Daily Devotional

April 26, 2019

The Sabbath Reminds Us of God’s Creative Power

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:3, NKJV.

Infidel geologists claim that the world is very much older than the Bible record makes it. They reject the testimony of God’s Word because of those things which are to them evidences from the earth itself that it has existed tens of thousands of years. And many who profess to believe the Bible are at a loss to account for wonderful things which are found in the earth, with the view that Creation week was only seven literal days, and that the world is now only about six thousand years old. These, to free themselves from difficulties thrown in their way by infidel geologists, adopt the view that the six days of Creation were six vast, indefinite periods, and the day of God’s rest was another indefinite period; making senseless the fourth commandment of God’s holy law. Some eagerly receive this position; for it destroys the force of the fourth commandment, and they feel a freedom from its claims upon them.

Bones of human beings and animals are found in the earth, in mountains and in valleys, showing that much larger humans and beasts once existed. Instruments of warfare are sometimes found; also petrified wood. Because the bones found are so much larger than those of humans and animals now living, or that have existed for many generations past, some conclude that the earth was populated long before the record of Creation by a race of beings vastly superior in size to those now living. Those who reason in this manner have limited ideas of the size of people, animals, and trees, before the Flood, and of the great changes which then took place in the earth.

Without Bible history, geology can prove nothing…. When human beings leave the Word of God, and seek to account for His creative works upon natural principles, they are upon a boundless ocean of uncertainty. Just how God accomplished the work of Creation in six literal days, He has never revealed to mortals. His creative works are as incomprehensible as His existence. – The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1879.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 154.

Daily Devotional

April 25, 2019

The Sabbath Memorializes a Literal Day

God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. Job 37:5, NKJV.

When God spoke His law with an audible voice from Sinai, He introduced the Sabbath by saying, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” He then declares definitely what shall be done on the six days, and what shall not be done on the seventh. He next gives the reason for thus observing the week, by pointing us back to His example on the first seven days of time. “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.” This reason appears beautiful and forcible when we understand the record of Creation to mean literal days.

The first six days of each week are given to us in which to labor, because God employed the same period of the first week in the work of Creation. The seventh day God has reserved as a day of rest, in commemoration of His rest during the same period of time after He had performed the work of Creation in six days.

But the infidel supposition, that the events of the first week required seven vast, indefinite periods for their accomplishment, strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It makes indefinite and obscure that which God has made very plain. It is the worst kind of infidelity; for with many who profess to believe the record of Creation, it is infidelity in disguise. It charges God with commanding us to observe the week of seven literal days in commemoration of seven indefinite periods, which is unlike His dealings with us, and is an impeachment of His wisdom….

The Word of God is given as a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. Those who cast His Word behind them, and seek by their own blind philosophy to penetrate the mysteries of Jehovah, will stumble in darkness. A guide has been given to mortals whereby they may trace His works as far as will be for their good. Inspiration, in giving us the history of the Flood, has explained wonderful mysteries that geology alone could never fathom. – The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1879.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 153.

Daily Devotional

April 24, 2019

Jesus Kept the Sabbath by Doing Good

Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” Luke 6:9, NKJV.

It is no violation of the Sabbath to perform works of necessity, as ministering to the sick or aged, and relieving distress. Such works are in perfect harmony with the Sabbath law. Our great Exemplar was ever active upon the Sabbath, when the necessities of the sick and suffering came before Him. The Pharisees, because of this, accused Him of Sabbathbreaking, as do many ministers today who are in opposition to the law of God. But we say, Let God be true, and every man a liar who dares make this charge against the Savior.

Jesus answered the accusation of the Jews thus, “If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” He had already declared to them that He had kept His Father’s commandments. When He was accused of Sabbathbreaking in the matter of healing the withered hand, He turned upon His accusers with the question “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?” In summing up His answer to the questioning of the Pharisees He said, “Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.” Here Christ justified His work as in perfect harmony with the Sabbath law. – The Signs of the Times, February 28, 1878.

