LORD OF THE SABBATH
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
MATTHEW 12 : 1-8
Key Verse
“But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple”
Matthew 12: 6
INTRODUCTION
The Lord Jesus created the heaven and the earth and all there is in it. When He had decided to create the earth we read in Genesis 1 that God saw that the Creation was good. Everything was beautiful and fitted together so that when He created men and women they had a happy environment. To make things even better for the earth and the men and women and animals, God created the Sabbath Day to remind people that He had created everything and then He rested and like Him men and women should follow His example and rest. They would then remember that He was their Creator and that He loved them dearly and would do the best for them.
At the same time God created the institution of marriage, the blessing involved in having children, the blessing that would come to people by working. They were given the responsibility to take of the earth and the animals and always do what was best for them showing kindness and love at all times. They were made stewards of the earth and all life in it. Adam and Eve, the first parents of everyone, knew they were appointed to bring blessings and not abuse and suffering to others.
But when sin came into the world by the disobedience of Adam and Eve everything changed and life went downhill. Men claimed the right to change a lot of what God had commanded and brought in their own laws and customs which many times were contrary God’s wishes. So people suffered. Instead of having a Sabbath of worship of God, resting and strengthening themselves and making themselves happy with their families and friends and neighbours after a hard week of work, and doing good to make life easier for others, the religious leaders made many rules that God did not make. It ended up making many burdens and heavy weights on people and the Sabbath Day was not a delight anymore.
Jesus came and showed the people and the leaders the right way to celebrate the Sabbath Day. But the leaders refused to listen and instead of thanking Jesus for teaching them the truth, they hated Him. They tried unsuccessfully to show the people Jesus was not telling them the right thing and when that failed they planned to kill Him.
In our Study Lesson the religious leaders named the Pharisees had been following Jesus and His disciples around to see if they could catch them breaking the commandments of God. When Jesus and His disciples were going through a field of corn, the very hungry disciples picked some of the corn, rubbed them together to get rid of the material covering the grain, and ate the corn. The law of Moses allowed this. But the Pharisees confronted Jesus and asked Him why He allowed the disciples to break the commandments, They claimed the commandments had said no one should work on the Sabbath, and by the disciples doing what they had done, they were working on the Sabbath, reaping grain, rubbing the corn to get rid of the coverings on the corn grains, and that was forbidden work. Jesus accused them of reading the Bible but not understanding that the commandments were given by God to make life better for people. When King David was hungry the priests gave him bread that the law had said was reserved for the priests and that was an act of kindness and saving lives. The priests worked hard on the Sabbath Day preparing and offering sacrifices to God, and that showed that acts of kindness and mercy and work of a necessary kind which seemed to break the law was not in fact breaking the intentions of God which was always aimed for bringing blessing.
Jesus was saying their interpretation of the law and the vast amount of bad and ridiculous additions they had made to the law of Moses was offending God. In any case He was the One who set up everything and He knew what God had in mind for men. He instituted the Sabbath and He was the Lord of the Sabbath. As its Creator He had the power, the right, and the ability to show what God wanted the Sabbath to be.
Nowadays people ignore God’s instruction on His commandments about the Sabbath as well as many of His other commandments. People like to do what they like and many times the religious leaders come up with all kinds of reasons people can do what they want, follow their own rules to satisfy their wants and preferences. So we advise you to be careful and not do what God does not want you to do. Follow His instructions as to how you are to treat His Sabbath and all His other commandments. When you show that you know God is your Creator and you belong to Him, you will worship Him on the Sabbath the way He wants. You will rest, do good on the Sabbath, and tell others of His saving mercy, His Kindness, His salvation, and the future happiness He has awaiting you.
Live a life that pleases God. It is well worth it.