BIBLE DATE OF THE SABBATH LAW.
By Uriah Smith
Many times the proof has been presented in the Review and Herald that the Sabbath is a primal and original institution, and that the law of the Sabbath bears even date therewith; that the Sabbath is not an institution that originated with the Jews, and that the law of the Sabbath was not first promulgated in the wilderness of Sin. The reason that the proof of those propositions has been so often given, is because they are so often denied. And there is still call for the evidence to be repeated; for the Review is set for the support of that day which inspiration has called the “holy of the Lord, honorable;” and the paper is constantly breaking new ground; and the same questions concerning the Sabbath and its law are constantly agitating new minds. “No Sabbath before Moses,” is a common cry of those who wish to avoid the obligation of observing the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. By this they mean that the institution was not founded before the time of Moses, and that previously to his day, there was no law for its observance; and that, consequently, the Sabbath was only a local and temporary institution designed for the Hebrew people alone, having no claims whatever upon people at the present time. To any one who has thought upon the subject with an unbiased mind, this assumption and this conclusion are not a little marvelous. But the plea is urged, “We find no Sabbath law till the time of Moses; therefore the Sabbath was not an original and universal institution, but only a local and temporary duty, binding on the Jews alone.” It is true that, till we reach the time of Moses we find no record of the law drawn out in formal and specific terms; but this would by no means prove that the law itself did not exist before that time. With Moses, the writer and the law became contemporary, and there was the time for the law to be drawn out in definite and specific terms, the occasion for which did not exist before. But we have a record which reaches far back of that time; and that puts a very different phase upon the question. At this point, let one question be definitely settled: Though we have the law drawn out in full, for the first time in the days of Moses, still, if Moses, in giving an account of the institution of the Sabbath, should tell us in connection therewith, that God did give a law for its observance, and enjoined upon Adam, and through him upon all his posterity, the duty of keeping it, would not that settle the whole point in question?—It certainly would. And this is just what Moses has recorded. So, though we have no record of the wording of the law till the time of Moses, we do have a record that a law—the Sabbath law—was given far back of that time, even from the beginning; and that in plain and indisputable terms. And the record that such a law was given, will certainly be enough for any willing and obedient mind. What account, then, does Moses give of the institution of the Sabbath?—Sabbath day means “rest day;” and to make a divine institution, consisting of a rest day as its essential feature, it would be necessary as the first step, that a divine being should rest upon that day. This Moses tells us that God did on the first seventh day of time: “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.” Gen. 2:2. This was the first step; and the second is recorded thus: “And God blessed the seventh day;” the fourth commandment, recording the same event, says, “the Sabbath day.” To “bless” the day, as God did, was to pronounce it “holy time.” The third and last act was this: “And sanctified it.” Sanctified what?—That seventh day upon which he had rested, and which he had blessed. And here we find the law for the observance of the day; for this is what the word “sanctify” means; that is, to “sanctify,” is to set apart to a holy or a sacred use. And when God wants a thing used in a holy and sacred manner, and tells his people so, what is he doing for the thing and for his people?—He is giving a law for the thing; and for his people, he is giving a rule for them to observe how to use it. Well, all this God did in reference to the seventh day. Suppose the record had been worded this way: And God blessed the seventh day, and gave to Adam, and to all men through him, a law as to how he should regard it, and how he should use it. Would not this be sufficient?—Well, this is just what Moses affirms God did do for the Sabbath. Shall we believe the record? Thus God separated the seventh day from all other days. He set it apart by itself. It was to be devoted to a separate and distinct use; and as it was made for man, as the Saviour declares, man was to use it in that manner,—for that purpose. But that never could have been carried out, unless man had been told how he should regard and treat it; and when he was thus told, as the record declares that he was, that was a law for the observance of the day. When?