Daily Devotional

April 7, 2019

Six Days for Us, Only One for 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…. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Exodus 20:8-11, NKJV.

At the very beginning of the fourth precept, God said, “Remember,” knowing that men and women, in the multitude of their cares and perplexities, would be tempted to excuse themselves from meeting the full requirements of the law or, in the press of worldly business, would forget its sacred importance. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work,” the usual business of life, for worldly profit or pleasure. These words are very explicit; there can be no mistake.

Brother K, how dare you venture to transgress a commandment so solemn and important? Has the Lord made an exception by which you are absolved from the law He has given to the world? Are your transgressions omitted from the book of record? Has He agreed to excuse your disobedience when the nations come before Him for judgment? Do not for a moment deceive yourself with the thought that your sin will not bring its merited punishment. Your transgressions will be visited with the rod, because you have had the light, yet have walked directly contrary to it. “That servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.”

God has given us six days in which to do our own work and carry on the usual business of life; but He claims one day, which He has set apart and sanctified. He gives it to us as a day in which we may rest from labor and devote ourselves to worship and the improvement of our spiritual condition. What a flagrant outrage it is for us to steal the one sanctified day of Jehovah and appropriate it to our own selfish purposes!

It is the grossest presumption for mortal beings to venture upon a compromise with the Almighty in order to secure their own petty, temporal interests. It is as ruthless a violation of the law to occasionally use the Sabbath for secular business as to entirely reject it; for it is making the Lord’s commandments a matter of convenience. – Testimonies for the Church 4:249.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 135.

Daily Devotional

April 6, 2019

A Day Pointing to God’s Power and Love

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:3, NKJV.

God looked with satisfaction upon the work of His hands. All was perfect, worthy of its divine Author, and He rested, not as one weary, but as well pleased with the fruits of His wisdom and goodness and the manifestations of His glory.

After resting upon the seventh day, God sanctified it, or set it apart, as a day of rest for humankind. Following the example of the Creator, dwellers on earth were to rest upon this sacred day, that as they should look upon the heavens and the earth, they might reflect upon God’s great work of creation; and that as they should behold the evidences of God’s wisdom and goodness, their hearts might be filled with love and reverence for their Maker.

In Eden, God set up the memorial of His work of creation, in placing His blessing upon the seventh day. The Sabbath was committed to Adam, the father and representative of the whole human family. Its observance was to be an act of grateful acknowledgment, on the part of all who should dwell upon the earth, that God was their Creator and their rightful Sovereign; that they were the work of His hands and the subjects of His authority. Thus the institution was wholly commemorative, and given to the entire human race. There was nothing in it shadowy or of restricted application to any people….

God designs that the Sabbath shall direct the minds of all people to the contemplation of His created works. Nature speaks to their senses, declaring that there is a living God, the Creator, the Supreme Ruler of all. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge” (Psalm 19:1, 2). The beauty that clothes the earth is a token of God’s love. We may behold it in the everlasting hills, in the lofty trees, in the opening buds and the delicate flowers. All speak to us of God. The Sabbath, ever pointing to Him who made them all, bids men and women open the great book of nature and trace therein the wisdom, the power, and the love of the Creator. – Patriarchs and Prophets, 47, 48.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 134.

Daily Devotional

April 5, 2019

The Sabbath Intended for All Humankind

You made known to them Your holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes and laws, by the hand of Moses Your servant. Nehemiah 9:14, NKJV.

There are those who hold that the Sabbath was given only for the Jews; but God has never said this. He committed the Sabbath to His people Israel as a sacred trust; but the very fact that the desert of Sinai, and not Palestine, was the place selected by Him in which to proclaim His law reveals that He intended it for all humankind. The law of ten commandments is as old as Creation. Therefore the Sabbath institution has no special relation to the Jews, any more than to all other created beings. God has made the observance of the Sabbath obligatory upon all men and women.

“The sabbath,” it is plainly stated, “was made for man.” Let everyone, therefore, who is in danger of being deceived on this point give heed to the Word of God rather than the assertions of human beings.

In Eden, God said to Adam concerning the tree of knowledge, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Adam listened to the voice of Satan speaking through his wife; he believed another voice than that which spoke the law in Eden.

Every human being has been placed on trial, as were Adam and Eve in Eden. As the tree of knowledge was placed in the midst of the garden of Eden, so the Sabbath command is placed in the midst of the Decalogue. In regard to the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the restriction was made, “Ye shall not eat of it, … lest ye die.” Of the Sabbath, God said, Ye shall not defile it, but keep it holy. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” As the tree of knowledge was the test of Adam’s obedience, so the fourth command is the test that God has given to prove the loyalty of all His people. The experience of Adam is to be a warning to us so long as time shall last. It warns us not to receive any assurance from the mouth of mortals or of angels that will detract one jot or tittle from the sacred law of Jehovah. – The Review and Herald, August 30, 1898.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 133.

Daily Devotional

April 4, 2019

God’s People to Keep the Sabbath

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. Genesis 2:2, NKJV.

God sanctified and blessed the day in which He had rested from all His wondrous work. And this Sabbath, sanctified of God, was to be kept for a perpetual covenant. It was a memorial that was to stand from age to age, till the close of earth’s history.

God brought the Hebrews out of their Egyptian bondage, and commanded them to observe His Sabbath, and keep the law given in Eden. Every week He worked a miracle to establish in their minds the fact that in the beginning of the world He had instituted the Sabbath….

In the third month they came to the desert of Sinai, and there the law was spoken from the mount in awful grandeur. During their stay in Egypt, Israel had so long heard and seen idolatry practiced that to a large degree they had lost their knowledge of God and of His law, and their sense of the importance and sacredness of the Sabbath; the law was given a second time to call these things to their remembrance. In God’s statutes was defined practical religion for all mankind. Before Israel was placed the true standard of righteousness.

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep.” Some, who have been anxious to make of none effect the law of God, have quoted this word “sabbaths,” interpreting it to mean the annual sabbaths of the Jews. But they do not connect this positive requirement with that which follows: “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. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 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. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 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.” – The Review and Herald, August 30, 1898.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 132.

Daily Devotional

April 3, 2019

True Learners Accept the Scriptures as God’s Voice

If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:31, 32, NKJV.

The young men and women who make the Bible their guide need not mistake the path of duty and of safety. That Book will teach them to preserve their integrity of character, to be truthful, to practice no deception. It will teach them that they must never transgress God’s law in order to accomplish a desired object, even though to obey involves a sacrifice. It will teach them that the blessing of heaven will not rest upon them if they depart from the path of right doing; that although some may appear to prosper in disobedience, they will surely reap the fruit of their sowing.

Those only who read the Scriptures as the voice of God speaking to them are true learners. They tremble at the voice of God, for to them it is a living reality. They open their understanding to divine instruction and pray for grace, that they may obtain a preparation for service. As the heavenly torch is placed in their hands, the seekers for truth see their own frailty, their infirmity, the hopelessness of looking to themselves for righteousness. They see that there is in them nothing that can recommend them to God. They pray for the Holy Spirit, the representative of Christ, to be their constant guide, to lead them into all truth. They repeat the promise “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things” (John 14:26)….

Diligent Bible students will constantly increase in knowledge and discernment. Their intellect will grasp elevated subjects and lay hold of the truth of eternal realities. Their motives of action will be right. They will use their talents of influence to help others to understand more perfectly their God-given responsibilities. Their hearts will be a wellspring of joy as they see success attend their efforts to impart to others the blessings they have received. – Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 449-451.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 130.