This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
Lesson 8: “Covenant Sign”
This week’s lesson is all about Sabbath. It uses all the traditional Adventist arguments and proofs from an EGW worldview. In fact, if one is an Adventist, it is hard to see that Scripture could even suggest anything other than these time-worn arguments because these ideas shaped our life from before we could even talk. We who grew up Adventist received the Sabbath and its arguments with our mother’s milk.
Because this lesson walks so faithfully through the expected Adventist arguments, I will not address each one in sequence. Instead, I will step back and address AGAIN the subject of the biblical covenants. In fact, the underlying foundation for this lesson is the idea that God has only one covenant with mankind, and the Sabbath is the universal and eternal sign of His covenant. This idea is simply not in the Bible.
Sabbath: the sign of what?
The idea that the Sabbath is the sign of God’s (supposedly) eternal covenant with His people falls apart when we look at what Scripture teaches. There are several covenants, not just one—and the Sabbath is specifically the sign of the Mosaic covenant.
Let’s review: the first covenant named in Scripture (as opposed to the first covenant ASSUMED, such as the “covenant of grace” within the Trinity and the “covenant” God made with Eve—“covenants” that the Bible never identifies as covenants as it tells these accounts) is God’s covenant made with Noah and with the whole earth AFTER he existed the ark. We read about this Noahic covenant in Genesis 8 and 9.
The Sabbath School lesson posited that God’s covenant with Noah was made BEFORE the flood, but the Bible does not say that. In fact, the lesson takes that position in order to make the point that God told Noah he would save him and his family IF Noah obeyed and built an ark. However, that discussion between God and Noah is not identified as a covenant.
The first covenant Scripture says God made is the covenant AFTER the flood when God promised never again to destroy the earth with a flood. Scripture says God made that agree with Noah and with all flesh and the whole earth.
The Noahic covenant had a specific sign of the covenant: the rainbow. In fact, whenever we see a rainbow, that is a sign to us that God is still keeping His UNCONDITIONAL, unilateral covenant with Noah and with all flesh. Noah did not have to respond or obey; God simply covenanted unilaterally that He would never destroy the earth with a flood again.
The second covenant Scripture names is the covenant with Abraham. The account, found in Genesis 15, tells us that Abraham, in spite of all odds, believed God’s promise that He would give him seed, land, and blessing—and that belief was credited to Abraham as righteousness (Gen. 15:6).
That belief, however, was not the mark of his being in a covenant with God. Rather, the rest of Genesis 15 tells the story of God’s making His covenant with Abraham. He asked Abraham to prepare the covenant sacrifices, and then God put Abraham into a deep sleep before He appeared in the forms of a smoking pot and a flaming furnace and moved among the covenant pieces UNILATERALLY covenanting to make Abraham a great nation, to give his descendants the land He promised, and to make him a blessing.
God kept Abraham from having anything to do with that covenant. He could make no promises because he was asleep. God made this unconditional covenant with Abraham by Himself. It was founded on promises that CANNOT be broken, and it is eternal.
In Genesis 17 we read the account of God’s giving Abraham the sign of His covenant with him: circumcision. All of Abraham’s descendants were to be circumcised as a sign that they were Abraham’s descendants, the ones who were set apart from the pagan world and who belonged to Abraham and thus separate from the rest of the world.
Then we come to Exodus and the third covenant we are told God made with humans: this time with the nation Israel who were the descendants of Abraham’s promised son, Isaac. God made a different kind of covenant with Israel. This time God made a two-way covenant. He mediated this covenant through Moses, but He promised Israel blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Israel promised back, “All you have said, we will do.”
These promises were faulty; they were made by sinful humans who could not keep them. Thus God did what He promised: He blessed Israel when they honored Him, and He withheld rain and harvest, health and wealth when they fell into apostasy until He finally exiled Israel into the treacherous Assyria and Judah into Babylon.
This covenant God made with Israel was temporary, not permanent, because it was CONDITIONAL, not unconditional. It was only as good as the flawed promises of the people. Galatians 3:17–19 tells us that God made this covenant 430 AFTER Abraham and that it lasted until the SEED came—the Lord Jesus. This covenant had a beginning and an ending.
