How Can We Be Sure The Sabbath is the Seventh Day?

How Can We Be Sure The Sabbath is the Seventh Day?

If you are simply wondering which day of the week is the seventh day you’ll find the answer on most printed calendars in the U.S.. The 1^st day of each week is Sunday and the 7^th day of each week is Saturday.

Note: In 1988 the ISO 8601 calendar was introduced to provide a universal method for transferring date and time information digitally. Graphically, the ISO 8601 presents the week as beginning on Monday and ending on Sunday. This has become the standard in most European countries [usually offered as an option on digital calendars like you might find in Microsoft Office or phone apps].

English speaking countries call the 7^th day Saturday, but in many languages the name for the seventh day indicates some form of rest. For example, Spanish speakers say Sabado [rest day] for the 7^th day. This too is made plain on printed calendars in those languages.

The 7 day weekly cycle is not tied to any patterns or alignments of the sun, moon, or stars. It’s a non-stop serial counting of days one after the other. Scripture tells us the cycle was established by God. After 6 days God rested on the 7^th day Genesis 2:1-2. Since then, the counting off of days in groups of sevens… with each group called a week… and every 7^th day designated as a day of rest… has continued unbroken up to our own time.

Could We Have Lost Our Place?

If you have ever tried to count off numbers in a sequence you know how easy it is to you’re your place… especially when the numbers get really high! Could this have happened with the counting of the 7^th day? After all, its been a very long time since God established the first day of rest.

We should assume Israel knew the Sabbath going in to Egypt since it would have been handed down to them from Abraham, to Issac, to Jacob etc. Abraham was noted by God as one who kept God’s laws statutes and judgments and passed them to his kids Genesis Gensis 26:5, Genesis 18:19.

Egypt did not keep a 7 day weekly cycle [they used a 10 day cycle]. So, it feasible that as a nation of slaves Israel could have lost track of the Sabbath.

If the sequence had gotten all jumbled up sometime between the first day of rest and the time Israel went out of Egypt… knowledge of the true 7^th day was clearly re-established by the time the 10 commandments were given. Actually, the Sabbath was confirmed for the newly delivered people of Israel even before the covenant was presented and confirmed at Mt. Sinai.

This points to the truth that Sabbath observance on the 7^th day is the way of Godly obedience. It transcends the old covenant. It is a spiritual law that wa in place before the covenant, during the covenant, and after the covenant. It is part of Godly obedience to this very day.

God Sets the Record Straight

Exodus 15:19:21 the following sequence occurs right after Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.

[verses 22-27] From the far bank of the Red Sea Israel set out to the Desert of Shur which would have been just beyond the furthest Egyptian military outpost… the people start complaining “hey where’s the water?”… God answers “I’ll take care of you. Just pay attention to my commands and do what I say”.

Exodus 16:1-5 the miraculous appearance of food on the ground will accomplish 3 goals:

1. A test of faith… will you trust me to provide for and take care of you.
2. A test of obedience. Six days on, one day off… wil you do what I say.
3. A clear confirmation of the 7 day cycle. Six days on, one day off.

Consider this… of all the things God could started off instructing Israel about His ways… confirmation of which day is the day of rest, which is the 7^th day of the week, which day of the week we are to assemble before Him… this, is God’s first order of business to conduct with the newly liberated nation of Israel.

Exodus 16:6-12 You are not complaining about how Moses or Aaron are managing the journey… you are complaining directly about me… and I have heard it.

Exodus 16:13-20 two curious details of the manna helps to set apart the 7^th day from the rest… in a manner clearly from the hand of God.

1. On day 1,2,3,4,5 no matter how much they tried they never had more than enough [1 omer each]. But on day 6, in preparation for the Sabbath, they were able to collect twice as much [2 omers each].
2. On day 1,2,3,4,5 the manna turned to maggots if they tried to keep it over-night for the next day. But the manna they collected on day 6… did not turn to maggots overnight. They could keep that manna overnight for use the next day… which was the Sabbath, the 7^th day.

Exodus 16:21-26 the 7^th day was set apart as a day of rest… a day set apart by God and for God. The “for God/to the Lord” part means it not only a day of rest but a day of refocused service towards Him… a day of worship and instruction. That aspec tis spelled out more clearly when the 10 commanments are delivered in the cotext of the covenant. It is also reiterated in Hebrews 10:25 – do not neglect assembling together.

Exodus 16:27-30 the people go out on the 7^th day to gather… but its not there! That is why Hebrews 4:9-11 says… there remains a keeping of the Sabbath [sabbatismos] for the people of God. Let’s enter God’s rest on that day and not fail by following their example of disobedience.