—Not in the days of Moses, but in the days of Adam. The evidence is therefore incontrovertible that when God instituted the Sabbath, he gave to Adam, as the representative of the whole human race, a definite and specific command to keep it; that is, to devote it only to holy and sacred uses. That is the Sabbath law. That is a part of the “law of liberty,” and by that law James tells us we are to be judged; that is, by it our characters are to be estimated, and our destiny to be decided. These are the plain facts in the case; and they can no more be discounted, moved, or set aside, than can the great facts of creation itself. In view of these affirmations of history and revelation, what becomes of the claim that there was no Sabbath law till the time of Moses, and that therefore the Sabbath was only a local, temporary, and Jewish, institution, and not binding on the followers of God to-day at all?—It becomes an absolute impertinence. Besides this, in the history of the first twenty-five hundred years of time, from creation to Sinai, condensed into the marvelously brief space of sixty-six chapters of the Bible,—fifty in Genesis, and sixteen in Exodus,—the remarkable fact appears that at least three times the reckoning of time by periods of sevens of days, is referred to. This could have been derived from nothing else but the institution of the Sabbath in the beginning, and consequently its observance from that time. (1) Gen. 4 : 3. “In process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.” The margin reads, “At the end of days.” Cain and Abel mutually brought their offerings at this time; and the fact that they came together, and came for worship, leads to the conclusion that it was a stated and well-known time for such worship. The seventh day, according to the record just quoted, was set apart for just such a purpose; and that day came at the end, and marked the end, of every week, making very appropriate, as applied to it, the expression, “At the end of days.” And we have previously to this no record of any definite cycle of time being marked off, except the week, ending with the Sabbath. Therefore there is no question but that the sons of Adam, at least till the death of Abel, kept the Sabbath; and this is the record of it. Patrick Fairbairn, D. D., in his “Typology of Scripture,” speaks on this point, as follows:— “In process of time.” As there was a worship appointed before Jehovah’s presence, there was also a special sacred time appointed for it; so that, in his cares in tilling the ground, and his wearisness from having to eat his bread “in the sweat of his face,” the worship should not be neglected. At the end of days, says the Hebrew, Cain and Abel brought their offerings. When it is remembered that already the seventh day had been ordained of God, even before Eden; that we find the division of time into periods of sevens of days universal, though there is no mark in nature, as in the case of days, and months, and years, for such division; and that subsequently the seventh day was thus specially re-ordained of God, there is no room left for doubt that this “end of days,” was the end of the week,—the Sabbath day,—on which Adam had taught his sons to come for special worship before Jehovah.10
(2) Coming down to the time of the flood, we find another indication that the Sabbath was known and regarded among men, at least among the worshipers of Jehovah. The record that Noah sent forth the dove after periods of sevens of days shows that he reckoned time in such periods. And as time is divided into such periods, only on account of the Sabbath, the inference is absolutely necessary that all those who regarded such periods kept the Sabbath. And this is not an inference of our own. John Harris, D. D., in his “Man Primeval,” says:— There is strong probable evidence, from the practice of measuring time by weeks, that the Sabbath was never entirely lost sight of, and that in certain families at least, it continued to be applied to holy purposes. Not only did the original reason of the Sabbatic appointment remain, it increased with every addition which was made to man’s knowledge of God. The impartation of such knowledge to the young, would form part of the appropriate employment of the patriarchal Sabbath. For the pious among the patriarchs could not fail to perceive that the highest design alike of the Sabbath, and of the family economy, was that they should make (such truths) known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, that they might set their hopes in God, and keep his commandments.
(3) And, finally, in Exodus 16, the Sabbath is expressly mentioned, and taken by the Lord as the commandment by which to test the people whether they would walk in his law, or not. And it is not introduced on this occasion as a new and strange institution, but as a part of his (God’s) commandments, statutes, and laws, which he asks them how long they are going to “refuse” to obey. Moreover, it is not introduced as their Sabbath, but as the Sabbath of the Lord. And this was a month before they reached Mount Sinai, where the law was audibly proclaimed. No further reasoning is necessary to show that the experience of Israel in the wilderness of Sin, and the giving of the law on Sinai, had nothing to do with the origin of the Sabbath; but that this heaven-ordained institution far antedates all these things, and is coeval with creation itself. The Sabbath is the great test of this generation; and as we approach the culmination of the crisis, the enemy will work harder and bring stronger temptations to bear upon believers, to lead them to turn away “from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” It has been our object to show that no one can do this on the common and often-urged ground, that there was no Sabbath law before the time of Moses.