It also had a sign—the Sabbath. The lesson made much of this fact, so we won’t belabor this point. Suffice it to say that the seventh-day Sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic covenant—a temporary covenant that had a temporary sign.
In fact, the law in which the Sabbath was embedded, the Ten Commandments which were actually the very words of the Mosaic covenant (and not eternal in heaven from eternity past through eternity future—see Exodus 34:27–28) was a TEMPORARY law established on the levitical priesthood (Hebrews 6 and 7). Thus, when the priesthood changed to the Melchizedek priesthood of the Lord Jesus, the law also changed; for “when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also” (Heb. 7:12).
The last unconditional covenant we find in Scripture is the new covenant. Found in Jeremiah 31:31–33 and also in Ezekiel 36:26–27, the new covenant promises God will do something miraculous: He will give His people new hearts and new spirits and place His Spirit in them. He will also write His law on their hearts.
Adventist insist that this “law” is the Ten Commandments, but it is not. The Ten Commandments are a unit; they cannot be separated into pieces. The New Testament gives many commands for believers that are not found in the Ten Commandments: no gossiping, no engaging in coarse language, no gluttony, no witchcraft or sorcery, no idleness, no homosexuality, and so forth. These commands are not found in the Ten Commandments. (Moreover, the New Testament never requires Sabbath-keeping for believers, nor does it list any consequences for not keeping the Sabbath.)
Furthermore, Jesus said in Matthew 5 that if a person even lusts, he is guilty of adultery, and if he hates, he is guilty of murder. These commandments are far more demanding than the Ten, but these are among the commands God gives the church in the New Testament.
These new commands are those that God writes on the hearts of new covenant believers. Moreover, these commands are not things unbelievers are asked to do in order to please God. On the contrary, no unbeliever can begin to keep these commandments—just as Israel could not keep the Ten—because they have not been born again.
The new covenant is God’s UNILATERAL promise to bring unbelievers to faith in Jesus. When we hear the gospel of our salvation and believe, Ephesians 1:13–14 tells us, we are sealed at that moment with the promised Holy Spirit. We pass at that moment from death to life (Jn. 5:24), and God transfers us literally into a new kingdom, the kingdom of the beloved Son (Col. 1:13).
These things are how God brings believers into the new covenant. We do not enter by keeping the law; we enter through faith alone—and the law written on our hearts is the changed law which Hebrews 7:12 said must occur.
The Ten were based on a specific priesthood: the levitical priesthood. The new covenant is based on a new priesthood: the Melchizedek priesthood of the Lord Jesus.
And yes—this new covenant has a new sign: the Lord’s Supper. Just as the Mosaic covenant had a “remember” sign: the Sabbath, so the new covenant has a new “remember” sign: “Do this in remembrance of Me.”
We learn in Hebrews 3 and 4 that the seventh-day Sabbath is not part of the new covenant but of the temporary old covenant. Now God has set a new day called TODAY: Today if you hear His voice, enter His rest.
What about Sabbath rest?
The elaborate arguments that the Sabbath stemmed from creation are simply not what Scripture teaches.
First, the fourth commandment of Exodus 20:8–11 uses the story of creation to explain what Israel is to remember as they observe the Sabbath. They are to remember the day that God CEASED.
Adventists make much of the idea that God RESTED and observes the seventh day in perpetuity as holy time. This is unscriptural. The Hebrew underlying “God rested on the seventh day” is a word that means CEASED. God rested not because He created holy time which He now had to honor, but He “rested” because He CEASED His work. He was done. There was no more creation to happen.
In fact, in the Genesis account, the description of the days of creation reveal an interesting pattern: days one through six are bounded by this description: “And the evening and the morning were the _____ day.”
