two days prior to them approaching the Mountain of God on the third day. This was not a command for God. Rather, Moses was commanded to sanctify the people. In Numbers 11:18 (per LXX) Moses did this by commanding the people to purify themselves. This included the people washing their own clothes. God did not wash their clothes; Moses did not; the people had to. "Sanctified" in the mind of God was not a command to "observe" a day of worship or convocation.

ORIGIN OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SABBATH. In fact, the children of Jacob (Israel) are the only ones actually in the Bible commanded to keep the seventh day holy (sanctified, Exodus 20:8, LXX). Later, after returning from the Babylonian captivity (Nehemiah 8:14), Ezra's group rehearsed how God had come down "upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: And madest known unto them thy holy [sanctified] sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant" (Nehemiah 9:13, 14). The sabbath of Genesis was made known^xviii to the wilderness church at the "Mountain of God" in Sinai. The people knew about the circumcision and obeyed it in Egypt. Moses was negligent and threatened by God. But they did not know anything about a sabbath.

PURPOSE OF OBSERVING THIS SABBATH. When the Ten Commandments were repeated after 40 years in Deuteronomy 5, God's prophet Moses explains to them why the children of Jacob were to observe a sabbath day. "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day" (Deuteronomy 5:15). "Therefore" (dia^G1223^xix, LXX) is a word that indicates purpose; i.e., the "why." Firstly, it was for the to remember that their family (of Jacob) was in bondage; slaves in Egypt. Secondly, for them to remember that God had delivered their family from that physical slavery. Hence, their "sabbath" observing command was now explained and made known.

PURPOSE OF GOD SELECTING THE SEVENTH DAY. God selected for them the day on which He Himself had "rested" from creating. This command connected the experiences of God and the family. "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [dia^G1223,LXX] the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:11). Again, dia^G1223 indicates why God had sanctified the last day of the week. It would now be a day to commemorate God's giving Jacob's family rest from their labors of bondage.

"It is a sign^H226 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" (Exodus 31:17). This is a very important point. Whereas the sign^H226 of the rainbow is between God and the earth (Genesis 9:13), the sabbath seventh was specifically a sign between God and only the family of Jacob. All of the commanded sabbaths were such a sign (verse 13).

JESUS AND THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. Jesus came to fulfil the Law delivered to the church in the wilderness; He came not to destroy or change it (Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7). He was preceded by John who would "restore all things" (Matthew 17:11). Jesus and John the Baptist came preaching "repentance" from sinning against the Law (Mark 1:15). What Law had the Jews sinned against? What Law were the Jews subject to? Paul said that they were under the "Law" (Galatians 3:19).

Again, he wrote: “…by the Law is the knowledge of sin” (my emphasis, Romans 3:20). Jesus was "born under the Law" (Galatians 4:4). As He quoted the Law to the devil in the temptations, "Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10; cf. to text of the Covenant in Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:9). Jesus endeavored to restore to the Jews' lives "the Law" given to their ancestors in the wilderness by commanding them to repent from their sins. He did not change anything but preached a restoration according to the gospel records.

The Spirit led a prophet to the temple when Jesus' "parents" obeyed the Law's sacrifices (Luke 2:27); this same Spirit calls it both the "Law of Moses" (Luke 2:22) and the "Law of the Lord" (Luke 2:23, 24, 39). Some have mistakenly think that there were two separate sets of laws given to the church in the wilderness and therefore make a distinction between the "Law of Moses" (sacrifices) and "Law of the Lord" (Ten Commandments). The Holy Spirit makes no such distinction but labels it as one law.

Jesus declared His deity^xx to His Pharisaic teachers^xxi by asserting that He was the Lord of the Sabbath (rule) (Matthew 12:8). He had not changed the day or its practice but He corrected (in verse 2) the stance of the Pharisees from their "traditions of their elders."^xxii Deuteronomy 23:25,26 gave permission to eat in another man's vineyard or grain field and it equally applied to the Sabbath.

Luke 4:16 tells us that it was Jesus' custom to attend synagogue on the sabbath (holy convocation, Leviticus 23:3). So He obeyed the Ten Commandments of the church in the wilderness as a youth. And as an adult.

