The Sabbath of the Decalogue.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
IN the third article by Dr. Dobbs, on the Sabbath question, we find the following:— "The Sabbath of the Sinaic decalogue was essentially and designedly a ceremonial institution of the Mosaic law, and as such was given and confined to that people whom the Lord their God had brought out of the land of Egypt. It was a sign between God and Israel only." In the next paragraph, he says:— "Some good brethren, while assenting in the main to my proposition, have thought the use of the word 'ceremonial' unfortunate and misleading. I class the Sabbath institution with the other positive rites of Judaism. To my mind, the Sabbath is no more spiritual nor moral than are the passover and the new moon festival observances, commanded in the law of Moses. It, as well as they, was but a part of the 'shadows' which were to 'pass away' when the 'body' should come." In answer to the Doctor's statement that to his mind there is nothing spiritual or moral about the Sabbath, we would quote the words of Paul, in 1 Cor. 2:14: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." This scripture has direct application in this case, for the apostle plainly declares that the one who refuses submission to the law of God, is not spiritual, but carnal. Rom. 8:7. The same apostle plainly declares that "the law is spiritual;" that "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good." Rom. 7:12, 14. If the law is spiritual, then the fourth precept of the law is spiritual. It is impossible to separate the fourth commandment from the rest of the decalogue. It is, as a whole, the moral law. The psalmist was speaking of the law as it was pronounced from Sinai, when he declared that it "is perfect" (Ps. 19:7), and he certainly referred to the words which were spoken amid the thunders of Sinai, when he said, "Thy word is true from the beginning; and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever." Ps. 119:160. Is the decalogue ceremonial and shadowy? If489the fourth commandment is, the whole must be. When God said, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," what did that typify? When God said, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," what portion of the work of Christ was shadowed forth? Can any one tell? The truth is, there is not a single one of the ten commandments which has in it anything whatever of a ceremonial nature. Think a moment, reader. Did you ever hear anybody mention anything in the life, sufferings, or death of Christ, of which the Sabbath was typical? No one ever attempted to show in Christ's work the antitype of the Sabbath. The antitype of every portion of the ceremonial law may be traced in the work of Christ, but not so with the moral law. That is not a shadow, but the substance which, when trampled upon, made it necessary for Christ's work to be performed. The apostle says, "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." 1 Cor. 7:19. Some men claim that the Sabbath was given as a type of the saint's eternal rest. We have never seen any proof of such a thing, and we do not accept the statement as true; but if it were true, it would show that the Sabbath is still binding on mankind, for the saints have not yet received their eternal rest, and the shadow can never stop until it reaches the substance. The declaration of our Saviour, in Matt. 5:17, 18, is of itself sufficient to show that the law of God is not typical or shadowy: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Till all what be fulfilled? Till all the prophets be fulfilled. Christ's coming to earth was, as he said, in fulfillment of prophecy, for unto him all the prophets gave witness. Acts 10:43. But Christ did not at his first coming fulfill all that the prophets had spoken, for David, prophesying of him, said: "My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of Heaven." Ps. 89:28, 29. Here is a prophecy that cannot be completely fulfilled as long as the days of Heaven exist,—in other words, it reaches to eternity,—and therefore since not a jot nor a tittle can pass from the law till all be fulfilled, it is evident that the ten commandments will exist in full force, without the slightest change, as long as eternity endures. Now what about the statement that the Sabbath was given because God brought the Jews out of Egypt? The falsity of that assertion has already been shown, by the fact that the Sabbath was given to man in Eden. If it was given in Eden, and was kept centuries before the Egyptian bondage, as we have already shown, then it was not given to commemorate the deliverance from that bondage. There was something given which, while it served as a shadow of something good to be done for the race, commemorated the deliverance from bondage. This was the passover, described in Ex. 12. But the passover was eaten in the night, and therefore Moses said: "It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt; this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations." Ex. 12:42. The objector, as he reads this, will think of Deut. 5:15, which reads thus: "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." That passage can afford no help to the opposers of Sabbath observance. Mark it well. It does not say that the Lord gave them the Sabbath day because he brought them out of Egypt, but that for that reason he commanded them to keep it. There is quite a difference. The Sabbath was given to man at creation. When the children of Israel were in hard and cruel bondage in Egypt, they had grievous tasks placed upon them, and their taskmasters would not allow them any respite. They were not allowed to keep the Sabbath. Moses demanded of Pharaoh that he should let the people go, so that they might serve the Lord. Pharaoh refused, and the Lord compelled him to let them go. When God, with a wonderful exhibition of his power, had brought them out of bondage, that they might serve him, what could be expected but that he would command them to do so. The fact that God at that time commanded them to keep the Sabbath is no evidence that a previous command had not been given to do the same thing. If it were, then it would appear that it was never wrong to steal, nor to do any other thing forbidden in the ten commandments, until the deliverance from Egypt, for we read in Lev. 19:36, 37, as follows:— "Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have; I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes and all my judgments, and do them." Even Dr. Dobbs would scarcely claim that there was anything shadowy or ceremonial in dealing justly, or that the obligation to do so has passed away. Then why should he make that assertion in the case of the Sabbath? The Sabbath was in no sense a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt; but the fact that God had miraculously delivered his people so that they might serve him, made it eminently proper that he should renew his command to them to keep an already existing institution. E. J. W.