CHAPTER 10 – His Purpose in All Things

Everything GOD does is for sound reason, that His express purpose may be fulfilled and His will accomplished.  Our Heavenly Father is never wrong! Second Samuel 22:31 says, “As for GOD, His way is perfect; the Word of the LORD is flawless.” 

Romans 11:34 poses the question, “… who has known the mind of the LORD?  Or who has been His counselor?”    Who among us might qualify as His advisor?  GOD is the Source of all wisdom and knowledge.  He also has valid reason for all that He requires of us.  The Great I AM has a specific plan for your life, so wouldn’t it be wisest to consult Him right up front, particularly in spiritual matters?   The prophet Isaiah warns: “Woe be unto him who strives with his Maker!”  (Isaiah 45:9)  We do not want to find ourselves at cross-purposes with The Almighty!

Now, as to GOD’s purposes, let me tell you about the 100-mile-an-hour goat:

Two country boys are out hunting, and as they walk along the edge of a wooded area, they come upon an immense hole in the ground. Cautiously, they approach it and are amazed by its size – and its depth.  The first hunter says, “Wow!  That’s sure some hole; I can’t even see the bottom. I wonder how deep that thang is.”

Looking around them, the first hunter says, “Hey, there’s an old automobile transmission over there.  Give me a hand and we’ll throw it in, to see how long it takes to hit bottom!”. So, they pick it up, lug it over to the hole’s edge, and they count, “One, and two, and three!” and they heave it into the hole.

As they’re standing there listening intently and peering over the edge of the hole, they hear a frantic rustling in the brush behind them. They whirl about and see a goat crash through the bushes, run up to the hole and, without hesitation, leap in head-first, and disappear into the abyss!

 While they gawk at each other and look down into the hole, trying to figure out what just happened, an old farmer approaches them.  “Say there,” says the farmer, “You fellers didn’t happen to see my goat around here anywhere, did you?”

The first hunter says, “Funny you should ask, ‘cuz we was just standing here a minute ago and a goat come dashin’ out of the bushes – doin’ about a hunnert miles an hour – and jumps head-long right into this-here hole!”

“That’s impossible!” the old farmer exclaims.  “Impossible!  I had him chained to a transmission!”

What went wrong here?  It seems neither hunter considered that there may be a valid reason for a transmission standing in the middle of the woods; and that it could have been put there with a legitimate purpose in mind!  However, their disregard for someone else’s property and purposes resulted in loss for the farmer, and the demise of the poor goat!  King Solomon’s GOD-given wisdom admonishes, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to destruction.”  (Proverbs 14:12)

By 1987 I had been in business successfully for 23 years, going 17 straight without a vacation.  I was exhausted and totally burned-out.  Sitting all by myself on the living room floor one evening, I called out to GOD that my life just wasn’t working anymore.  I asked Him to please come and abide within me, and help me to make it work for His purposes.  “You can have it any way You want,” I told Him.  “I just want my life to work again.”

I began the process of re-establishing with Him a regular, open prayer connection, and started studying my Bible in earnest.  It wasn’t long before I discovered just how out-of-step with the LORD I had been.  I learned of His holiness and all that He has declared holy.  His Name, His Presence, His Commandments, His institution of matrimony, and my relationship with Him are holy and set apart for His purposes.  They are not negotiable!

He showed me that I needed to make some serious adjustments.  I had to give Him first place as LORD of my life and all my affairs. Then I learned that, in the Final Judgment, those who are lost will be lost, not because they honestly believed error, but because they did not possess a saving love of the Truth.   So, I asked GOD for a full measure of His saving love of the Truth, that I might seek and pursue every shred of Truth available to me.   He faithfully did just that …  and He has continued to do so as I’ve in turn continued my willingness to walk in all that He shows me, come whatever!

Something ghastly, bold, and unthinkable happened on the road to Eternity!  The Church, during the Middle Ages, dared to think to alter and set aside some of GOD’s oracles.  We did it!  Man did it!  GOD did not authorize any changes.  We made the changes!   The Church attempted to edit GOD’s precepts, and then replace them with its own variations.  Many of these substitutions were carried over and brought in from pre-Christian, pagan worship.  And although the rationale for these substitutions can sound reasonable, one fundamental fact remains, and right here it is:  Man does not – never did, never will – we do not possess a shred of authority to amend GOD’s Word.  Scripture teaches that the Church is the Body of Christ, of which He – not we – He is the Head.  GOD has a distinct purpose in everything that He ordains, and in everything that He requires of us.  His way is holy and just and complete; and in the process of altering His precepts, we obscure and obfuscate His divine purposes!