The seventh day, however, has no evening/morning boundary. It simply says that God rested on the seventh day and hallowed it. In other words, the seventh day was not a literal day with an evening and a morning. It was UNENDING because God’s “ceasing” was unending. God didn’t get up on the the next “first day” and return to work. NO. He CEASED, and He did not begin working again,
Only when sin occurred did God’s work of salvation commence, and we learn in John 5:17 that Jesus told the Pharisees (who were furious because not only had He broken the Sabbath but had also called God His own father), “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” This declaration occurred on the Sabbath.
All to say, God did not rest on the seventh day and honor the day. NO! He ceased from work because His “very good” creation was entirely complete. He ceased!
Fourth commandment not tied only to creation
Furthermore, the lesson never hints that the second iteration of the Ten Commandments, found in Deuteronomy 5:1–21, does not even MENTION creation in the fourth commandment.
Here Moses is reiterating the law to the wilderness generation who had been born during the 40 years of desert wandering. Moses was about to die and to turn over the leadership of Israel to Joshua, but before he died, he reiterated the covenant with the generation that hadn’t been alive at Sinai. They needed to hear it and participate in it prior to entering Canaan.
The Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5 are almost identical to those in Exodus 20, but the fourth commandment is different:
“‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day (Deuteronomy 5:12–15).
Notice that the reason given for observing the Sabbath in this commandment is that God brought them out from Egyptian slavery with a mighty hand! The creation argument is never used here—and these were the people going into the land! Their important reminder was that God rescued them from slavery. They were to remember this fact every seventh day as they rested in their tents and acknowledged that God was their Provider even in impossible circumstances.
They were about to go into the land where there were giants and unknown dangers, but God commanded them to remember His deliverance!
Sabbath: test or reminder?
Furthermore, the lesson, as does EGW, reminds the readers that the Sabbath is a test of loyalty to God. This idea is not what the Bible teaches. Keeping the Sabbath was the SIGN of the old covenant. It was at the heart of the covenant agreement, and this arrangement was exactly the pattern found in ancient Hittite covenants between suzerains and vassals. The covenants always included a sign for the vassals to keep to demonstrate their loyalty to the suzerain.
The Israelites’ Sabbath was NOT a test. It was a required sign, and it was non-negotiable. Israel was to sit in their tents every seventh day no matter what emergency was brewing: lambing season, lentil harvest, hailstorm threats—whatever the case, they were NOT to work.
Meanwhile, all the surrounding people worked hard 24/7 to appease their gods and to ensure crops and livestock. Their gods were relentless, and their work was unceasing.
Meanwhile, Israel was resting one day in seven no matter how urgent the problem—and God would work for them. He would ensure their prosperity because they were observing their end of the covenant deal: obedience to keep the sign.
Neither they nor the Canaanites would ever be able to say that they prospered because they worked harder.
Quite the opposite! They worked less, and they would prosper more. The nations as well as they would know that their success was entirely the work of their God. Their Sabbath was for the glory of God, not a test of their loyalty!
Fast forward to the New Testament. When Jesus came, He fulfilled the WHOLE law: its curse, its death decree, its righteous requirements, and the realities the ceremonial laws foreshadowed. Jesus came an ushered in completed atonement and rest from our sin and our efforts to be good.
Now, as Hebrews explains, when we trust Jesus, we experience the sabbath-like rest that is available for all believers (Heb. 4:9). The believers’ Sabbath is NOT the seventh day; it is rest in Christ as per Matthew 11:28!
We see now that the Israelites’s Sabbath served as a shadow of two things: the finished work of God at creation which was VERY GOOD and from which He ceased when it was done, and the finished work of Jesus on the cross when He cried “It Is Finished” just before He died for our sins, shedding sinless human blood for all who believe.
Sabbath rest is dwelling in the finished work of Jesus when He rescues us from the slavery of sin and makes us alive with new hearts and spirits and when He seals us with His Holy Spirit.
Being born again is entirely a new covenant phenomenon. When we are born again, we become eligible to take the new covenant sign: the Lord’s Supper. In fact, Hebrews 13:10 tells us that we have something that those who “serve the tabernacle”—that is the old covenant Law including the Ten Commandments—cannot have. We have an altar, the cross, “from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.”
Only born again believers have access to the new covenant sign.
