God’s Eternal Ordinance
By Eliza H. Morton
AN ordinance is an appointment of time to be observed. See Ex. 12:14, also dictionary. The Mosaic or ceremonial law contained many ordinances. 2 Chron. 33:8. These were types, or shadows, pointing to Christ; and when He came, they ceased, because fulfilled in Him. Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14, 17; Heb. 9:1, 10. There is, however, one ordinance which is in no sense a type or a shadow. It was instituted before sin came into our world, before ordinances were necessary to point to a Saviour. This ordinance is designated as God’s observation (Mal. 3:14, margin), because He observed it. God gave it to His people as a memorial of creation, as a safeguard against idolatry and its kindred abominations. “Therefore shall ye keep Mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein; I am the Lord your God.” Lev. 18:30. SPECIFIC AGAINST IDOLATRY
Those who remember that the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested the seventh day, is the true God, will not bow down to false gods, or follow in the ways of those who thus worship. Ex. 20:10, 11. Moses, Aaron, and Samuel kept the ordinance—the Sabbath—that God gave to them. Ps. 99:6, 7. The prophet Isaiah, looking down the stream of time, saw something that made him exclaim, “The earth also494is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance [God’s Sabbath], broken the everlasting covenant.” Isa. 24:5. Again the prophet speaks, referring to a message to the professed church of God in the last days: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression; and the house of Jacob their sin.” Isa. 58:1. That the special sin committed is one of ignorance is shown by the expression, “Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance [Sabbath] of their God.” That the message is concerning a restoration of the true Sabbath is clearly shown in the last verses of the same chapter. A blessing is pronounced upon those who cease to trample the Sabbath under their feet. Latter-day conditions are also shown in Malachi 3 and 4. Some of the Sabbath reformers are represented as saying, “What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance [the Sabbath], and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?” This shows a sifting time even among those proclaiming the truth for the last days. God, however, recognizes His own, and promises to number them among His jewels just before the day comes that shall burn as an oven. Mal. 3:14–18; 4:1.