17. Class17 – Visions of the Kingdom Age by Jim Dillingham 2014

17. Class17 – Visions of the Kingdom Age by Jim Dillingham 2014

This will be the 17th class in the series entitled visions of the kingdom age based on the adult Sunday School classes beginning in the spring of 2014 at the Cranston, Rhode Island ecclesia.

One of the strong identifications we have throughout scripture in the context of the approaching restoration of the kingdom of God, is its Sabbath nature. This will be the 7th millennium in the creator’s plan paralleling the seventh creation day that was the inspiration for the laws of the Sabbath observance that were initiated in the first kingdom age at Mount Sinai. One place we read this is is in Exodus 20 where God speaks the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments, from the burning mountain directly to the enlightened community.

We read in verses 8 through 11 that God said, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 6 days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the 7th 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. 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 7th day and hallowed it.

We learned several things about the Sabbath which can tell us things about the approaching Sabbath kingdom in the 7th millennium of the creator’s plan. We read that because the creator rested on the 7th day of his creative activity, therefore Israel had to rest on the 7th day of the week,what we call Saturday. We also learned this was not to be a rest just for the brethren in the truth, but everyone, including servants and even animals.

Now we may be tempted to presume that Sabbath observance was required from the very beginning of creation even before Sabbath law was imposed at Sinai. That would be a mistake. When Moses reviews the events of the wilderness wanderings on the last day of his life he expresses that fourth of the ten commandments, Sabbath law, explaining why Sabbath law was imposed. We read this in Deuteronomy chapter 5 starting in verse 12.

Moses says, Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. 6 days thou shalt labor and do all thy work but the 7th day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter and the manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy ox nor thy ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates, that thy manservant and I maid servant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt and that the LORD thy God brought thee out even with a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.

There is a second divine motivation a 2nd underlying reason why Sabbath law was required of the enlightened community beginning at Sinai, because Yahweh gave them rest from their Egyptian slavery. In fact God tells us specifically that it was Sabbath observance that was appointed as the signature ritual of that Mosaic Covenant of works, similarly to how circumcision had been appointed to be the Covenant signature of the Abrahamic covenant of faith. As we read this next reference which will be in Exodus 31 verses 12 through 17, please note the use of the word “sign,” as God appoints the “sign” of the Sabbath.This word sign is translated from the Hebrew word “oath,” ‘oth’ which is translated as “sign, token, and ensign.” It is the word used to define circumcision as the token of the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 17. It is the word used to define the rainbow as the token of the Covenant God made with Noah after the flood.

So reading from Exodus 31 starting in verse 12, we read, Verily my sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you. Everyone that defiles it shall surely be put to death. For whoever does any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 6 days may work be done but the 7th is the Sabbath rest holy to the Lord. Whosoever does 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 6 days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the 7th day he rested and was refreshed.

The Sabbath law was divinely appointed as the sign, the token of the Mosaic Covenant. This word “sign” is transitive as we noted from the Hebrew word ‘oth’ which is translated as ‘sign, token, ensign,’ and again it is the word used to define circumcision, as the token of the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 17. It is the word used to define the rainbow as the token of the Covenant God made with Noah after the flood, therefore Sabbath law was new to Israel and not part of the previous patriarchal priesthood age.

We see this understanding confirmed in Ezekiel chapter 20 and starting in verse 10, where God testifies, Wherefore, I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness, and I gave them my statutes and showed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them. 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 sanctifies them.

God explains again that he gave them his sabbaths as a “sign.” That’s that same Hebrew word ‘oath’ between himself and the Israelites when he brought them out of Egypt. In fact this Hebrew word ‘outh’ we’ve known it is reference to ‘token’ translated ‘token’ in reference to circumcision of the Abrahamic covenant, of course, the reference to the rainbow that is valid in the divinee covenant of Noah. The Sabbath observance was the assigned ritual token of the mosaic coming for that first kingdom age, therefore it would be highly inappropriate, to presume that Sabbath observance had been required by God from mankind’s ejection from Eden.

However the Apostle Paul declares that the lessons of the Sabbath are still valuable and have a future application despite the fact that Sabbath observance is definitely not required during the kingdom age or during the ecclesial age. We see this in Col chapter 2 beginning in verse 16, where Paul writes Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or the new moon or of sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. So although we are not to be judged in respect to sabbath days the sabbath is one of those shadows of things yet to come projecting a reality that is not yet materialized. The blessing of the Sabbath has not been fulfilled and it is the body of Christ that we are told is casting these shadows. The body of Christ is the substance creating the Sabbath shadow of things yet to be revealed. So what is the underlying lesson of the Sabbath yet to be revealed?

