Jehovah-Mekoddishkem is the Hebrew Name for God which means “I AM the Lord Who sanctifies you.”
Leviticus 20:8 “You shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” God wanted the children of Israel to know that they were set apart from the world (and unto Him) and that it was He Who set them apart! God gave them a sign that would remind them that He was their God and they needed to be set apart unto Him. That sign was the Sabbath. For six days they were to work, but on the seventh day there was to be complete rest. The seventh day was God’s!
Exodus 31:12-17 “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, “You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.’”
The Sabbath was a sign and signs always point to something—what did the sign of the Sabbath point to? That the LORD their God was the One Who sanctified the sons of Israel. They couldn’t do it themselves!
Why was resting on the seventh day after six days of work chosen to be this sign? Because it would remind them that the God Who made heaven and the earth—the God Who ceased from His labor on the seventh day and was refreshed—He was their God! There is no other God like Him! He was the One Who would sanctify His people.
God is still Jehovah-Mekoddishkem to the church today. Yet, do we still need to observe the Sabbath? Do we still need this sign?
Let’s remember what the sign was for. It was a sign for the Israelites that God was the One Who sanctified them. Are we sanctified today? Yes. Who is it that sanctifies us? It is still the Lord God Who sanctifies us. How does He sanctify us today? That’s where things are a bit different for us as the church than they were for Israel. Hebrews 10:10 “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:14 “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
It was external laws, commandments and statutes that set the nation of Israel apart from the world and unto God. They were under the Old Covenant which was a foreshadow of the New Covenant. We, in the church, are part of the New Covenant and have been told to throw out the Old Covenant! Galatians 3-4 If we throw out the Old Covenant, won’t we have to throw out observing the Sabbath? The answer is “Yes” and the answer is “No.”
How can we fulfill the law of keeping the Sabbath while still throwing out the Law? We now walk according to the Spirit and not according to the Law. The Spirit will never break the Law of God, He will always and only enable us to fulfill it.
Galatians 5:16-18 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”
A few years ago the highway leading to our ministry grounds underwent renovation. Normally to get to WORD Center Ministries you would simply follow and obey the road signs along the way i.e. “the Law”. However once the roadwork started, drivers were instructed to ignore the road signs and instead follow the instructions of the construction workers who were guiding the traffic flow i.e. “the Holy Spirit”.
Christ did not come to abolish the Law. He came to fulfill it! Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” In other words, there is a new way in which we are set apart from the world and unto God! It is no longer through the Law (road signs). It is now through the Spirit (construction workers)! It is the Spirit of God in us that sanctifies us, and He uses the Word of God to do it!
Trouble is, we are used to thinking that all God really wanted was for His people just to sit around on the Sabbath twiddling their thumbs. That is not so! Not only did He want the Israelites to spend the day meditating on His Word, He wanted the entire world, every living person, to notice that the Israelites were different than every other nation on the face of the earth! They were different because of their God!!! Being holy and resting on the Sabbath would point the world to God!!!
Isaiah 58:13-14 “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
What does God, through the prophet Isaiah, declare the intentions of those observing the Sabbath should be?
Acknowledge that the Sabbath is God’s Holy day, not your own
Refuse to let yourself do your own pleasure on His Holy day
Call the Sabbath day a delight
Call the Sabbath day, the Holy day of the Lord, honorable
Honor the Sabbath day (don’t just call it honorable)
Desist from your own ways on His Holy day
Desist from seeking your own pleasure on His Holy day
Desist from speaking your own word on His Holy day
Take delight in the Lord on His Holy day and all His days
Do you see a remarkable difference between what men desire to do on the Sabbath and what God wants men to do on the Sabbath? I hardly think taking a nap qualifies as “keeping the Sabbath”!
Today, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit and walk according to His instructions rather than listening to our flesh, we will walk in such a different way than the world that, of course, the world will notice! And the world will know we are different because of our God!!! He will receive His due Glory because the world will be pointed to Who He is!
“But, I still don’t see what resting has to do with it,” you may say.
Resting means “to cease.” We are to cease striving, to cease living by the strength of our own flesh. When we walk according to the Spirit we are walking in the strength of God instead of our own strength. Our own strength ceases and His strength uses us. We have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer we who live, but Christ Who lives in us. Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” We are dead to our flesh. It is Christ Who is living His life in us. We crucify our flesh and its desires and walk according to the will of God in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit!
We are to keep the Sabbath by resting (ceasing) from our own works and allowing instead, the Holy Spirit (Jesus’ Spirit) to work through us. We are resting because it is the power and strength of the Lord Jesus Christ that moves us, not our own! People will surely see His power instead of our own and be pointed to the God Who made heaven and earth and Who Himself rested on the seventh day! And His Sabbath won’t bring Him Glory just one day of the week—it will be every moment of every day.
Adapted from "HIStory—From Event To Event The Bible Is One Story"