Notice first what the Lord did not do. He didn't restore the Law and change any of it like some today claim to have power to do so. He didn't change the sabbath but observed it and had others observe it correctly. On the other hand His restoration was in anticipation of preparing a faithful remnant to build the Lord's church of the New Testament under different rules and bylaws (Matthew 16:18). Jesus nailed the bylaws of the church in the wilderness to the cross (Colossians 2:14-17). "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days."

"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away. ... And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away" (2 Corinthians 3:7, 13-16, my emphasis).

The sabbath law was given as a part of the Ten Commandments written and engraven in stone (2 Corinthians 3). This whole "engraven in stone" Law is described as the "ministration of death" (3:7); its length of glory likened to the glory "which fades away" (3:7); it is called the "ministration of condemnation" (3:9); that which was glorious "is done away" (3:11); which Old Testament reading remains veiled (3:14); "when [all of] Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when [you] shall turn to the Lord, [Jesus] the vail shall be taken away" (3:15,16). Jesus lived under the 10 Commandments and observed the sabbath as commanded but His New Testament (Covenant) answers the prophecy of replacing the OT COVENANT (Jeremiah 31:31-33; Hebrews 8). THIS COVENANT IS confirmed by His blood (Hebrews 9:22) and the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3).

As was prophesied the Old Covenant of the church in the wilderness was done away in order for the New Covenant to take effect (Hebrews 8-9; cf. 2 Corinthians 3). When one turns from the church's "Old Covenant" to the Lord, then the Vail is removed. The church of the New Testament is what we want to restore. Not that which blinds the spiritual eyes by the Veil.

ii "established": Merriam-Webster online, selected meanings, "1: to institute (something, such as a law) permanently by enactment or agreement 3. to introduce and cause to grow and multiply 4a: to bring into existence : FOUND 5a: to put on a firm basis : SET UP 6: to make (a church) a national or state institution."

vii "But the tablets may have contained not only the Ten Commandments but also additional precepts and words as can be inferred from the verses Exodus 31:18, Exodus 34:1, Exodus 34:27-28." -Adam Clarke's Commentary, "Exodus 32:15." https://thetorah.com/what-did-god-write-on-the-tablets-of-stone/

*** My Note: Altho Clarke's comment may be controversial, I believe that the "tables of stone" (2 Cor. 3:3) should at least by metonomy be understood to refer to all the Law given to Moses just as 2 Cor. 3's context uses "Moses" to represent the tables of stone (3: 15); vice versus. Again, the Lord tells Moses to observe the festivals and to "Write to yourself these words! for upon these words I have established to you a covenant, and to Israel." "γραψονσεαυτω τα ρηματα ταυτα επι γαρ των λογων τουτων τεθειμαι σοι διαθηκην και τω ισραηλ^"(Exodus 34:27, Greek OT, LXX). The fundamental (established) covenant of the church included more than just the 10 commandment words.

xviii Had the people just "forgotten" anything about God?

CIRCUMCISION. Someone comments that the church while in captivity Jacob's children "probably" had forgotten how to serve God "AND GOD JUST REMINDED THEM." No, this is an assumption and obviously draws a false conclusion since the Bible is plain that all the people knew about God's teaching to have been circumcised while in Egypt (Joshua 5:5). The Circumcision Law had been given to their grandfather Abraham (Genesis 17:10-14). Not before. Not only were the people circumcises before the Exodus but God threatened Moses while in Midian for neglecting his sons (Exodus 4:24). It was only while they were in the wilderness that the circumcision of newborns lapsed. But the children of Jacob were commanded by the hand of Moses, precepts, statutes, and laws and to sanctify the Biblical sabbath at Sinai.

xxi "The religious leaders in Jesus’ day misunderstood the true purpose of the Sabbath, so they distorted it and added new rules on how to keep it. " https://corechristianity.com/resource-library/articles/why-sunday-should-be-a-day-of-rest

xxii After the Babylonian Captivity, "This oral rabbinical tradition—later codified as the Mishna—was regarded as authoritative" - https://www.lcg.org/lcn/2000/september-october/did-jesus-profane-sabbath-plucking-heads-grain