I do not know why the Eternal Creator has condescended to open my eyes to see clearly some things in His sacred word that has remained hidden to a vast number of others who have studied that word. Men and women who never once violated man’s law and probably rarely violated God’s law, who lived circumspect lives and were good providers to their families and studied the Bible in depth, still failed to see some of the truths God revealed to my mind.
I was meditating upon the 56th chapter of Isaiah from one of my older Bibles in which I had made several notations in the margin and noticed that I had long ago made this notation, “The invitation to the Gentiles to come to the Lord simultaneously urges sabbath observance.” This notation is made beside verses 1 through 7 of Isaiah 56.
Excluding the Ethiopian eunuch, who was a Jewish proselyte, the earliest Gentile to receive an invitation to join the people of God, or the church, was the Roman centurion Cornelius – and that was a good ten years after Calvary, the cross and the Lord’s resurrection. His story is told in Acts chapter 10. Yet God, through the pen of Isaiah the prophet, urges Cornelius and all other Gentiles to remember the sabbath day to keep it holy!
Preachers who ignore the words of God spoken through the Hebrew prophets embrace great error and have their minds locked to ever receiving and knowing the truth!
Isaiah 56:3 says, “Neither let the son of the stranger (the Gentile), that has joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, ‘The Lord hath utterly separated me from His people…” Sunday observance by the Gentiles did just that! God’s people were divided early on by this clever ruse of Satan when Satan led those ignorant of God’s words to think God Himself authorized Sunday observance to replace sabbath keeping! That never happened. Never will happen. Perhaps in eternity God will explain to me why He opened my eyes to discern this truth while leaving millions of others in a blinded state in this regard. And, of course He has also opened thew eyes and understanding of millions of others to accept the truth of the sabbath, also, for instance Sabbath Day Adventists, Seventh Day Baptists, Churches of God Seventh Day, and multitudes of others.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12)
Donald Wiley