Those who hold that Christ abolished the law teach that He broke the Sabbath and justified His disciples in doing the same. Thus they are really taking the same ground as did the caviling Jews. In this they contradict the testimony of Christ Himself, who declared, “I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10).

Neither the Savior nor His followers broke the law of the Sabbath. Christ was a living representative of the law. No violation of its holy precepts was found in His life.

Looking upon a nation of witnesses who were seeking occasion to condemn Him, He could say unchallenged, “Which of you convicteth me of sin?” (John 8:46, RV)….

“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath,” Jesus said. The institutions that God has established are for the benefit of humankind…. The law of Ten Commandments, of which the Sabbath forms a part, God gave to His people as a blessing. “The Lord commanded us,” said Moses, “to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive” (Deuteronomy 6:24). – The Desire of Ages, 287, 288.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 152.

Daily Devotional

April 23, 2019

The Commandments Are for All

Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants – everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant – even them I will bring to My holy mountain. Isaiah 56:6, 7, NKJV.

Under the mosaic law, strangers and eunuchs were excluded from the full enjoyment of the privileges granted to Israel. But the prophet declares that a time is coming when these restrictions will cease. The holy oracles were especially committed to the Jews; not to be an Israelite was not to belong to the favored people of God. The Jews had come more and more to regard themselves as superior by divine right to every other people upon the earth; yet they had not been careful to maintain their separate and holy character by rendering obedience to all the commandments of God.

Now the prophet declares that the stranger who will love and obey God shall enjoy the privileges that have belonged exclusively to the chosen people. Hitherto, circumcision and a strict observance of the ceremonial law had been the conditions upon which Gentiles could be admitted to the congregation of Israel; but these distinctions were to be abolished by the gospel. [Isaiah 56:6-8 quoted.] …

The first part of [Isaiah 58] brings to view a people who apparently delight in the service of God; they seek Him daily, “as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God.” Yet their lives are not right before the Lord; for He commands His prophet, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” …

This prophecy reaches down the centuries to the time when the man of sin attempted to make void one of the precepts of God’s law, to trample under foot the original Sabbath of Jehovah, and in its stead exalt one of his own creation. And when the Christian world set aside God’s holy Sabbath, and in its place accept a common working day, unsanctioned by a single “Thus saith the Lord,” they are encouraging infidelity, and virtually acknowledging the supremacy of that power by whose authority alone the change has been effected. The rejection of the Sabbath has led to the rejection of the whole law, and thousands of professed Christians now boldly declare it void. – The Signs of the Times, February 28, 1884.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 151.

Daily Devotional

April 22, 2019

Set Example of Sabbath Sacredness, and Teach It

These words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Deuteronomy 6:6, 7, NKJV.

You have failed in your family to appreciate the sacredness of the Sabbath and to teach it to your children and enjoin upon them the importance of keeping it according to the commandment. Your sensibilities are not clear and ready to discern the high standard that we must reach in order to be commandment keepers. But God will assist you in your efforts when you take hold of the work earnestly. You should possess perfect control over yourself; then you can have better success in controlling your children when they are unruly.

There is a great work before you to repair past neglects; but you are not required to perform it in your own strength. Ministering angels will aid you in the work. Do not give up the work nor lay aside the burden, but take hold of it with a will and repair your long neglect. You must have higher views of God’s claims upon you in regard to His holy day. Everything that can possibly be done on the six days which God has given to you should be done. You should not rob God of one hour of holy time.

Great blessings are promised to those who place a high estimate upon the Sabbath and realize the obligations resting upon them in regard to its observance: “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath [from trampling upon it, setting it at naught], from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; … 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.”

When the Sabbath commences, we should place a guard upon ourselves, upon our acts and our words, lest we rob God by appropriating to our own use that time which is strictly the Lord’s….

Nothing which will in the sight of Heaven be regarded as a violation of the holy Sabbath should be left unsaid or undone, to be said or done upon the Sabbath. God requires not only that we refrain from physical labor upon the Sabbath, but that the mind be disciplined to dwell upon sacred themes. – Testimonies for the Church 2:701-703.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 150.