The Sabbath, a Sign by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 28, 1907

The Sabbath, a Sign

By C. M. S.

When Jehovah had accomplished the deliverance of his chosen people from Egypt, he gave them an ordinance whose observance was to continue as long as they were a people, for a sign, both to their posterity and to the world, that God had wrought a great work for them. The Lord speaks thus to Israel concerning the ordinance:—

Thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying, It is because of that which Jehovah did for me when I came forth out of Egypt. And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thy hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the law of Jehovah may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath Jehovah brought thee out of Egypt.

This ordinance was the seven-day period of eating unleavened bread. It was given for a purpose. Its yearly repetition was designed to keep in the minds of the people God’s watch-care, power, and love over and upon his faithful children. The child would ask, “Why do we do this?” For answer the parent must tell the story of the mighty manifestation of God’s power in their behalf; and as it kept the works of the Creator in mind, it kept in mind also the One who performed the works. When heathen people asked the Israelites why they were eating unleavened bread during a period of one week, the answer must make known to them also the true God and the mighty works he did in behalf of his people.

It was ever God’s design that his people should witness for him to the people who did not know him—that they themselves should be a sign always pointing to him as Creator and Saviour. While they obeyed him and walked in his ways, they accomplished God’s purpose and were an evangelizing influence in the world. When they turned from his law and went in their own way, God’s purpose in them was thwarted, they lost the blessing of God, and they led the heathen peoples into denser darkness.

It will be noticed from the scripture above quoted that Israel’s adherence to God’s directions concerning this memorial was to be a sign upon their hand and a memorial between their eyes—in the hand and upon the forehead—the same place where the mark of the beast is to be found at the close of earth’s history upon the people who oppose the law of God and persecute his people.

God has another memorial, a memorial of a greater work, a memorial that is not restricted to any one people for its observance. “The Sabbath was made for man,” for every man; and God designed that every obedient observer of that memorial should be a sign, pointing to him all peoples that do not know him. He said:—

Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am Jehovah your God. Ezek. 20:20.

How many in the world need that knowledge? The world is perishing today for lack of it, and why? The people have not hallowed his Sabbath. They have put another day in its place. The Lord commanded the keeping of the Sabbath because that “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.” It was to point with unchanging finger to the mighty work of creation and to the

Maker of the heavens and the earth. As long as men kept it they could not forget him or his works. When they ceased to keep it, they forgot him, and what he had done, they forgot his law, made religions of their own, and fell down in worship before beasts and birds and creeping things and stocks and stones and every sort of image the mind and hand could fashion. They had lost the sign that pointed to the true God, and so made a god of anything their fancy turned to.

God knew that the Sabbath memorial was necessary if the people were to retain a knowledge of him. The fact that the nations and peoples that forsook the Sabbath have gone into all manner of idolatry, shows the wisdom of God in giving the Sabbath. He who truly keeps the true Sabbath can not forget God. Wherever in this world God’s people go, he designs they shall witness for him and stand as a sign to the people. Keeping his Sabbath, they point the world to his power and his sovereignty.

But a rival has arisen. It is not a memorial of creation, for it calls the people to rest on the day when God began his work. It is not in harmony with God’s design, for it is out of harmony with what he did. It is not a sign “between Me and you;” for its purpose is to supplant the “sign” which God himself established. It is not a memorial of the resurrection; for the resurrection necessitated the working of the very powers of creation, and there is nothing in work that symbolizes rest. There is nothing in rest that memorializes work. It is not a memorial of the resurrection, because God does not give two memorials of the same event. Baptism is the memorial of the resurrection. ‘We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.’ ‘For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.’ Rom. 6: 4, 5. The rival sabbath is a sign, but not a sign of loyalty to God and his commandments. It is a memorial, but a memorial of a certain power’s attempt to put a human institution in the place of the divine. And that power which has made that attempt will yet place the sign of that counterfeit institution in the hand and on the forehead of all who yield to it in obedience and worship.

They who yield obedience to God’s law, who keep the Sabbath he instituted, will feel the wrath of “the beast” and of that power which “maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast” (Rev. 13:12); but heaven is watching over them. In spite of persecutions and the threat of death, they have maintained the “sign,” observed the memorial, of the true God; and so the Revelator declares of them, “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” Rev. 13:10. C. M. S.