Gen. 2:2-3; Exod. 20:11; Exodus 16; Heb. 4:1-4; Exod. 31:12-17; Deut. 5:14.

 “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant” (Exodus 31:16).

 The seventh-day Sabbath is like a nail that — Thwack! — with unbroken regularity returns us each week to the foundation of all that we are or could be. We are so busy, running to and fro, spending money, making money, going here, going there, going everywhere, and then — Thwack! — Sabbath comes and reattaches us to our foundation, the starting point of everything that follows, because everything that is anything to us becomes that only because God created it and us to begin with.

 With unceasing regularity, and with no exceptions, the Sabbath silently hurls over the horizon and into every crack and cranny of our lives. It reminds us that every crack and cranny belong to our Maker, the One who put us here, the One who “in the beginning” created the heavens and the earth, an act that remains the irrefutable foundation of all Christian belief and of which the seventh-day Sabbath — Thwack! — is the irrefutable, unobtrusive and unyielding sign.

 This week we look at this sign in the context of the Sinai covenant.

 The Week at a Glance: Where does the Sabbath have it origins? What evidence proves that the Sabbath existed before Sinai? What makes the Sabbath such an appropriate covenant sign?

 Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 29.