We know that the restored kingdom will be the 7th millennium, the Sabbath millennium the 7th divine day, as we surely remember reading in Psalm 90, in 2 Peter 3, That a day with the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. Is that all there is to the shadows of things to come being cast by the body of Christ? Perhaps we should be asking about the nature of this Sabbath rest, that was inspired by the 7th day of the creation week. We are specifically told that the Creator rested on the 7th day. It doesn’t say he simply stopped creating but that he actually rested and was refreshed. Doesn’t that sound odd? Our creator is omnipotent. His energies do not drain, they do not need replenishment, as we do. Yahweh doesn’t need to take a nap or sleep or feel refreshed again. In that context anyway, that 7th day of no creative activity was actually considered part of the creation week, despite the absence of any creative activity. So we really need to ask why? and what kind of rest is this, because God certainly doesn’t need to rest as we do. God Himself asks this question, and fortunately then then answers it. We find this within the prophetic terms of that Sabbath kingdom, the Millennial Kingdom.

Isaiah offers many visions of the kingdom age. He goes into great detail about the unique nature of the kingdom age, of that 7th millennium, in the last 2
Chapters. In chapter 65 we read about the coniferous predators that become harmless herbivores, like wolves and lions we read how mortal life will be extended to the degree that a dying person, at a hundred years old, will be considered just a child, in the context of their life expectancy. We read about safety and productivity.

Immediately following this we read in Isaiah 66 starting at the very 1st verse, Thus saith the LORD, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all these things has mine hand made and all these things have been, said Lord, But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word.

Now the last king of Judah under which Isiah served was Hezekiah so the Temple of God was still standing in Jerusalem but Yahweh asks, Where is the house you build unto me. You actually think a building you construct can offer me a place of rest? Then he says, Let me tell you about the real place of my rest – To this man will I look. In other words – To this man will I look for a place for me to rest, a man that is a poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles and my word. That is the real or anti-typical temple of God that is the real place of our creator’s rest. The faithful, the truly faithful with a broken spirit, those who actually tremble, at the power of our creator’s expressions.

Let us confirm this understanding making sure that we have it right. Isaiah 57 starting in verse 15, God says For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

We see the same type of expression as we read in chapter 66, The heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. He’s high and he is the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, yet in addition to this inaccessibility frame, we hear that God also dwells in Those with a contrite and humble spirit. The word contrite is …derived from the Hebrew Daka D-a-k-a, Daka meaning “break in pieces crush, bruise.” It is used twice in Isaiah 53 about our Messiah, how he was bruised for our iniquities and how it pleased the Lord to bruise him. This is why Jesus tells us in the sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit for their’s is the kingdom of heaven. Similarly we see those who mourn are blessed, the meek are blessed and the persecuted and the reviled along with those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

In other words those who tremble at the word of God. This is the lesson of the mustard seed, the tiniest of all seeds, that grows into the largest of all. We have to be small in our own eyes. It is meekness resulting from a circumcised heart, that is the key to seeing eyes and hearing ears, without which we will not understand the righteousness that right-ness of our Creator.The four temples with their progressive 3 holiness stages in the construction of each temple, are not the real resting places of the creator, they are only shadows of that resting place. Jesus Christ and the future Saints are the resting places of the creator of the universe.

So we can identify the place of our creator’s rest, and we can identify the qualifications for that rest, that broken emptied spirit that meekness that cannot cannot help but tremble at the incredible beauty the overwhelming glory the sheer power of all our creator’s expressions, at least when they are correctly understood. But what is the nature of this rest? How can our Creator actually rest within the faithful?

There’s another application of the rest that we can enjoy on a personal level because we rest in those we love. I know that my wife is a place of rest for me. Her exclusive love for me empowers me, it fuels my courage when it’s needed. Her love is a foundation for any level of my self-confidence and there is a very great comfort in just knowing that you are truly loved. Therefore I strive to be worthy of her love and I know as well that Dorrie takes great comfort in the assurance of my love for her. I am a place of rest for her, a rest from the pressures of life, the confusion that promotes anxiety. We are places of rest for our children and when we’re too old or infirm to care for ourselves our children are divinely tasked with being our places of rest. That was the 5th of the 10 commandments To honor our mother and father and Jesus rebuked the enlightened community during his ministry for their refusal to be those places of rest for their aging parents, by declaring Corban, willing one’s assets to the temple Treasury upon their death, supposedly freeing them from the immediate expense of the financial burden of caring for one’s aging parents, for being that place of rest.

