The Sabbath in the Old Testament
[NOTE.— Very much could be said regarding the Sabbath in the Old Testament, so as to fill a whole page, but a few of the most striking scriptures will be sufficient.] 1. The Sabbath was instituted at the close of the first week of time by three distinct acts,—God rested upon the day, and God blessed and sanctified it. “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: 2, 3. 2. At the close of the patriarchal dispensation, and in the beginning of the Levitical dispensation, the Sabbath was strongly affirmed in the Decalogue. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 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: 8-11. 3. In a prophecy of the last days, we are told that the Sabbath would be restored, and that those from among the Gentiles would be blessed in its observance. “Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. 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.” Isa. 56: 1, 2. “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. 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.” Isa. 58: 12, 13. 4. The same gospel prophet predicts that in that new heavens and new earth the same Sabbath of the Lord will be observed. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66: 22, 23.