What is the work that God has given for us to do? We read in Isaiah, “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.” Isaiah 58:12

God wants us to repair the breach, and to restore the paths to dwell in. We are not to look for new paths. “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16

We are not to stay in one place, but we are to advance constantly. We are to move on the narrow pathway that leads to perfection, to a sinless condition. Our destination is heaven and the New Jerusalem. Therefore, even our name is the Reform Movement. We are not in the same place today as we were yesterday. The light of the truth, the understanding of the doctrines is constantly increasing. This is what it means to restore the dwelling paths, and to repair the breach that has been created during the times of ignorance.

When the Adventist Church started in 1844 after the disappointment, they were keeping Sunday as the day of rest; they were meat eaters; many other doctrines they did not understand correctly. But little by little, the ancient pathways were restored, and the breach in the law was repaired.

As old Israel traveled 40 years in the wilderness they were constantly learning more of the truth, so modern Israel is learning more and more of the Bible truth. One of the first things that they learned was the Sabbath. This was also one of the first things that the ancient Israelites learned as they left Egypt. When Isaiah called us to be restorers of the dwelling paths, and the repairers of the breach, the following verse brings the Sabbath reform as one of the most important truths. “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words.” Isaiah 58:13

Here we are given instruction as to how to keep the Sabbath, as a day that is holy:

  • We must keep our feet from going to the wrong places.
  • Not “doing thy pleasure on My holy day”.
  • Call the Sabbath a delight. Then you love the Sabbath. You enjoy it. You are waiting for the Sabbath to come for the whole week.
  • Not finding thine own pleasure. This is repeated a second time in this verse.
  • Nor speaking thine own words. Not speaking worldly things. Not of your work, your business.
  • Speak only spiritual things, what the Holy Spirit inspires you to say.

To begin the Sabbath on Friday evening, and also the closing of it on Saturday evening, the family needs to come together, to sing, to read the Bible and to pray. It is a sign that now the Sabbath has begun and also when it has ended.

Also, we must not sleep much on the Sabbath day. “It is displeasing to God for Sabbath-keepers to sleep during much of the Sabbath. They dishonor their Creator in so doing, and, by their example, say that the six days are too precious for them to spend in resting. They must make money, although it be by robbing themselves of needed sleep, which they make up by sleeping away holy time. They then excuse themselves by saying: ‘The Sabbath was given for a day of rest. I will not deprive myself of rest to attend meeting, for I need rest.’ Such make a wrong use of the sanctified day.” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, p. 704. On Sabbath we are not to sleep any more than on the other days.

What are we to do with our children on the Sabbath day? “I have found that on the Sabbath day many are indifferent and do not know where their children are or what they are doing.

“Parents, above everything take care of your children upon the Sabbath. Do not suffer them to violate God’s holy day by playing in the house or out-of-doors. You may just as well break the Sabbath yourselves as to let your children do it, and when you suffer your children to wander about and suffer them to play upon the Sabbath, God looks upon you as Sabbathbreakers.” –The Review and Herald, September 19, 1854

Parents, spend time with your children on the Sabbath day. Take them into nature, teach them the Bible truths.

At the time of the disappointment, the Adventists kept Sunday as the day to worship God. But three years later, the Seventh-Day Adventists kept the Sabbath, but not perfectly. Some kept it from six o’clock on Friday to six o’clock on Saturday; others from twelve o’clock at night on Friday to twelve o’clock on Saturday night; until they returned to the old paths, to the time of Moses, when they began to keep it from sunset to sunset.

But we are not at the end of the road yet. Soon we are expecting the Sunday law to be enacted. What shall we do? Shall we go into hiding? No.

“And at the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully. This enraged the churches and nominal Adventists, as they could not refute the Sabbath truth. And at this time God’s chosen all saw clearly that we had the truth, and they came out and endured the persecution with us.” –Early Writings, p. 33

We will proclaim the Sabbath more fully. We are not afraid of the persecution when the Sunday law comes. Our names, pictures, addresses will be on television, the Internet, in the newspapers. Everybody will learn that there are still Sabbath-keepers during the Sunday law. But when the time of mercy has ended, then we stop preaching. There will be silence. Now we leave the cities and towns and seek solitary places. “I saw the saints leaving the cities and villages, and associating together in companies, and living in the most solitary places. Angels provided them food and water, while the wicked were suffering from hunger and thirst. Then I saw the leading men of the earth consulting together, and Satan and his angels busy around them. I saw a writing, copies of which were scattered in different parts of the land, giving orders that unless the saints should yield their peculiar faith, give up the Sabbath, and observe the first day of the week, the people were at liberty after a certain time to put them to death. But in this hour of trial the saints were calm and composed, trusting in God and leaning upon His promise that a way of escape would be made for them.” –Early Writings, p. 282

And who will be our greatest enemies during the Sunday law? Sister White wrote in Dorchester, Maine on October 23, 1850: “I saw the nominal church and nominal Adventists, like Judas, would betray us to the Catholics to obtain their influence to come against the truth. The saints then will be an obscure people, little known to the Catholics; but the churches and nominal Adventists who know of our faith and customs (for they hated us on account of the Sabbath, for they could not refute it) will betray the saints and report them to the Catholics as those who disregard the institutions of the people; that is, that they keep Sabbath and disregard Sunday.”

The Sabbath will never be done away with. When God shall make new heavens and the new earth, the Sabbath still remains as the day of worship. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. 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 66:22–23

Many other doctrines had been forgotten or ignored and they had to be restored. Health reform had been completely left out by the early Adventists. It was not until 1863 that Sister White had a vision from God to stop eating meat and to be vegetarians. She wrote also that health reform is progressive, that a time will come when we need to stop eating dairy products also. Today many of our members are vegan, and many are eating organic fruits and vegetables. Also, many are practicing fasting in order to overcome the idol of indulging appetite.

“Many who profess godliness do not inquire into the reason of Christ’s long period of fasting and suffering in the wilderness. His anguish was not so much from enduring the pangs of hunger as from His sense of the fearful result of the indulgence of appetite and passion upon the race. He knew that appetite would be man’s idol, and would lead him to forget God, and would stand directly in the way of his salvation.” –The Review and Herald, September 1, 1874

Also the message of Christ’s righteousness has become clearer to us. Many Bible students understood that the Ten Commandments are the righteousness that is required from us for salvation, but a little while ago, I had a dream at night that explained that the Ten Commandments are the first mile, but Christ’s righteousness requires the second mile also. Jesus fulfilled the second mile by coming to this world and giving His life for guilty sinners; this is not required in the Ten Commandments, but Christ’s righteousness requires it.

Little by little, the paths have been restored, but this is not the end yet. We need to study the word of God to gain a better understanding of our doctrines and teachings. Especially we need to learn the prophecies concerning the time of the end. The prophecies of Daniel and Revelation are important to study, so that when the time of trouble comes upon us we will not be surprised by the events, but see the fulfilment of prophecy. Every member of the church is called to be the restorers of the dwelling paths and the repairers of the breach. Let us all be faithful in this work. Amen.

Timo Martin