This is a different aspect of a rest tense simply taking a nap or falling asleep, behavior our Creator does not require or practice, that was part of the nature of Elijah’s sarcasm directed at the apostate and enlightened community at Mount Carmel. Elijah taunted those Jewish Baal worshipers while they foolishly called to their pagan gods suggesting well Baal was otherwise engaged or perhaps he was sleeping and needed to be woken. Yahweh doesn’t sleep but he does want a rest, the kind of rest he can enjoy, in people who love him so much that that they will sacrifice anything for his favor and his returned love.

The Creator never wanted computerized humanoids incapable of disrespecting him and never having the capacity to sin. He didn’t create Adam and Eve without the capacity to disrespect him. We should be able to respect this understanding.When we want children in our own image and likeness we don’t drive down to Toys R Us and pick up one or two Chatty Cathy or babbling Billy dolls, who only say what they’re programmed to say, never disobey, never talk back never need diapers changed and won’t leave you. We want children who have the capacity to truly love us and choose to respect us, children with free will, who have to choose to obey us and respect our right-ness.

When Adam and Eve chose that serpent testimony over the creator’s righteousness, then mankind was further burdened with that serpent-perspective, that we chose in place of the creator’s perspective. Our nature was changed from undying, but capable of death, to absolutely dying, and decaying and assured death. That engine of that decay is the sin nature that was the direct result of that first sin, that first contradiction of our creator’s right-ness that contagiously corrupted a previously very good creative order.

Now it’s not even an even playing field, it’s it is an instinctive, an anti-intuitive, to choose the divine perspective over the default serpent-perspective naturally being generated from the human heart It is harder because the prize is so incredibly great. But we can give our beloved creator, what he cannot make for himself, without our willing, loving and sacrificial participation, for him to enjoy his anticipated rest. We have to love him above everything, be willing to sacrifice everything for his love and approval.

This is the rest that he asks for, because he cannot take it. That would completely invalidate the application of qualifying as a rest. There are endless associations throughout scripture to this understanding that the faithful who love God above everything, will be the places of our creator’s rest, his residences as Isa 57 expresses it, where Yahweh will dwell.

Let us look at one of those expressions it’s to often abused even within our enlightened community, often due to a defensive consideration, instead of trying to fully understand the expression that Christ offers. At the Last Supper when he says in John 14. Jesus says to his disciples. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. Jesus tells us he goes to heaven to prepare mansions or or appropriately translated, “abiding places” for the disciples and then that Jesus will return and when he returns he will receive them unto himself so they can be where he is.

Sadly when one considers this only from a defensive perspective, we can entirely miss the point, floundering around trying to explain how, We really don’t go to heaven to join Jesus. But we are specifically told that it is Jesus that comes to us, that he will return, and when he does he will take us to him, that we can be where he is. Now that’s both a physical location and a state of being, he will be bringing these mansions with him that he prepared while he was gone. This is clearly the understanding being presented, because Jesus repeats it a couple of minutes later – to that other Judas, when he asks, Lord how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us and not unto the world.

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. The Greek word “mone” translated “abode” here in verse 23 is exactly the same word Jesus used back in verse 1 that was translated as “mansions.” Jesus is comforting his disciples with the understanding that despite the fact that he has to leave them that eventually he will return to them with these “abiding places” prepared in heaven, and he and his father will make their “abode,” their resting place, with those who have loved them and proved that love by keeping their words.

Paul uses this understanding when he defines these mansions, these abiding places, as “heavenly tabernacles” made without hands that will cover us, so that we will no longer be naked before God. That is in 2 Cor 5. Our goal is to become the abiding places of our creator, his place of rest, that he can’t make without us, without our loving, dedicated, sacrificial participation. To me this understanding is incredibly inspiring. It says I have value, that I can give something to my beloved Heavenly Father that he can’t have any other way. I can prepare myself to be a place of rest for the creator of the universe. I just don’t have the words to express how wonderful a thought that is to me. We all know what it’s like to love.

