Objections to the Sabbath Answered by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 13, 1873

Objections to the Sabbath Answered.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

TWENTIETH OBJECTION.

Having answered the objections founded in the New Testament, before leaving this subject, I will take up one in the Old Testament. It is as follows: “The Sabbath was given to the Jews, at the coming out of Egypt, as a memorial of that deliverance, and hence did not exist before that time, and pertains only to the Jewish nation. Deut. 5: 15: “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.”

Answer. Without further examination, there would appear to be some force in this objection, but we think a few other texts will remove the difficulty. The law of the Sabbath, as originally given by God upon Mount Sinai, in tables of stone, when they first came out of Egypt, does not contain this language, but does give the reason on which the Sabbath commandment was founded, as follows: “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. 20: 11.

From this it is plain that the Sabbath institution rests upon the act of God in creating our earth in six days, and resting upon the seventh. This, the Lord says, is the reason why he gave the Sabbath, and why they were to keep it. There was no reference made to their deliverance from Egypt. But forty years after God gave the ten commandments, and just before Moses died, he called all Israel together, and rehearsed to them, from beginning to end, God’s dealings with them during the forty years. Among the rest, he repeats the ten commandments, not verbatim, but in substance, varying, some of them more, others less. When he comes to the Sabbath commandment, Deut. 5: 12, he says, “Keep the Sabbath day, to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.” Thus will be seen that he refers back to the commandment previously given, as the authority for keeping the Sabbath, and then closes his instruction on that point, 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.” Verse 15.

Now the question was simply this: Was Moses giving the foundation and the reason on which the Sabbath was based? or was he simply naming an additional reason why the Jews in particular should obey God in keeping the Sabbath, as he had commanded them? I understand the latter to be the truth in the case.

They had been down in Egypt, bondmen, where they were not at liberty to obey God in all his requirements, and probably it had been especially hard for them to keep the Sabbath; now they were delivered from that bondage, were free men, and could serve God at full liberty, and keep the Sabbath just as he required them. By thus delivering them from bondage, God had brought them under especial obligation to obey him; hence Moses urges upon them obedience to those commandments, the Sabbath with the rest, by reminding them of this fact.

A few quotations will show that Moses frequently urges this reason why they should keep all the other commandments: “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight, or in measures. 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; I am the Lord.” Lev. 19: 35–37. Here the reader will notice that God required them to deal honestly in weight, in measure, in judgment, &c.; and then to urge this upon them, he says, “I am the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt, therefore shall ye observe all my statutes,” &c. Now will any one argue that men were not under obligation to deal justly in measures, weight, and judgment, before God brought the Jews out of Egypt? None will claim this.

Take another case. Lev. 11: 45: “For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Here the Lord says, I have brought you up out of the Egypt, therefore shall ye be holy. Were they not under obligation to be holy before he brought them out of Egypt? or were only those who were thus delivered under obligation to be holy? This is too absurd for any one to argue; and yet God gives the same reason why they should be holy, as he does why they should keep the Sabbath, viz., because he brought them out of Egypt. The simple fact is manifestly this: In Egypt, they were oppressed and surrounded with idolatry, and all manner of wickedness; but now God had delivered them, and given them especial instruction with regard to his worship, therefore they should be very careful to obey him now.

Take one more case, Deut. 15: 12–15. Here the Lord instructs them to deal mercifully with their servants, and says they shall do this because he delivered them out of Egypt. See Deut. 15: 12. After naming a number of things which they should do, the Lord says: “And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt; and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.” The same language is used in Deut. 24: 17, 18: “Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge; but thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence; therefore I command thee to do this thing.” Did the duty of dealing mercifully with the stranger, or fatherless, and the widow, originate with their coming out of Egypt? Did not that duty exist before? and does it not now? And yet of these duties the Lord says, You shall remember that I brought you out of Egypt; therefore I command thee to do this thing—the very language that is used with regard to the Sabbath. So again in verses 19–22, of the same chapter, the Lord names several more duties which they shall perform—and urges it upon them with this language: “And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt; therefore I command thee to do this thing.”

Many more examples we might give where this language is used by the Lord with regard to the observance of different precepts. The reader will see that not only the Sabbath commandment, but almost every one of God’s commandments, is urged upon the Jews with the very same reason that is attached to the Sabbath commandment, viz., I delivered you out of Egypt; therefore you shall do this thing, that, and the other; yet none will claim that the observing of these other moral commandments was designed to be a memorial of their deliverance from Egypt, because God names this as a reason why they should do it. We believe that the candid reader will see that the same fact is true with regard to the Sabbath.

D. M. CANRIGHT.