Institution of the Sabbath
By E. L. Cardey
The Sabbath, as a definite day of rest, is a very old institution, in fact as old as the earth itself. In this article we wish to contend for two things; first, that the Sabbath was instituted at the end of creation's week, and was then and there given to man for his observance. Second, that the Sabbath was made not only out of a day, but out of the seventh day. We will consider these under three heads; that is, positive testimony, Biblical inferences, and historical facts and tribal customs of different nations. In giving the account of creation, the inspired writer makes the statement, not in an argumentative way, but as stating a fact, that the heavens and earth were made in six days; the morning and evening constituting a day. Gen. 1: 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31. Then summing up the work of the first six days, the writer directly states: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” Gen. 2: 1-3. Throughout the inspired Word, the Sabbath is connected with creation. Moses so instructed the children of Israel: “And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that which ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.” Ex. 16: 23. “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.” Ex. 31: 16, 17. Nehemiah, Isaiah and Paul believed it to have originated at creation. Neh. 9: 14; Isa. 58: 12; Heb. 4: 4. Jesus Himself looked upon the Sabbath as co-existing with the race, when He said, “The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2: 27. From the flaming summit of Sinai, Jehovah commanded the observance of the Sabbath because “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. The Sabbath institution becomes then by divine command a memorial of creation. As such it must of necessity consist of a definite day; therefore it was made out of the seventh day. The institution and the definite seventh day must stand or fall together, for the earth could have but one birthday, and the Sabbath was instituted because of that event. In this connection the Saviour’s words, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath,” are full of meaning. This statement was made in answer to the charge of the Pharisees that He had broken the Sabbath. God had in mind man’s need when He made it. But it was his intellectual and spiritual need, not his physical. This will be seen when it is remembered that the Sabbath institution preceded the entrance of sin into the world, and the need of physical rest. As a memorial of creation the seventh-day Sabbath was to meet his intellectual need, in that it would continually keep before him the evidence of the true God, and that He is the Creator—the “cause of things.” It could meet his spiritual needs because God the Creator had rested upon and blest that day. As the ground where Moses stood was holy, because God was present in the burning bush, and as Mount Sinai was made holy when the Lord communed with Moses, so that no man or beast might touch it lest they die, so the seventh-day Sabbath was made holy and sacred by the presence and blessing of God in it and upon it. Its blessing is transferred to man when he observes it. “Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it.” Isa. 56: 2. As an institution, the Sabbath is mentioned no fewer than ninety times in the Bible. In every case, either by direct or inferential statements, the institution is connected with the seventh day. That it was given to man at creation, there can be no doubt, for “God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it”—set it apart for a holy use. Through all the ages past it has been used, and has been the day that has designated the ending of the week. Some Bible inferences may be used as conclusively as a definite statement, for in many places the inspired writers simply made reference to what is elsewhere clearly stated. The inference is also clear, that the Sabbath has been known and kept from creation all the way down to Christ, thus proving the antiquity of the institution, and the sacredness of its claims. Take first this statement in Gen. 26: 5: “Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” He obeyed God’s voice when he heard His call, and left the land of Ur. Heb. 11: 8. He kept His charge when he offered up his son Isaac. Heb. 11: 17. But when and how did he obey God’s commandments, statutes and6laws? The inference is that he knew God’s commandments; else how could he obey? Note the case of the children of Israel. In their servitude, they had forgotten God and His law. Moses was sent to them as their deliverer. His first effort was to restore in their hearts and lives the memorial of Jehovah’s creative work. Because of this, Pharaoh increased the burdens of Israel, and said to Moses, “The people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.” Ex. 5: 5. Unite with this the experience of Ex. 16: 19-30, where the Lord charged them with disobeying His law because they went out to gather manna on the Sabbath,—altho there is no previous record of that law having been given to them,—the evidence is that they knew about the Sabbath, and had been commanded to keep it before they came over the Red Sea. Many Bible commentators concur in this view. Consider, then, the Ten Commandments as given at Mount Sinai, where the fourth commandment is based on the act of creation; and the statement in Gen. 2: 2 that the Sabbath was “blessed and sanctified,”—set apart for man’s use—and the conclusion is that Moses and Abraham were simply doing what all others of God’s people had done from creation down—keeping the Ten Commandments, including the Sabbath command. The foregoing evidence covers the time from creation to Sinai, in Sabbath observance, and exalts it as the test to Israel in their deliverance from Egypt, and the proof of loyalty to God in the wilderness. The week of seven days is the oldest existing monument of astronomical science. Years, months, and even days have changed their beginnings and endings in the onward advance of man, but the week of seven days has always stood the same. And it is worthy of note, that we now have the same day for starting and ending the week that men have always had. History records no time when the week was unknown in the East. Egypt, Babylonia, and Palestine had the seven-day week in their measurement of time; and going to the more remote parts of the earth, we find that the most distant and isolated tribes have preserved a knowledge of the week. The people of Java, according to Sir Stamford Raffles, had our week of seven days. They also had a week of five days to regulate their markets. (“History of Java,” London, 1830, Vol. 1. pp. 531, 532.) From every part of the globe, and among all races of men the week has been observed, and in most cases the week of seven days. In conclusion, we have found that the Sabbath institution stands for a definite day, a definite act of Jehovah, and for a definite purpose in the proper development of man. To destroy this definite seventh day as the Sabbath, means the destruction of that God-appointed institution; and to destroy that institution means to eliminate God as the Creator from the minds of men. And when men forget the God of Genesis and of Ps. 33: 9, who “spake, and it was done,” they are on the road that leads to skepticism, pantheism and heathenism. [The next article is “The Sabbath in the Law and in Christ.”]