In the wilderness God fed the people of Israel with manna. The manna would appear on the ground every day EXCEPT the 7^th day… the day of rest. This sequence would repeat every seven days… over and over for 40 years. The weekly cycle of manna only stopped when Israel entered the promised land. Four decades of repetition is plenty of time to clearly establish which day was the day of rest.

If the Sabbath had somehow been lost between creation and the exodus this weekly miracle would have been re-established it.

Did Israel Ever Lose Track of the 7^th Day?

The exodus was still a very long time in the past [3450 yrs]. Plus, Israel went through many periods of turmoil, forgetfulness of God, invasion, deportation, etc.. Could Israel, and later the Jewish people, have mixed up the sequence of counting the seven day weekly cycle through all that?

Jesus Sets The Record Straight

Jesus Christ, the very Word of God, put off the everlasting life He shared with the Father and was born a flesh and blood human being. Jesus the “Lord of the Sabbath” would have known if He, or His fellow Jews, had the sequence of the 7^th day messed up.

The record of Jesus’ life shows He rested on the 7^th day in obedience to the commandment John 15:10. Jesus observed the day of rest on the same day of the week as His fellow Jews. They may have disputed what was appropriate for observing the 7^th day as a day of rest… but not which day of the week it was.

Jesus obedience to the 4^th commandment confirmed the 7^th day kept by the Jews was correct. If he had not done so He could ne be credited as having lived a perfect sinless life.

Did The Jewish People Lose Track of the 7^th Day After Jesus’ Death?

Years before the time of Jesus’ death, and in the centuries since, the Jewish people have been widely dispersed over the Middle East and Europe. Wherever they have gone they have fiercely guarded the observance of the 7 day weekly cycle so they might never break the 4^th commandment.

Its possible to consider that isolated pockets of Jews may have lost track of the weekly cycle due to some local turmoil… but such an error would have quickly been corrected by comparing notes with the many other Jewish communities in other countries and continents which had not experienced any interruption or disruption in the weekly cycle.

There isn’t any historical recorded of such a disruption of the weekly among the widely scattered Jewish people. Neither is there any dispute among any of them that the day we call Saturday is the 7th day of the weekly cycle… God’s day of rest. The Jewish people have successfully kept the original 7 day weekly cycle intact.

Romans 3:1-2

Now, one last question that sometimes comes up…

Did the Change to the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 Lose Track of the 7^th Day?

From 46 B.C. up to 1582 A.D. the Western world used what is called the Julian calendar. It was a vast improvement over the previous Roman calendars because it finally kept the months in sync with the seasons. However, after many centuries even the Julian calendar was about 10 days out of sync with the solar system. In 1582 the old Julian calendar was replaced with the new improved Gregorian calendar… which we still use today.

At the time of the change to the new calendar system those 10 days were simply dropped out of the calendar to get the dating system of the calendar back in sync with the solar system. It was Thursday, October 4^th, 1582, and the next day, Friday, should have been October 5^th. However, the new calendar made the next day October 15 instead.

That change had no impact on the 7 day weekly cycle. Whether that Friday was numbered as the 5^th of the month or the 15^th it was still the 6^th day of the week… and the day that followed was still the 7^th day of the week.

Consider this: even today we add a day into our calendar every 4 years. We call it a “leap year”. Changing the number of days in a calendar month does not alter the weekly cycle… there is no 6 day week… or 8 day week in the month of February.

Conclusion:

Our current Saturday is the 7^th day of the week and is on the same weekly cycle that has been in place since the beginning of creation… a cycle established and confirmed by God Himself.

Abraham kept God’s commandments, statutes and judgments… he taught and passed along the ways of God to his children. Israel knew which day was the 7^th day when they entered Egypt.

Israel was delivered from the darkness and religious confusion of Egypt. God began to instruct them in His ways. The very FIRST matter addressed was the observance of the proper Sabbath day. The Sabbath was, and is, very important to God.

Jesus, the master of the Sabbath, confirmed the Jews still had the right day. He kept the Sabbath on the same day as the Pharissees, scribes and other Jews.

The 7^th day has been carefully preserved by the Jewish people since that time. Written history is a witness to their scrupulous maintenance of the proper day.

No changes to the calendars used by the governments of the world have interrupted the steady keeping of the original 7 day cycle.

The Sabbath day is very important to God your creator. He has not allowed it to become lost in time. The Sabbath has been carefully preserved… for you… to carefully observe. A day of rest, and a day to assemble together.

Daniel 2:21 – the people who are caught up in the end time should be prepared for a full bore assault on the Sabbath.