THE SABBATH FROM SINAI TO CHRIST
By R. C. P.
The Day for the Gentiles to Keep—Sabbath Breaking and the Destruction of Jerusalem—A Sign of Sanctification We have learned that Christ was an associate with the Father in creation, who worked and rested in making the Sabbath for man. We inquire, Who was the lawgiver that spoke the law from Sinai? Let the prophet Isaiah answer: “For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us.” Isa. 33: 22. See also Rom. 2: 16; 2 Tim. 4: 1. Who Gave the Law at Sinai?
The same Lord who is to be our Judge, is our Lawgiver, and the same Lord is to be our King. It is Christ who is to be our King. He says, “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.” Matt. 25: 31. With this agree the words of Stephen, as recorded in Acts 7: 37, 38. In Deut. 32: 36, Moses speaks of this same God, who shall judge His people; and in chapter 33: 2 he says, “From His right hand went a fiery law for them.” It was therefore Christ, the Creator, who is our Judge and King, who gave the law from Sinai. The same Christ being our Creator, Lawgiver, voluntary Substitute, Judge, and King, there will be perfect harmony in all His work, which is for all people, for all time. All of Christ’s work was done as an associate with the Father. The Sabbath for the Gentile Stranger
In the days of the prophet Isaiah He speaks of the Sabbath as follows: “Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from His people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My Sabbaths, and choose the things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant; Even unto them will I give in Mine house and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of My covenant; even them will I bring to My holy mountains, and make them joyful in My house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon Mine altar: for Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” Isa. 56: 2-7. This scripture declares plainly that the Sabbath was to be217kept, not only by Israel, but by the stranger as well. It is presented as essential to pleasing God, and meeting His approval in His service. The statement is made further that God knows no such limit as some would teach, that the instruction given in the days of Israel was to that people alone. He says, “Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” In the prophecy of Isaiah the Lord calls the Sabbath “My holy day,” “a delight,” “the holy of the Lord,” “honorable.” “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isa. 58: 13, 14. In the book of Jeremiah we are informed that if the people had observed the Sabbath, as God commanded them to do, the city of Jerusalem would have remained forever. “Thus said the Lord unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; and say unto them, Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: Thus saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain forever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the Lord.” Jer. 17: 19-26. Ezekiel speaks of it as a sign by which the true God is known as the Creator; also that the same God who created, is the Saviour who now sanctifies His people. “Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” “And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know (III.) I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20: 12, 20. No one since the fall can keep the Sabbath without first having been sanctified. It is a sign of sanctification. No one keeps the Sabbath according to God’s plan, who does not keep it as a sign that he is sanctified. This is the way Israel should have kept it. If they had kept it as a sign of God’s power in their sanctification, their beautiful city would have remained forever. They kept the Sabbath formally. That made it to them merely a sign of formality in religion, instead of the sign of a life regenerated by the power of divine grace. Had all the people kept the Sabbath as God gave it in the beginning, it would from week to week have pointed to the God of creation, and there never would have been an infidel in the world. No man ever kept the Sabbath aright, until he kept it as a sign of creative power, God having created within him a clean heart, and renewed within him a right spirit. We enter the sanctified life through the door of the new birth. Every man, therefore, who has received the new birth, is to keep the Sabbath that God made at creation, proclaimed in His law at Sinai, and announced through the prophet Ezekiel as a sign of sanctification. Reaching the days of Christ, we find Him reared in a Jewish family. He observed the same Sabbath from infancy that was observed by the Jewish people. When He reached maturity, and entered upon His work, “He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4: 16. It was His custom to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, which He Himself had made at creation, given in the law from Sinai, and declared to be the sign of a life sanctified by the power of God. Custom is continued practice. We find the same Sabbath given in the law upon Sinai, continued from that time to the time of Christ, and observed as Christ’s continued practice. Since He with the Father made the Sabbath in the beginning, and gave the law concerning it from Sinai, He certainly knew which day was the Sabbath. He also knew for whom it was made. “And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2: 27, 28. Here, by the authority of the Lord of the Sabbath, we are informed that the Sabbath made by Him, of which He is Lord, and which it was His custom—continued practice—to observe, was made for man. This statement was made just before the close of the Jewish dispensation. It therefore teaches that there was, in the plan of Christ, no change in or repeal of the Sabbath statute. There can be no doubt that the Sabbath instituted in Eden and proclaimed in the law from Sinai was continued through the history of the former dispensation, and observed and taught by Christ.