What the Sabbath Means to Me

By Neils-Erick Andreassen

“The Sabbath. The beneficent Creator, after the six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day and instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God’s unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry, in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a day of delightful communion with God and one another. It is a symbol of our redemption in Christ, a sign of our sanctification, a token of our allegiance, and a foretaste of our eternal future in God’s kingdom. The Sabbath is God’s perpetual sign of His eternal covenant between Him and His people. Joyful observance of this holy time from evening to evening, sunset to sunset, is a celebration of God’s creative and redemptive acts (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11; Luke 4:16; Isaiah 56:5-6, 58:13-14, Matthew 12:1-12; Ex. 31:13-17; Ez. 20:12, 20; Deut. 5:12-15; Heb. 4:1-11; Lev. 23:32; Mark 1:32).

My father used to change his clothes on Friday evening before Sabbath. Upon seeing him come down from the steep staircase from the bedroom – first the black shoes, then the striped trousers, the waistcoat, open jacket, white shirt, and dark tie – I recall asking, “Father are we going somewhere?”

“No,” he replied, “not tonight. But someone is coming”….”

(this article is an excerpt from the March 1990 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)

To read the rest of this article, which starts on page 4, click this link: https://biblesabbath.org/media/March-1990-tss_395.PDF