GOD’s solemn warning to the Church in the Wilderness, written for us in Deuteronomy 4:2 was, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the Commandments of the LORD your GOD which I command you.”   Now, listen to the testimony of the Apostles, in Acts 5:29: “… Peter and the other Apostles answered and said, ‘We ought to obey GOD, rather than men.’ “   And Jesus Himself proclaimed, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men!”  (Matthew 15:9)  Christ’s Body has but one Head.  He is that Head!

 GOD’s Commandments clearly define what our Creator stands for, as well as what He will not stand for!  Commandments six through ten pertain to our horizontal relationships with one another.  They deal with stealing, killing, lying, coveting, disrespecting parents, marital and moral fidelity.

However, the first four Commandments pertain solely to our vertical relationship with the Creator and Father in Heaven above.  These initial four directly address:

1. Embracing false gods – GOD says, “I AM the Lord”; There’s no other!”
2. Prohibition of graven images and idols, which can come in many shapes & forms, tangible and intangible.
3. Using GOD’s name irreverently or disrespectfully, casually, profanely, or claiming His name but denying His Lordship by our daily conduct.
4. GOD’s Sabbath invitation to His rest, His restoration, His peace, and to fellowship with Him.

Our personal relationship with the Creator is grounded and finds its ultimate fulfillment in His Sabbath rest.  The Bible reveals that the Sabbath is the emblem of His Sovereignty of the Universe.  Consider here GOD’s stated purposes for His Sabbath Day, directly from His Word:

• Sabbath is the sign that it is He Who has made us. It’s His Memorial of Creation. Looking back to Creation Week in Eden, beginning at Genesis 2:2,  “And on the seventh day GOD ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then GOD blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.”  That means He declared it His holy time, “because in it, He rested from all His work which GOD had created and made.”

• Sabbath is the sign that it is He Who has saved us. In the same manner as GOD the Father rested on the Sabbath from His finished work of Creation, GOD the Savior rested in the tomb on the Sabbath from His completed work of re-Creation on the Cross of Calvary, before arising from the grave early that next morning!

• Sabbath is the sign that it is He Who makes us holy. He has set us apart for His purposes.  GOD speaks through His servant, Moses: “Verily My sabbaths ye shall keep,” (please note: He says the Sabbath is His) “for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the LORD Who doth sanctify you.” (Exodus 31:13)   Know by His Word that the Sabbath is GOD’s sign that it is He Who makes us holy!  The Prophet Ezekiel, hundreds of years later, corroborates Moses’ testimony nearly verbatim in Ezekiel 20:12. Find it and see!

• Sabbath is the sign that it is He Who is our LORD and GOD. “… hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your GOD.”  (Ezekiel 20:20)

Taste now through the prophet Isaiah, GOD’s promise to those who hallow and honor this symbol of His authority: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy Day of the LORD, honorable, and shall honor Him … 14  then you shall delight yourself in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob …”  (Isaiah 58:13, 14).  Jacob’s heritage is the Eternal Promised Land, the Earth-made-new, which GOD originally promised to Jacob’s fathers, Abraham (Abram) and Isaac!  Why would any rational individual risk putting such a precious inheritance in jeopardy?

So, which day is the Seventh Day?  In Biblical times, the days of the week were simply numbered, rather than named after celestial bodies and heathen deities, as they are now.  It was “first-day”, ”second-day”, right on through the “sixth-day”, also called the “Preparation Day”, followed by “Sabbath”.  Our present-day calendar shows that Saturday is still the seventh day in the weekly cycle, which can easily be corroborated by our Hebrew brethren, who’ve maintained this same weekly sequence for nearly six thousand years, with not even the faintest wiggle of variation!

But can we be sure that Saturday, the seventh day, is GOD’s Sabbath?  Yes, we can!  It’s plainly rooted in languages of the nations:

How do we say “Saturday” in Spanish?  It’s “Sa’bado”!  That’s Sabbath!

In Russian, Saturday is “Subo’ta”!   That’s Sabbath!

In Indonesian and Malaysian, Saturday is “Sab’tu”.  Sabbath!

In Italian, “Sabat’o”.  In Czech and Polish, Saturday is “Sobo’ta” – Sabbath!

