We all need to learn a basic lesson regarding the Sabbath. When I was young, I argued with others about which day, the eighth day or the seventh, should be kept as the Sabbath. Now I would say that that kind of argument is altogether a waste. The Sabbath means that before we work for God, we need to enjoy God and be filled with Him. If we have enjoyed God and if we have been filled with God, then we are ready to work for Him. Such work will not be by ourselves; it will be by God. Consider Peter’s situation on the day of Pentecost. When Peter stood up to preach the gospel, he did not preach by himself. He preached by the very God who had filled him up. In preaching the gospel, Peter was not empty. He preached the gospel by the infilling God, by the infilling Spirit. Therefore, Peter had a sign that he was God’s co-worker, and his gospel preaching was an honor and glory to God.
The people of the world all work by themselves. They do not have a sign on them that indicates that they belong to God. They do not enjoy God, they do not rest with God, and they do not work with God. Our situation is altogether different because we have a sign. What is the sign we bear? The sign is that we rest with God, enjoy God, and are filled up with God first, and then we work with the very One who fills us. Furthermore, we not only work with God, but we work as those who are one with God.
I can testify that every time I stand up to minister the Word, my unique prayer is that I would be one with the Lord in my speaking. I pray repeatedly, “Lord, in my speaking I want to practice being one spirit with You so that my speaking will be Your speaking. Lord, it must be that You speak in my speaking. If You are not one with me, I will not speak anything. I would never speak in my empty self. That would be a blasphemy to You, an insult to You. Lord, I would speak not only with You, but also by being one with You. Those who listen must have the impression that while I am speaking, You are one with me. Lord, my speaking involves the practice not only from my side, that I am one spirit with You; it also involves the practice on Your side, that You are one spirit with me.” If we would speak this way, what an honor and glory it would be to the Lord! This is the sign of the Sabbath. In my speaking I always seek to bear a sign that my Lord is my Sabbath. He is my rest, my refreshment, my energy, my strength, and my everything for ministering the Word.
In 31:12-17 we see that the builders of the tabernacle were charged not to begin working until they had rested with the Lord and had been refreshed. Then they could work for Him and with Him. However, this work would not go on continuously. Rather, it would be a work in intervals of six days of labor and one day of rest. With every interval, the beginning is a day of rest, followed by six days of work. Then there would be another interval beginning with rest and continuing with work.
We have emphasized that to God the Sabbath is the seventh day and to man, the first day; that God worked for man’s enjoyment and rest; and that man enjoys what God has accomplished in His work in order to work with God. Man in his first day enjoyed what God accomplished in the previous six days. Then in the following six days man worked with God. After six days’ work, man again first enjoyed what God had accomplished, and then he worked again the following six days. This proceeds as a cycle. This cycle is a sign that we are one with God.
Keeping the Sabbath is also an agreement or covenant. When we begin to keep the Sabbath, this indicates that we have signed an agreement, a contract, that assures God that we shall be one with Him in this way. We would be one with Him by first enjoying Him and then by working for Him, with Him, and in oneness with Him. This is an eternal covenant. It is not merely for one age, dispensation, or generation. It is an eternal agreement between us and God.
A covenant is stronger than an agreement, an agreement is stronger than a promise, and a promise is stronger than ordinary words. God wants us to sign a contract with Him that assures Him that from now on we shall enjoy Him and be filled with Him before we go to work for Him, with Him, and in oneness with Him. Once we sign such a contract with God and give God the assurance that we intend to keep it, we should not break the contract. If we break our agreement with God, He may take us to the heavenly court and blame us for not keeping our contract. It is important for us to see that the Sabbath in relation to the building work of the tabernacle is both a sign and an eternal covenant, a covenant that cannot change.
It is a serious matter to work for the Lord by ourselves without praying to Him and without trusting in Him. Actually, what we need is not mainly to trust in the Lord, but to take Him in and enjoy Him by eating Him. On the day of Pentecost Peter was not only trusting in the Lord; he was filled with the Lord, even drinking Him. Do you not believe that as Peter was speaking, he was drinking of the Lord and eating Him? This means that while Peter was preaching Jesus, inwardly he was partaking of Jesus. In fact, he preached what he had been eating. He testified what he had been enjoying. Peter had signed the agreement with the Lord. He had made a covenant with Him. Both parties, the Lord and Peter, had to keep their part of the agreement. If Peter was eating the Lord and the Lord left him, the Lord would have broken the contract. But if He were supplying Peter everything he needed, and Peter turned aside from the Lord, Peter would have broken the contract. The crucial point here is that the Sabbath is a sign and also a covenant, a contract, an agreement.