I mean everybody loves, even people like Hitler, Genghis Khan, all the Popes, the most despicable people on earth, even Psychopaths know know what it is to love. Their love may exclusively be exclusively self-love, but it’s still love. Everyone loves one way or another. Ordinarily when we are loved in return there are mutual benefits for each party. Parent provide value to the children they feel love. A child’s love certainly offers a great depth of value to their loving parents. The same is true for husbands and wives and, and for friends, but what value can we possibly offer the creator of the universe? Can he live any longer? he’s immortal, he never had a beginning. Can he travel any further? He’s omnipresent everywhere at once. Can we give him something he hasn’t made?

Actually yes. We can, we can prepare places for his rest that he cannot make without our participation. The really wonderful feature about this is that we don’t have to be as perfect as our Messiah. The creator of the universe is willing to accept less than the perfection of his son as long as we love his son also and we’ll only approach him in the prescribed avenues through his most beloved son. We don’t have to perfectly project the righteousness of Yahweh without any contradictions whatsoever to that righteousness without any sins.

But that that can’t be used as am excuse to facilitate any relaxing of our vigilance as if forgiveness were automatic or even easy, that would contradict the very nature of sacrificial love. The offer of grace and forgiveness is not a license to sin, but the assurance of hope, despite the incapacity of our individual love to provide that perfect compliance that was demonstrated by our Messiah.

So why, why did our Creator rest on that 7th day? Actually there’s a certain depth of reasons, but the basic reason is the absolute purpose of creation.That Yahweh seeks a rest that is only possible through the caretakers of creation, originally and uniquely crafted into His image and likeness that these people recognize and value, His right-ness and pursue his image and likeness in faith above all other immediate short-term benefits.

This understanding of preparing a place for our creator’s rest highlights a very counter-intuitive lesson in the development of the Saints, from within the larger pool of the enlightened community, and this is our creator’s invariable focus, on quality and not quantity.

Just as very few brethren who escaped the Egyptian slavery, actually inherited the promised land, forty years later, 2 out of over 600,000, as Jude highlights in his warnings to the Christadelphians and at the beginning of the ecclesial age, and just as only 8 people out of conservatively, a billion, within the enlightened community, as there was no record of any apostasy,just behaviorally, so 8 out of over a billion were saved.

And Noah’s Ark and just as only a few of the descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob escaped Jerusalem before it was destroyed by Titus in AD 70, a common error so it will be few of those baptized into the truth who will actually inherit the kingdom. This is certainly a counter-intuitive consideration that only a few of the enlightened community from each generation will actually be chosen as the places of our creator’s rest. It is certainly not the the common message being delivered from the podiums in our communities, Bible School study days and ecclesial halls, but this issue of many being called to judgment and only few being chosen, from within that judgment, constitutes the invariable pattern of all through Scripture, as well as the particular and specific warning of our Messiah at the conclusion of two separate judgment parables.

It is very disappointing to hear our Messiah’s serious warning often being twisted into a perverse self- glorifying claim. At the conclusion of two separate judgment parables, Jesus declares, For many are called but few are chosen. This phrase sometimes gets ripped out of its context. So it’s some of us can suggest that this means that we’re called and chosen for enlightenment, and this has nothing to do with the immediate context of being called to Christ’s judgment, but only a few of those being called to judgment is being chosen.

Some may think that that each of us have a right to our opinion in this application but there is no place for opinions when it comes to the terms of our creator’s righteousness, his right-ness. This is what the Bible testifies concerning, and all of creation for that matter, God’s righteousness. We don’t have any right to any personal opinions we either agree with God or we are wrong. Being wrong about the terms of our creator’s rightness is extremely dangerous.

In fact this incorrect understanding that we are called and chosen for mere enlightenment, is a declaration that God is a liar and a hypocrite, because we are clearly told exactly the opposite of that “pinion,” about being called and chosen for just enlightenment. Paul declares in first Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. We were specifically told God wants all men to come to a knowledge of the truth, not just a select few, therefore if we presume that God selectively chooses out only a few people to come to the knowledge of the truth then we are declaring God to be a liar and a hypocrite, which is an extremely foolish avenue to pursue.

