The Sabbath a Sign by I. Sanborn

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 3, 1870

The Sabbath a Sign.

By I. Sanborn

Ex. 31: 13, 16, 17: “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.”

1. We notice that the Israel here spoken of are a sanctified people, and therefore we conclude that God is referring to Israel under both covenants who like Abraham kept all God's commandments. Gen. 26: 6. They are also referred to by Paul in Heb. 8: 10-13: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people; . . . for all shall know me from the least to the greatest.”

Be it remembered that those here spoken of are Israelites under the new covenant, or gospel. Acts 26: 6, 7; “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our Fathers, unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.”

These twelve tribes are again referred to by John in Rev. 7: 4-9: “And I heard the number of them that were sealed and there were sealed an hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.” This we understand to be the second house of Israel. See Isa. 8: 14. “And he [Christ] shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, . . . and many among them, shall stumble and fall.” The first-covenant house fell over the doctrine of the first advent of Christ; the second-covenant house fell over the doctrine of the second advent of Christ. This clearly took place in 1844, when they rejected the doctrine of the Lord's speedy coming; and since that time Isa. 8: 16, 20, has been in process of fulfillment. Let us read: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Here we have a prophecy that is being daily fulfilled by the disciples of Jesus in receiving the ten commandments as a rule of action, and the Sabbath as a sign between them and the Lord.

But lest some may think that the Israel spoken of in Ex. 31 has reference only to the first-covenant Israel, please notice the following Scriptures: Jer. 31: 35: “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is his name; if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.”

That the Israelitish nation of the first covenant did cease from being a literal nation more than eighteen hundred years ago, perhaps none will deny who believe the Bible. Then the Lord by Jeremiah must refer to the Israel spoken of by Paul in Acts 26: 7: “Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come;” which tribes are still a nation according to Peter. 1 Pet. 2: 9: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. These are the ones to whom James writes his epistle. James 1: 1: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting: My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.”

In Rom. 9: 6-9, Paul says, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, in Isaac, shall thy seed be called.” That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

See also Gal. 3: 26, 29: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

This is the seed referred to in Jeremiah, there called, Israel. See Gen. 32: 26-29: “And he said, Let me go; for the day breaketh. And he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed.”

And the Sabbath is a sign between God and Israel, or the true children of Israel, forever, even in the future state. Isa. 66: 22: “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.”

Here, dear reader, is the seed, those who are Christ's, and the name, which is Israel, and the Sabbath, which is God's sign, all perpetuated through the gospel age, and into the new earth where the twelve tribes will enter in through the gates into the city. May the Lord bless the reader and the writer, and help us to keep all his commandments, with the Sabbath, his sign, that we may enter through the pearly gates to the marriage supper of the Lamb. I. SANBORN.