THE WEEKLY SABBATH INSTITUTED AT CREATION AND NOT AT SINAI.
“Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it.” Ex. xx, 8–11. These are the words of the fourth commandment, the great Sabbath law, which Jehovah spake from the smoking Mount, and with his finger wrote upon tables of stone. With the divine requirement is also given the reason why the Creator instituted the weekly Rest, which is as follows:—“For [or because] in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it.” None can fail to see that the Sabbatic institution is inseparably connected with God’s resting on the seventh day of the first week of time, which day he then “blessed” and “sanctified.” Therefore, at the close of Creation, God instituted the weekly Rest, a memorial of himself, and gave it to “man,” to observe in commemoration of the very day on which the Creator rested. We are told by those who advocate the no-Sabbath views that the Sabbath was given to commemorate the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. But this view is not only unscriptural but absurd in the extreme. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was on the fifteenth day of the month Abib. It was commemorated by its two annual memorials, the passover and the feast of unleavened bread. These institutions were well calculated to call to mind God’s wonderful power manifested in bringing Israel from the house of bondage. But a moment’s reflection is sufficient to satisfy any reasonable mind that God never designed the weekly Sabbath to commemorate an event which took place on the fifteenth day of the month Abib. God rested on the seventh day after six days of labor. That day of the week he “sanctified” and “blessed.” “And on the seventh-day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen. ii, 2, 3. It is not possible for the Sabbath to commemorate any event only that which occurred on the last day of the first week of time. What if we should assert that the feast of unleavened bread was designed to commemorate God’s Holy Rest at the close of Creation? Certainly none would believe us. Neither should our opponents be believed when they assert that the seventh day Sabbath was designed to commemorate the deliverance from Egypt, which was to be commemorated only once a year! One is as absurd as the other. It is true that God, after he had brought the natural seed of Abraham out of the house of bondage, reminded them of his Sabbath, and commanded them to observe it; but there is not a word on record to show that it was then instituted. The reason is plain why God, at that time specially enforced the observance of the Sabbath, which is as follows: “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day.” Deut. v, 15. While the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt they could not keep the sabbath. But they had been from Egypt but thirty days when God reminded them of it, and, in giving the manna, guarded the Sabbath by three standing miracles. See Ex. xvi, 19–30. They were then free, and the only given reason why God at that time commanded them to keep his Sabbath was because he had brought them “out thence through a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm; [where they could keep it;] therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day.” God does not here speak of the Sabbath, as of a new institution. He calls it “the Sabbath,” as if speaking of an old institution perfectly understood by the people. God has given but one reason for the institution of the Sabbath, and that reason shows that it was “made” for the first “man,” Adam, and all his posterity. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it.” That God instituted the weekly Rest for man to keep in commemoration of his Rest on the seventh day, after he had created the world in six days, is as clear as the noon-day sun. It is one of the most simple and glorious truths of the Bible. The passover was a memorial for Israel, that they might not forget their wonderful deliverance from Egyptian bondage.—The communion of the body and blood of Christ is a memorial instituted for the church to keep in memory the Lamb of God who suffered and died for us. So the seventh-day Sabbath is a weekly memorial to commemorate God’s Rest-day, after he had created the world in six, that man might not forget the living God who made heaven and earth. If man had always observed this memorial, none would have forgotten God, and there never would have been an infidel in the world. How wonderful and wise the plan of Jehovah, laid out in the beginning!—Man was to labor six days, and on the seventh rest from servile labor and care; and by viewing the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all things which were created in six days, he was to call to mind the living God who rested on the seventh. The passover was to be observed from the time of the deliverance from Egypt, until “Christ our passover” was “sacrificed for us;” the communion was to be observed by the church from the crucifixion, until the Second Advent of Jesus; so the seventh-day Sabbath was designed to be kept from the Creation to, at least, the close of time. God has “blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it” but once, and that was when there was but one man living. “And God BLESSED the seventh day and SANCTIFIED it; BECAUSE that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen. ii, 3. Mark well the language of that portion of the decalogue which gives the reason for the institution of the Sabbath.