The Controversy Over the Sabbath Question in Egypt by W. A. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 25, 1909

The Controversy Over the Sabbath Question in Egypt

By W. A. C.

THAT the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt consisted not merely in physical bondage, but involved the right to worship the true God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and to keep his commandments, particularly in the matter of observing the Sabbath, there is ample evidence. This question became a direct issue, and came to a crisis, during the latter part of their stay in Egypt, the power of the oppressor being broken, and the people being delivered, only through the terrible plagues which followed, and the direct intervention and miraculous power of God.

The conflict here referred to is briefly narrated in Exodus, chapters five to twelve inclusive. When Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness,” Pharaoh replied, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” Pharaoh at once began to accuse Moses and Aaron, saying, “Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let [hinder] the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.” Ex. 5: 1-4. In what way were Moses and Aaron hindering the Israelites from their works? It can not be supposed that they were teaching them not to work at all. No; they were teaching them to keep the Sabbath. This is confirmed by the very next verse in the narrative: “And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest [“Shabbath,” Hebrew] from their burdens.” Verse 5.

How Pharaoh regarded this instruction, on the part of Moses and Aaron, to keep the Sabbath, is shown by his instruction to the taskmasters of the people and their officers: “Let there more work be laid upon the men, . . . and let them not regard vain words.” Verse 9. Thus did this heathen and idolatrous king show his contempt for God and his law. And so blind was his heart and so stubborn his resistance, that he utterly refused to let Israel go until his land was laid waste, and the angel of death had visited every family, and “there was not a house where there was not one dead.” Ex. 10: 7; 12: 30.

That the question of keeping the Sabbath in Egypt became not only a prominent one, but a national issue, is confirmed by the book of Jasher, which, though not a part of the Bible, is twice mentioned in the Bible. See Joshua 10: 12, 13 and 2 Sam. 1: 18. Relating an incident which occurred under the reign of the Pharaoh called Melol, prior to Moses’ flight to the land of Midian, this book says:—

“And the day arrived when Moses went to Goshen to see his brethren, that he saw the children of Israel in their burdens and hard labor, and Moses was grieved on their account. And Moses returned to Egypt and came to the house of Pharaoh, and came before the king, and Moses bowed down before the king. And Moses said unto Pharaoh, I pray thee, my lord, I have come to seek a small request from thee, turn not away my face empty; and Pharaoh said unto him, Speak. And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Let there be given unto thy servants the children of Israel who are in Goshen, one day to rest therein from their labor. And the king answered Moses and said, Behold I have lifted up thy face in this thing to grant thy request. And Pharaoh ordered a proclamation to be issued throughout Egypt and Goshen, saying, To you, all the children of Israel, thus says the king, For six days you shall do your work and labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest, and shall not perform any work, thus shall you do in all the days, as the king, and Moses, the son of Bathia, have commanded. And Moses rejoiced at this thing which the king had granted to him, and all the children of Israel did as Moses ordered them. For this thing was from the Lord to the children of Israel, for the Lord had begun to remember the children of Israel to save them for the sake of their fathers. And the Lord was with Moses, and his fame went throughout Egypt. And Moses became great in the eyes of all the Egyptians, and in the eyes of all the children of Israel, seeking good for his people Israel, and speaking words of peace regarding them to the king.”—Book of Jasher, 70: 41-51.

Upon the death of Melol, his son Adikam came to the throne. He revoked the permission to keep the Sabbath granted by his father to the children of Israel, and made their burdens still harder, as further narrated in the same book:—

“And Pharaoh sat upon his father’s throne to reign over Egypt, and he conducted the government of Egypt in his wisdom. And whilst he reigned, he exceeded his father and all the preceding kings in wickedness, and he increased his yoke over the children of Israel. And he went with his servants to Goshen to the children of Israel, and he strengthened the labor over them, and he said unto them, Complete your work, each day’s task, and let not your hands slacken from our work from this day forward as you did in the days of my father. And he placed officers over them from amongst the children of Israel, and over these officers he placed taskmasters from amongst his servants. And he placed over them a measure of bricks for them to do according to that number, day by day, and he turned back and went into Egypt. At that time the taskmasters of Pharaoh ordered the officers of the children of Israel according to the command of Pharaoh, saying, Thus says Pharaoh, Do your work each day, and finish your task and observe the daily measure of bricks; diminish not anything. . . . And the labor imposed upon the children of Israel in the days of Adikam exceeded in hardship that which they performed in the days of his father.”—Book of Jasher, 77: 7-13, 21. Published by M. M. Noah and A. S. Gould, New York, 1840.

Here is given testimony to the fact that the Sabbath existed and was known before the giving of the law at Sinai, before the wilderness experience, and even before the exodus itself. The conflict over the observance of the Sabbath here so plainly brought to view, also gives additional force to the reason given in Deut. 5: 15 why the Israelites should keep the Sabbath,—‘Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt; . . . therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.’

‘Patriarchs and Prophets,’ page 260, states the matter thus: ‘In their bondage the Israelites had to some extent lost the knowledge of God’s law, and they had departed from its precepts. The Sabbath had been generally disregarded, and the exactions of their taskmasters made its observance apparently impossible. But Moses had shown his people that obedience to God was the first condition of deliverance; and the efforts made to restore the observance of the Sabbath had come to the notice of their oppressors.’

Through all the ages the Sabbath has been the sign of loyalty to God and his truth. As its restoration to the church preceded the deliverance from Egyptian bondage, so its restoration in the last days to its place in the great message of truth will usher in the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of sin. We are seeking to maintain to-day the same principles for which God’s people in the past labored. May we be true conservators of the work of reform entrusted to us.

W. A. C.