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 1: “Living in a 24–7 Society”
This week’s lesson attempts to convince the reader that we need Sabbath rest—and that this rest involves physical rest and an inner attitude of peace and good character and right motives. The author discusses the ramifications of being too busy and thus becoming overwhelmed, emotionally brittle, and even physically sick.
The answer to this restless anxiety, of course, is Adventism’s continual reminders to prayer and read the word, and to keep the Sabbath.
What is Sabbath rest?
While building a case for human rest, the lesson never discusses the one kind of rest that actually resolves inner turmoil and burnout: trusting Jesus and the true gospel and being born again.
In the early years after leaving Adventism, I was teaching English full time. Richard and I were also co-leading our weekly FAF Bible studies, and the time it took to study and prepare for those lessons amounted to another part-time job. As I tried to keep up with grading the papers for 120 students, I felt frantic and helpless.
I finally realized that true Sabbath rest had to be available for me even in my situation. God had clearly led me to this teaching position, and He had also opened the door for us to do the FAF Bible studies. We also had begun hosting Sunday lunches for those in our FAF group who needed a place to talk and process their life as they left Adventism.
There weren’t any jobs I could off-load; Richard was as busy as I was. I prayed and prayed that God would somehow provide me with “help” to get everything done, but outside help was not forthcoming. I finally realized the bottom line: God had brought me new assignments that demanded a learning curve and many hours a week—and my coping had to come from Him, not from more clever time-management.
I began to pray that God would make Sabbath rest real to me in the demands of my life.
I had already discovered that trusting in Jesus alone, placing my full confidence in Him without hedging my bets by keeping the Sabbath, I experienced the presence of Jesus more personally and powerfully than I ever had on the Sabbath. Jesus confirmed Himself when I gave up my fear to Him and my reverence for the seventh day put my full test on the worlds of Scripture alone: our righteousness is that of the Lord Jesus, and it is by faith, not by works so that no one would boast.
Now, facing the impossible demands my new assignments pressed on me, I realized that Sabbath rest was for this situation as well. God does not always relieve His people of demands and give them time off. In fact, the Sabbath was never intended to be a day off for people to have a change of pace. The Sabbath had always been a sign for Israel of their commitment to Him. Always the Sabbath had been for the purpose of putting Israel in seemingly impossible situations in which they did not work one day out of every seven but trusted God to prosper their crops and flocks and to provide for them beyond anything the neighboring nations would experience.
I thought about the people who trusted Jesus in countries where lives are defined by hard physical labor and even by repressive regimes in which citizens had no freedom to alter their lives to be more comfortable. Sabbath rest, I realized, had to work just as well for a woman in Africa with a baby strapped to her back while she harvested yams as it worked for me in a country where I had appliances and entertainment and freedom to work or not to work at my own discretion.
In other words, the idea that I could decide to take a Sabbath to relieve me of exhausting demands did not fit the biblical teaching about Sabbath. Sabbath in the Old Testament was required; Israel had to stop work and trust that God would protect their lentil crops if a thunderstorm threatened and protect their flocks during lambing season if they couldn’t be with the ewes who needed help.
Sabbath was never about physical or emotional rest, primarily. The reference back to Creation was not a Sabbath command nor even a Sabbath example. Genesis simply says that God rested—ceased is the underlying meaning of the Hebrew word—from His work.
God did not rest in the sense of taking a break and enjoying what His efforts had accomplished. God CEASED because His work was FINISHED. He did not resume work again on the day after the seventh day.
The biblical Sabbath was a shadow, as Colossians 2:16–17 and Hebrews 10:1 say. It was a shadow, not the sacred thing itself. It was a shadow of Christ; the reality is in HIM.
When we see what Jesus has done—that He has completed the atonement—we cease our strivings to please Him. We trust Him and rest completely in His propitiation for our sins. We repent and know that He carried our sins in His body on the cross, and we find rest for our souls, as Jesus said in Matthew 11:28.
We no longer try to make God approve of us or make sure we are fit for heaven. Instead we trust Jesus. We rest from our fear and efforts to become saved. We pass from death to life (Jn. 5:24).
All to say, this lesson promotes the “good idea” that people are to take a day off—the seventh day—to worship God and to find some relief from their frantic schedules and to gain some emotional perspective. This self-therapy view of rest, however, is not the biblical picture of Sabbath.
Restless Cain
In Thursday’s lesson the authors refer to the story of Cain who did not experience God’s rest. It leads with this:
The biblical text does not explicitly state why God respected Abel and his offering but did not “respect” Cain and his offering (Gen. 4:4, 5). But we know why. “Cain came before God with murmuring and infidelity in his heart in regard to the promised sacrifice and the necessity of the sacrificial offerings. His gift expressed no penitence for sin. He felt, as many now feel, that it would be an acknowledgment of weakness to follow the exact plan marked out by God, of trust- ing his salvation wholly to the atonement of the promised Saviour. He chose the course of self-dependence. He would come in his own merits.—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 72.
Notice what they did: the say that Scripture doesn’t exactly tell us why God rejected Cain’s offering. Then they use Ellen White in the typical Adventist way: they quote her with what they endorse as the true answer that God didn’t tell us in Scripture. In other words, they are using her as Scripture! Ellen provided the insight from God which God Himself did not give us in His word.
Genesis 4:1–11 tells us the details about God’s interaction with Cain:
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. (ESV)
It is clear that God dealt with Cain concerning his anger and his trust in God. The passage does not suggest that God’s rejection of Cain’s offering was related to his bringing produce, as some people speculate. It is clear that God is dealing with Cain’s refusal to flee from sin. He reacted to God’s rejection of his sacrifice with murderous rage instead of with humility that submitted to God’s instruction to him.
Even after God’s warning to Cain, he nursed his anger and murdered his brother.
The lesson is just wrong. The Bible does tell us enough about Cain to let us know that God’s rejection of Cain’s offering had to do with his lack of true worship and trust in God’s word. Moreover, anything Ellen White said about it cannot be considered even potentially validating. She added to Scripture, and she received her visions from someone other than God. Nothing she said is believable.
In summary, this week’s lesson is typical Adventist proof-texting and philosophizing. It uses proof texts yanked out of context and builds an argument for a spiritual discipline of “rest”. The authors never hint at Scripture’s true revelation of a Sabbath-like rest as revealed in Hebrews 4:1–9.
I am going to link to some resources that will help you understand Sabbath rest better. These Sabbath School lessons will not reveal what the Bible actually says about Sabbath rest. Jesus finished the atonement at the cross. He is not in heaven sprinkling blood on sins! He is a seated high priest, and His blood atoned for human sins once for all! Believe in Him today—and live!
Resources:
- Was The Sabbath Created?
- Why Is Jesus Lord Of The Sabbath?
- Does The Sabbath Continue In The New Covenant?
- Sabbath Arguments and Answers
- May 4–10, 2024 - May 2, 2024
- We Got Mail - May 2, 2024
- April 27–May 3, 2024 - April 25, 2024