—When speaking of the Creation in six days, and the Rest of the seventh, God says, “Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it,” “Here the seventh day is called “the Sabbath-day” at the very period when he bestowed his blessing upon it, which was on the seventh day of the first week of time. As we have seen the institution of the Sabbath inseparably connected with God’s Rest at the close of Creation, and as the Creator bestowed his blessing upon “the Sabbath-day” but once, and that at Creation, and as he designed the Sabbath for a memorial of himself, that the whole human family might call to mind the living God who made heaven and earth, by following his example and resting on the seventh day, we are now prepared to understand the words of our Saviour when he says, “The Sabbath was made for man.” The word “man” when used as it is here, in its broadest sense, means all mankind. Not the Jews only, but man, the55whole race of man, the same as in the following texts: “Man, seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.” Ex. xvi, 22–29. “Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Job xiv, 1. “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until evening.” Ps. civ. 23. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” Cor. x. 13. “Man lieth down and riseth not, till the heavens be no more.” Job xiv, 12. No one will say that man in these texts means Jews or Christians, for the whole family of Adam is included. In this sense, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Adam, Noah, Enoch and Abraham were men, therefore the Sabbath was made for them as well as for Abraham’s natural seed. We are men, and the Sabbath was made for us. The entire record of about twenty-five hundred years from the Creation is contained in fifty-two chapters of our Bible, therefore we should not expect that much would be said relative to the weekly Rest during that period of time. But we find early and frequent notices of reckoning by sevens. The term week is used in the contract between Jacob and Laban. “Fulfill her week.” Gen. xxix, 27. The word Sabbath not being used in the record of more than two thousand years is no evidence that there was none during that time. At a later period, even in that time when the transgressor of the law of God, was, by the law of Moses, put to death, the word Sabbath is not found in the divine record of about four hundred years.—None will say that there was no Sabbath during that space of time, because it is not mentioned in the record. The word Sabbath being left out of that portion of the Bible which only notices the most important events from the Creation to the deliverance from Egypt, certainly, is not so remarkable as its being left out for hundreds of years when enforced by temporal death. As there is no intimation given of the institution of the Sabbath only at the close of Creation, and, as Jehovah has so forcibly shown, by the language of the fourth commandment, that the Sabbath of that commandment is inseparably connected with his Rest on the seventh day of the first week of time, we can now clearly see that when Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man,” he meant for Adam, the first man, and for all his posterity. We frequently hear it asserted, by those who oppose the Sabbath of the Lord our God, that “the word Sabbath is not mentioned in the Bible, till after the law was given from Mount Sinai; therefore,” say they, “it is the Sabbath of the old Jews, and was abolished at the crucifixion, where the Jewish dispensation closed.” But any one who has read Ex. xii–xx, ought to know better than to make this statement. The Sabbath was guarded by three standing miracles in giving the manna, and was kept by Israel, in the wilderness of Sin, thirty days before they came to Sinai. The children of Israel departed from Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, and came to the wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second month. See Ex. xvi, 1. There, in the wilderness of Sin, God gave them bread from heaven, and through Moses reminded them of his Sabbath. They then journeyed to Rephidim, and from Rephidim they came to the desert of Sinai on the fifteenth day of the third month. Moses was then commanded to sanctify the people, to set bounds around the Mount, and to be “ready against the third day.” And on the third day, in the morning, “there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount.” And the Lord descended upon it in fire, and from the smoking Mount proclaimed in awful grandeur, the “Royal Law.” But, thirty days before Israel saw Mount Sinai, and thirty-two days before they heard the voice of Jehovah repeating to them the ten commandments, both God and Moses speak of the Sabbath as of an old institution well understood by the people. “And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over, lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. “And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. “And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.” Ex. xvi, 22–29. There is something very interesting in the circumstance of the people gathering two omers of manna on the sixth day.—This seems to have been done without the special direction of Moses or the rulers. And when “the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses,” he said unto them, “This is that which the Lord hath said. To-morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord.” Where had the Lord thus said? at Sinai? Certainly not; for he did not speak the ten commandments till thirty-two days afterward. It is evident that Moses in his reply to the rulers of the congregation, referred to the time when God blessed and sanctified the seventh day at Creation. But some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather manna, and there was none in the field. This called forth the rebuke from Him who hallowed the seventh day. “How long refuse ye to keep my COMMANDMENTS and my LAWS?—See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath.” Here we see that God’s commandments and laws existed, and were observed by his people, before he spake them from Mount Sinai.