Bible Readings — Bible Questions Answered

Memorial of Deliverance and Redemption

What besides creation was Israel to remember when they kept the Sabbath? BR-ASI9 287.10

“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. BR-ASI9 287.11

Note.—The recollection of their bondage and oppressed condition in Egypt was to be an additional incentive for keeping the Sabbath in the land of freedom. The Sabbath, therefore, besides being a memorial of creation, was to be to them a memorial of their deliverance from bondage, and of the great power of God as manifested in this deliverance. And as Egypt stands as a symbol of the condition of every one in the world under the slavery of sin, so the Sabbath is to be kept by every saved soul as a memorial of the deliverance from this slavery by the mighty power of God through Christ. BR-ASI9 287.12

Of what else does God say is the Sabbath to be a sign, or reminder to His people? BR-ASI9 288.1

“Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Ezekiel 20:12. BR-ASI9 288.2

Note.—Sanctification is a work of redemption—of making sinful or unholy beings holy. Like the work of creation itself, this requires creative power. (See Psalm 51:10; John 3:3, 6; Ephesians 2:10.) And as the Sabbath is the appropriate sign, or memorial, of the creative power of God, so it is also of God’s recreative power. This will be one great reason for the saints’ keeping it throughout eternity. It will remind them not only of their own creation and the creation of the universe but also of their redemption. BR-ASI9 288.3

Through whom do we have sanctification? BR-ASI9 288.4

“But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Corinthians 1:30. BR-ASI9 288.5

Note.—The Sabbath is a sign, or memorial, of sanctification through Christ, and of creation. Through the Sabbath, therefore, God designed that the believer and Christ should be very closely linked together. BR-ASI9 288.6