Leviticus 23:23-38 “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for everthroughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein. These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.”
In Leviticus 23 we find the truth needed to show the error of those that claim the Sabbath was abolished at the cross by using Colossians 2 out of context. In Leviticus 23 we clearly see all the feast days listed as annual Sabbaths and the clincher being found in verse 38 that says those feast days are all besides the weekly Sabbath of the Lord. This proves that the Sabbaths in Colossians 2 that ended at the cross are feast days and not the weekly Sabbath.
Like the seventh day Sabbath of each week since creation week, we see the feast days were kept in the very same manner.Because there was a preparation day before the feast; no buying, selling, working, personal pleasure, etc. And yes, this is where the confusion comes in for those that believe the Sabbath was abolished when they see what they see in,
Colossians 2:14-17 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinancesthat was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”
Many confused pastors or actual false prophets have declared these ordinances are the Ten Commandments and so they no longer need to keep the Sabbath. Yet, they demand you keep the other 9 Commandments for some strange reason. But this is how easy it is to expose the error in this.
First and foremost. Notice this overlooked reality in these two verses:
Exodus 31:18 “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”
Deuteronomy 9:10 “And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.”
Did you catch that? It says here that God wrote the Commandments on stone. But the ordinances mentioned in Colossian 2:14 were handwritten by man. Plus, that very same verse says the ordinances were “nailed to the cross” which does mean something was forever finished at that cross. But we all know the Word and Law of God is eternal, for is says in,
Psalms 111:7-8 “The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.”
And it also says in,
Luke 16:17 “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”
And then it also says of those ordinances in Colossians 2:16 that we should “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:” Yet I have to ask, where do we find meat, drink, holy days or new moons in the Ten Commandments? Nowhere at all. But it does say Sabbath days doesn’t it. We just learned in Leviticus 23 that all the feast days were declared to be Sabbath days as well. However, these Sabbath days were kept on an annual basis and not a weekly basis like the seventh day Sabbath. It even stated in Leviticus 23:27 that one particular annual Sabbath was to be kept “on the tenth day of this seventh month” and that Sabbath was called the “day of atonement.” And so, the Sabbaths mentioned in Colossians 2 were obviously the annual Sabbath days and by no means the weekly Sabbath of the Lord.
In fact, after listing all the annual Sabbath days in Leviticus 23we see this declared in,
Leviticus 23:37-38 “These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.”
Did you catch that? It calls all the annual Sabbath days that were just listed feast days. And then in verse 38 it says these annual Sabbath days are “besides the Sabbath of the LORD.”
The Sabbath of the Lord was instituted in Eden before sin came unto mankind. The feast days, or annual Sabbaths, came so as toeducate the people to the Remedy that will atone for their sins. The Sabbath of the Lord has nothing to do with sin. The feast days illustrate the great price paid by our Saviour because of sin.
And one more thing to notice. It said in Colossians 2:17 that all those ordinances which we know to be feast days are declared to be “a shadow of things to come.” Is this not the basic reason for the feast days themselves?
If you look at why these feasts were kept all of them are prophetic statements. This is why Jesus said “it is finished” in John 19:30 right before He breathed His last. All those feasts prophesied regarding what Christ would do that spoke of salvation and His death on the cross were the “shadow of things to come” as Paul said in Colossians 2. What they said will happen happened and so Jesus simply confirmed it all by saying “it is finished” and then died.
Picture the cross of Christ with the light of truth shining upon it in the future. The Jews would look forward to that cross and see the act of salvation, or light of salvation directly behind the cross because after the cross it truly is finished. And so, as they see the cross from the past, with that light behind it, which is their future blessing, a shadow is cast from the cross all the way back to their present day. And so, as they walk, that shadow will eventually meet Christ at the foot of that cross and that is where the shadow stops. The light behind the cross can have no shadow at all, for the ugliness of sin will not appear again forever in eternity and Jesus did say IT IS FINISHED while on that cross and so as Paul said, all those feasts prophesied what Christ would do for us at Calvary and therefore the “shadow of things to come”.
So again, when we look at Colossians 2, which is used by the many confused Pastors and actual false prophets that claim the Law of God was done away with, we know for a fact they are preaching lies. Those ordinances were handwritten by Moses and not by the finger of God. Those ordinances were prophetic statements that would end or “be nailed to the cross” when Jesus died for us, the Law of God has nothing in it about meat and drink offerings or even new moons and holy days, but the feast day ordinances are literally replete with such things. The clincher is that after all those feast day ordinances were listed in Leviticus 23 it plainly stated in verse 38 that all those annual Sabbaths were to be kept besides the Sabbath of the LORD.
Another view: Didn’t Colossians 2:14-17 abolish the Sabbath 2000 years ago?
Many claim the feast days that were abolished at the cross (Col. 2) include the Sabbath of the Lord.
Colossians 2:14-17 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”
We know the feast days were called “Sabbaths” as well because of Leviticus 23:23-38 and other areas in the Old Testament calling them as such. This is no doubt where the confusion comes in with the above passage from Colossians chapter two. Still, we can use this truth to expose the error with a few simple questions …
• Q. When were the feast days ratified?
• A. At Mt. Sinai by the sprinkling of the blood of an ox.
• Q. Why was there a need for them?
• A. Because of sin.
• Q. When was the sin to be destroyed, and the feast days abolished?
• A. At Calvary
• Q. So, the feast days of Leviticus 23 were done away with at the cross because Jesus said “it is finished” right?
• A. Correct
• Q. When was the seventh day Sabbath instituted?
• A. On day seven in the Garden of Eden, BEFORE SIN came into the world.
So, if the seventh day Sabbath was instituted BEFORE sin came, how can it be abolished at the cross along with the feast days?
Can’t I just keep ONE DAY IN SEVEN to please God?
Some declare that they can keep any day as Sabbath as long as it’s within a seven-day period. In other words, it doesn’t matter what day we call Sabbath and rest on, as long as we do it one day each week.
Do you recall when God told Adam and Eve not to eat of a particular tree in the garden? Not only was the tree good for food, like all the other trees, its fruit was lovely to look upon according to Genesis 3:6.
Genesis 3:6 “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
My point is, the tree was not poisonous. It was actually “good for food” just like all the other trees in that garden of abundance. Surely the eating of fruit from one tree would be no different than the eating of another, right? But the Lord specifically said in Genesis 2:17, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.” The Lord Himself could have picked any tree He wanted because it was a test of loyalty unto man towards God. In other words, it wasn’t up to Adam or Even which tree they could or could not eat from. The Lord said don’t eat or touch of that tree lest ye die, and it was up to them to show their loyalty to Him in obedience. Does this seem logical? Not at all to those with eyes clouded by sin as we all are. The fruit was obviously “good for food” as far as we can see. The truth here is that “not” eating of it was a test of loyalty and trust towards God by Adam and Eve when they obeyed. Nothing more, nothing less! Why then would anyone want to keep Sabbath on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or any other day of the week when the Lord Himself specifically said to keep day Seven holy? Yes, all the others days look just as worthy as Saturday for going to church as far as we can see. But we have a thus saith the Lord here just like Adam and Eve did.
Jeremiah 38:20 “Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.”