Sabbath is deeply embedded in many seemingly-unrelated cultures.  Even in, yes, Arabic, Saturday is “Al Sabt”.  That’s “the Sabbath!”  I have a chart in my archives that shows that the day we know as “Saturday”, the seventh in the weekly cycle, is in more than 100 languages some unmistakably-recognizable form of “Sabbath”!

So, when the John the Revelator speaks of “The LORD’s Day”, he refers to the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Bible; the very one, and the only one that GOD calls “Mine”.  It’s also the one that He refers to uniquely as “the Holy Day of the LORD”!  Turn back to Isaiah 58:13 and take a real good look!

Now, watch this: In Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, “Saturday” is “Lordag”. The word “Dag” meaning “day”; which renders “Lordag” as “Lord’s Day”!  The Gospel writer, Mark, declares, “So the Son of Man is LORD even of the Sabbath.”  (Mark 2:28)  Jesus is truly LORD of His Holy Day.

In the Greek, although the alphabet differs from English, “Saturday” is phonetically, “Sa’baton”, which is also the word for “week”!  So, a week is a “Sabbath-cycle!”  And the Greek for “Friday” is translated “to prepare”!

Biblically, the day prior to Sabbath, Friday, was known as “the Preparation Day”. Read again from all four of the Gospels the Crucifixion and burial accounts of Jesus, because there you’ll find clear reference to “the Day of Preparation” on which Christ was crucified, with the Sabbath drawing nigh!

Now, looking ahead in time to the coming “New Heavens and New Earth”, GOD’s prophetic messenger, Isaiah, foretells, “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the LORD.”  (Isaiah 66:23)

A most-valuable, memorable lesson I learned during my time in a boys’ home is: “You don’t mess with what isn’t yours!”   Surely, no one should ever think to tamper with GOD’s Word, while in the process risk obfuscating or confounding His divine purposes.  Instead, we are counseled to become as trusting children, knowing that His plans and purposes are complete and are always best for us.

However, by the time of Paul’s Epistle to the Church at Galatia, the expected “falling away” had already begun.  Listen: “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel … But even if we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”  (Galatians 1:6-8)   Paul then re-emphasizes His inspired admonition in verse 9: “As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”  Is it important to GOD that we hold to His Word as it’s written?

The Apostle Jude’s counsel encourages the fledgling Church to stand firm and hold to the Faith: “I exhort you to contend earnestly for the faith which was first delivered to the saints.”  (Jude 3)   His inspired counsel is for us to return once more to the unabridged, undiluted message that was originally given with power and authority to the Church!

King David, whom GOD calls “a Man after My own heart”, cautions, “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build it.”  (Psalm 127:1)   And in the words of Jesus, Himself, “Every plant which My Father has not planted shall be rooted up.” (Matthew 15:13)  Jesus further assures us, “for truly I say to you, until Heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”  (Matthew 5:18) 

The Sabbath, instituted and sanctified in Eden, reinforced by Jesus and His Apostles, and preserved through the darkness of the Medieval times, has been promised to the Saints throughout Eternity!  It remains the symbol of GOD’s authority, His Memorial of Creation, His Emblem as our Redeemer and Sanctifier, and the sign that it is He alone Who makes us whole! 

I thank my LORD for His gift of free will, and for my liberty to choose to obey His precepts and walk in His counsel, or to pursue my own path. When we choose obedience, we can find ourselves in an uncomfortable minority. We might have to bear criticism and face ridicule, and it may seem we’re standing alone, although we’re not!  We’re standing united with the Savior and the Saints of all time.  GOD’s way is plainly revealed in His Word; and Christ, our Example, has left His footprints for all to follow Him.

King David asks, “What shall I return to the LORD for all his goodness to me?” (Psalms 116:12)  to which the LORD’s consummate response is, “If you love Me, keep My Commandments.”  (John 14:15)   I contend that if this case for GOD’s Holy Sabbath were presented in a court of law, it would surely be won, strictly on the preponderance of evidence assembled here!  

Our Father concludes His Holy Book with this drop-dead-solemn warning through His servant, John: “For  I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, GOD shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book; And  if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, GOD shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and (from) the things which are written in this book.”   (Revelation 22:18, 19)

Our most wonderful Creator GOD  –  Give me a saving love for the entirety of Your Truth, and a deepening reverence for all that You’ve declared Holy, particularly, Your Holy Sabbath Day. Teach my heart to respond to the promptings of Your Spirit, and incline my feet to do Your bidding.  I ask in the wonderful name of my own LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ.   –  Amen.