The Sign

As He draws our attention to a certain, controverted issue in earth’s last days, God gives the human family a sign to remind us of who He is and who we are in relationship to Him. In the everlasting gospel found in Revelation 14, an angel flies in the midst of heaven, attracting the attention of all, and proclaims with a loud voice, “Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Revelation 14:7). In quoting the fourth commandment, John (the writer of Revelation) calls us to worship Jesus as Creator by observing the seventh-day Sabbath. Just thirty-three verses into the Bible, we are introduced to 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. 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 2:2, 3).

Jesus —who gave the Sabbath at Creation— stated that “the Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath is an eternal sign of God’s creative power. In keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, God’s people recognize His authority in their lives and their complete dependence upon Him.

The Sabbath isn’t a work done by Christians to curry favor with God. It is an acceptance of God’s goodness, a time to rest from our work just as God rested from His at the conclusion of the Creation week. The Sabbath is a sign of righteousness by faith, as disciples of Jesus allow God’s will to be carried out in their lives.

The busyness of life could easily be permitted to squeeze the Sabbath out of a believer’s life. But we are called in earth’s last days to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The Sabbath is time spent with God, our Creator.