After one meeting, on the way back home I saw the golden corn fields looked extremely brilliant in the sun and people were busy working in the corn fields. The scene before my eyes reminded me of one verse: “Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and His disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat” (Matthew 12:1). I pondered this verse and thought of the law of the Old Testament. On the Sabbath, people could not do any work, and even weren’t allowed to save the calves that had fallen into a pit; they also could not casually go out or take part in activities but must observe the Sabbath at home; otherwise, they would be condemned for violating God’s law. However, on the Sabbath the Lord Jesus took His disciples to preach and work everywhere and they picked and ate ears of corn when they were hungry. Why did the Lord Jesus not observe the Sabbath? What is the significance of this work of God?
To understand these problems, I went to my pastor and elders to seek but couldn’t get clear answers. So I came into the presence of the Lord and prayed: “Oh Lord! In the Age of Law, Jehovah God asked us humans to observe the Sabbath, but You didn’t observe it when You came to work. What is Your will? May You enlighten me.”
After a period of praying and seeking, one day I saw a passage in a book: “When the Lord Jesus came, He used His practical actions to communicate to people: God had departed the Age of Law and had begun new work, and this new work did not require observation of the Sabbath; when God came out from the confines of the Sabbath day, this was just a foretaste of His new work, and His truly great work was continuing to play out. When the Lord Jesus began His work, He had already left behind the shackles of the Age of Law, and had broken through the regulations and principles from that age. In Him, there was no trace of anything related to the law; He had cast it off entirely and no longer observed it, and He no longer required mankind to observe it. So here you see that the Lord Jesus went through the corn fields on the Sabbath; the Lord did not rest, but was outside working. This action of His was a shock to people’s conceptions and communicated to them that He no longer lived under the law, and that He had left the confines of the Sabbath and appeared in front of mankind and in their midst in a new image, with a new way of working. This action of His told people that He had brought with Him new work that began with going out from the law and going out of the Sabbath. When God carried out His new work, He no longer clung to the past, and He was no longer concerned about the regulations of the Age of Law. Neither was He affected by His work in the previous age, but He worked as usual on the Sabbath and when His disciples were hungry, they could pick ears of corn to eat. This was all very normal in God’s eyes. God could have a new beginning for much of the work that He wants to do and the things that He wants to say. Once He has a new start, He neither mentions His previous work again nor continues it. For God has His principles in His work. When He wants to begin new work, it is when He wants to bring mankind into a new stage of His work, and when His work has entered a higher phase. If people continue to act according to the old sayings or regulations or continue to hold fast to them, He will not remember or praise this. This is because He has already brought new work, and has entered a new phase of His work. When He initiates new work, He appears to mankind with a completely new image, from a completely new angle, and in a completely new way so that people can see different aspects of His disposition and what He has and is. This is one of His goals in His new work” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III”).
Pondering these words, I thought: In the Age of Law, people didn’t know how to worship God, neither did they know rest. God asked them to observe the Sabbath and to worship and praise Him, and not to do any busy work on the Sabbath, so that they could receive rest from Him. So as long as people kept the commandment of Sabbath, they could find rest and gain care and protection from God. However, during the later stages of the Age of Law, as people had become more and more deeply corrupted by Satan, people could outwardly observe the Sabbath, yet they had no real worship of God within their hearts. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus came to work, He no longer required them to observe the Sabbath on the surface. Instead, He asked them to come before God to rely on God and look to God, entrust all their burdens to God, use heart and honesty to worship God. In this way, people would have something to lean on, enjoy the peace and joy bestowed by the Lord, live in the Lord’s care, protection, and blessings, and find rest in the Lord Jesus Christ.
At that time, I understood: The reason the Lord Jesus didn’t observe the Sabbath was that He, based on the demands of us corrupt humans, began a new stage of work and brought us a new means of practice. On the surface, He abolished the law, but in substance, what He did was that He fulfilled the law and caused people to turn from adhering to the rules of worshiping God to using heart and honesty to worship Him, which was a higher practice in worshiping God. When God begins His new work, He is not restrained by the laws and decrees, and He doesn’t hold to the work of the past. So if people still follow old-fashioned practices in the new age, no matter how well they follow, God will not commemorate it. As the parable of the Lord Jesus says: “No man also sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up takes away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man puts new wine into old bottles: else the new wine does burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles” (Mark 2:21–22). Besides, we could see that if the Lord had not personally led His disciples to come out from the Sabbath, if He had not practically led people this way, no one would have exceeded the law but would have been constrained by the strictures of the law. Only when God continuously does new work can people have a new path of practice. If we don’t know the work of God and always use the work of the past to constrain His new work, not only will we not be able to follow His new work, but we will also be punished for resisting Him. Just as the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees slavishly abided by the law and rules, and used the Lord Jesus’ refusal to observe the Sabbath as their justification to condemn His new work. Moreover, they compared other work of the Lord Jesus with the work of Jehovah God; as long as there was a difference between them, they would condemn the work of the Lord Jesus. In the end, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross. What they had done provoked God’s disposition, and they suffered God’s punishment.
From the Lord Jesus’ refusal to observe the Sabbath, I gained some inspiration: Regardless of where God works, or in what manner He works, or whether His work accords with our notions, we shouldn’t use His old work to constrain His new work, for He works with a plan, with a goal, and with principles. The wisdom of God soars higher than the heavens and is unfathomable to humans; no matter how He works, His love and salvation for those who follow Him with a true heart can never be changed. It is precisely as the Bible says: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counselor?” (Romans 11:33–34).
Thus, I thought of the words of the Lord Jesus in Revelation 22:12: “Behold, I come quickly.” Now we are in the last days and the prophecy of the Lord’s return has already been fulfilled. How will He work when He returns? How should we treat His new work?