We are not called and chosen for “enlightenment” that’s just the initial mistake, that if not corrected will eventually continue leavening into the popular apostate Christian delusion of “instant guaranteed salvation.” Presuming that Our salvation is assured, that we’ve already been chosen by God. It is we, or at least those who have come to a knowledge of the truth, and been baptized for the truths that have chosen God. It is not he, that has done the choosing, yet that will be done at judgment. Our choosing God and His righteousness over the far more popular distortions of divine truths throughout society that that choosing is just a second of the 3 stages in the development of the Saints that is endlessly repeated throughout Scripture, and in the terms of creation those 3 development stages are

1. Enlightenment
2. commitment and
3. Performance.

Now we’re going to have more to say about this when we address Why the number 12 is so prominent in our creator’s identification of the Saints. But just as an introductory association in order to reinforce this understanding that we are the ones doing the voluntary choosing, at this stage, and not God, let’s just look at a couple obvious projections of these 3 development stages.

The 1st would be the ordination of the priests into service during the first kingdom of God. We want to serve as immortal priests in the restored kingdom of God? So this priest ordination procedure should be of particular interest to ourselves as it will be a shadow map for how we can qualify to become those priests and kings that will have been redeemed by the lamb and reign on the earth under his authority. In that ordination procedure the priests applicants had to have the blood of the ordination ram placed on the tip of their right ear, the right thumb, and the large right toe. Now the blood represents life as we’re told repeatedly in Scripture and particularly sacrificial life.

The placement of that sacrificial life blood is defined by the purpose of those body components. The ear is for hearing, indicating the hearing of the words of life, which is enlightenment. That’s the 1st stage in the development of the saints, the immortal priests.

The 2nd blood application is on the right thumb, which is used for grasping, for choosing, for taking hold of something. This is the commitment stage when the enlightened choose the way of life, as in choosing to be baptized in our ecclesial age, but that isn’t enough.

There’s a 3rd application of blood on the right toe, the rudder of the body directing our walk. Directing our walk without a large toe would be much more challenging. This is the third stage, performance.

Life is not possible with just enlightenment. Life is not possible with only enlightenment and commitment

life is only possible if we demonstrate all 3 development stages necessary for the hope of the Saints,which is life. We need to be enlightened.

Once enlightened, we need to commit ourselves for the full extent of our lives to the terms of that enlightenment.

Once enlightened and committed, we still have to perform. We have to demonstrate our creators right-ness, in our thoughts words and deeds.

Let us just look at one more.The are many, this is a massive pattern in Scripture but we’ll be reviewing this in a future presentation when we consider the reason, why God defines the enlightened community by the number 12 so frequently throughout Scripture. So you might want to think about this pattern as as there are many applications and it’s always a lot more fun to discover them for ourselves.

Let’s look briefly at these 3 rituals that began and ended the priestly activities of each day during the first kingdom of God.

These 3 rituals were

1. the oil replenishment for the seven golden lamp in the holy chamber of the tabernacle.

2 it was the burning of the incense on the golden incense altar in the same holy chamber of the tabernacle and

3 the burnt offering that was the first and last altar offering every day on the bronze altar in the tabernacle courtyard.

These three rituals present exactly this same 3-stage maturing development of the Saints. The fuel replenishment for the continuous burning of the lamps is a very obvious demonstration of enlightenment, that 1st maturing stage in the development of the Saints.

The burning of the incense is scripturally interpreted in both Psalms and Revelation as representing the offering of Prayer.

Again this is an obvious demonstration of the commitment stage, as one who prays has obviously chosen to pursue the relationship highlighted through enlightenment.

The 3rd and last ritual was the offering of the daily burnt offering, every evening and morning. Hosea 6v6 defines the behavioral fulfillment for the burnt offering is pursuing the knowledge of God.God tells us, For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

God wanted merciful love and not the peace offering.

He wanted the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

That’s the 3rd maturing stage of the Saint’s, performance, the dedicated day and night pursuit of the terms of our creator’s right-ness, his eternal truths and principles.

Enlightenment, commitment and performance.

We will soon be examining on the strength of this pattern, that is demonstrated subtly in divine laws and rituals, this defines our pursuit of that privilege of qualifying as the places of our creator’s rest.

Let’s address a defensive consideration and the thought pattern that leads to mistakes about our creator’s communications. There is always, always, a self-centered frame of reference that has to be guarded against, when it comes to understanding the righteousness of our Creator.