Furthermore, the sign of circumcision has also been fulfilled in Jesus, and according to Colossians 1 and Romans 4, we who are born again receive the circumcision made without hands, the circumcision of the heart. This circumcision is the new birth, the moment we enter our true Sabbath rest.
Our works to please God are over. We can only submit to Him in confession and repentance and acknowledge that we need His blood to cleanse us from our sin. When we acknowledge that we are in need of His completed work of atonement, He brings us to life and places us in the kingdom of His Son.
In Him we have LIFE—spiritual life—the life which Adam and Eve did lose on the day they ate that fruit.
In fact, Paul says in Romans 4:5:
And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness…
Hebrews 8 is clear: the old covenant is obsolete. We needed a covenant based on better promises, and in Jesus we enter the new covenant in His blood and are hidden with Him in God.
What about the Sabbath and the Manna?
One last question remains from the lesson: the fact that God gave Israel the Sabbath when He gave the manna—before the law.
The account of the manna occurred at Sinai about one month before the giving of the law. We have written a whole piece about this giving of the Sabbath, and we’ll link it here: Does The Manna Support Sabbath Keeping?
We pray that you will see what Scripture actually teaches and that, as you read God’s living and inerrant word, you will come to know the real Jesus of Scripture and find your true, eternal rest in Him. †
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” That first covenant between God and Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship on earth ” Hebrews 9:1 NLT . The first covenant was between God and the Jewish people and Gentiles were NOT included . If we are not Jewish , we have no business trying to live under that Jewish covenant . The law was an exclusive agreement between God and the Jews ; no one else was involved .The Jews , were God’s chosen people . To Israel God gave the Ten Commandments and 603 other commands , laws , decrees and regulations to obey .
Moses said to Israel , ” In the future your children will ask you , What is the meaning of these laws , decrees , and regulations that the Lord our has commanded us to obey ?
Then you must tell them , We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt , but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand . The Lord did miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes , dealing terrifying blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all his people , He brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land he had sworn to give our ancestors . And the Lord our God commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives , as he has done to this day . For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the Lord our God has given us. ” Deuteronomy 6:20-25 .
That agreement was between God and the Jewish people . If we are not Jewish , we have no business trying to live under the Ten Commandments . The Jews were God’s chosen people . If not even they could keep the law , then certainly no one else in the world could . We are deceived if we think we can .
We must decide whether we will continue living under the old covenant . Under that agreement , any one who cannot keep ALL of it is cursed . Churches that teach the law , like SDA , condemn their members and make them feel guilty .
Righteousness does not come by the law , the Ten Commandments were not given to make us better . If the law makes us holy , then Jesus died for nothing .
Although I agree with the article, there is one sentence that could be up for debate. You stated that “[t]he Sabbath School lesson posited that God’s covenant with Noah was made BEFORE the flood, but the Bible does not say that.”
If I am reading the bible correctly, Gen 6:18 states “I will establish My covenant with you; AND you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.”
So there seems to be the fact that God mentioned the covenant before they entered the ark. Gen 9:9-17 explains the covenant in more detail, but it seems clear that the introduction of the covenant concept was briefly laid out in Gen 6.
Good point, Rockbridge!
The Genesis 6:18 verse foretells the establishment of the covenant in the future—I WILL ESTABLISH My covenant with you. God did promise to establish His covenant with Noah; you are right!
Nevertheless, the covenant terms were not delivered until Noah exited the ark, and Noah was never asked to respond or to perform any acts of obedience as the condition for God’s keeping that particular covenant. It is Adventism’s misrepresentation of God’s unconditional covenants in Scripture that is so troubling. They adjust the details of those accounts in order to introduce the idea that the person to whom God made His promises had to obey in order to receive God’s blessings.
In fact, God’s unconditional promises are certain, with or without human response or obedience! Understanding God’s unconditional covenants has changed how I read Scripture. His word doesn’t depend on US. It is certain and unable to fail!
Thanks for pointing out God’s declaration that He would make His covenant with Noah!
Thanks, Colleen for clarifying.