This is that required 3rd development stage of the saints after enlightenment and after commitment, the pursuit and demonstration of the terms of God’s eternal righteousness. The performance of that daily burnt offering. When Jesus was responding to the accusations against his disciples for picking grain and eating it on a Saturday, he made this statement, That this Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath from mark 2. This expression has inappropriately served as some sort of proof that the exclusive value of the Sabbath was for man, despite the fact that there is no exclusivity expressed here, just a differential between perspectives.

This exclusivity application presumption , is much like one Christians quote Romans 10 about how we Confess with our mouth that the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead, and then “we’re saved.” It is often very oddly presumed that there’s an exclusivity to this expression as if the absent word “only” is actually part of the text as if we only have to believe and confess and we’re automatically saved.That is an impossible understanding as there are many other scriptural declarations that We are saved by being baptized, We are saved by hope, We are saved by continuing to the end, and We are saved by fear and trembling.

Similarly not a single one of those salvation avenues are expressed with any degree of exclusivity. The word only appears all of those actions are necessary for salvation. It is comprehensive not exclusive. This is a very common stumbling point in Bible students, the oversimplification of divine expressions, as if everything we need to know about anything could be found in just one expression.

Of course the Sabbath was made for man which the Pharisees did not understand at all, but that doesn’t mean Sabbath law has no value outside of man. Women rested on the Sabbath as well as farm animals like the ox and the donkey in fact even the land was given a divinely appointed rest every 7th year and 2 years in a row every 49th and 50th year. The Sabbath was made for all of these applications as well, and there is most definitely a value to our Creator in the context of the Sabbath rest.

It is the 7th day the 7th millennium when our Creator will take his rest in the faithful, when he will come and take up residence within them, just like he did in shadow fashion with the tabernacle and temples.

The seriousness of understanding Sabbath law, correctly, was underlined by the death penalty imposed on men for getting this wrong.

One man was put to death at God’s command by having stones hurled at his head and body by his own family and the entire congregation just because he was out gathering some firewood on a Saturday, breaking Sabbath law.

In Exodus 31 where Yahweh defined Sabbath law to be the “token,” the sign of the Mosaic Covenant, he emphasizes the death sentence for getting this issue wrong. He says You shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you.
Everyone that defiles it shall surely be put death. For whosoever does any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 6 days may work be done but in the 7th is the Sabbath of rest holy to the Lord. Whosoever does any work on a Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

In the same fashion all those who are not chosen to be the resting places of our creator. The unenlightened who perish forever without our personal divine judgment, as well as the many who will be rejected at the 2 judgments at the beginning and end of the Sabbath Kingdom in the 7th millennium, will also die forever. It is a very serious matter to underestimate the principles and truths demonstrated in the laws of the Sabbath.

Therefore we will be considering a number of Sabbath laws and issues related to the 7th day so that we might understand these veiled divine truths and principles being projected through the Sabbath, and perhaps be better able to prepare ourselves, to be that rest our Creator seeks in the 7th day.

We’ll look at at the relationship of the daily burnt offering and the Sabbath. How and why it was doubled on the Sabbath and how it will be doubled yet again in the Sabbath kingdom in the very near future. We’ll look at God’s use of High Sabbaths that were frequently not Saturday’s but served as high Sabbaths on the basis of being the 1st or the last day of one of the 3 annual harvest feast weeks, just like that day after Christ’s death, which was a High Sabbath, not a Saturday Sabbath, according to John’s account.

We’ll look at the divine injunction against kindling of fire on the 7th, not maintaining a 1st, but actually kindling or initiating a fire.

We’re going to look at Jubilee law and how there are 8 Sabbaths in every 50 year phase and why and how the land itself rested every 7th year, and then both the 49th and the 50th years, and why? We will look at the conflict between Sabbath observance and circumcision performance, the two signature rituals of two separate covenants, the Mosaic Covenant of works, and the Abrahamic covenant of faith.

We are also going to look at the extensive patterns of 7 and their relationship to the divine truths and principles being projected through Sabbath laws.

We’ll also consider how the Sabbath rest was extended to benefit animals as well, indicating the plan of God is about more than just people, and how the promised rest and the anticipated Sabbath kingdoms of the 7th millennium is a rest from the effects of sin, for all of creation, and not just people. And we’ll begin these considerations in our next presentation

Transcription by Fay Berry 2018.