The Sabbath Through the Ages
By Charles L. Taylor
V. The Sabbath in the Decalogue
SINAI! Ah, the simple word brings before the mind that day of sublime grandeur and awfulness when the Almighty, the King of the universe, the “One that inhabiteth eternity,” set foot upon earth and deigned to speak from the thunder-riven heights of a barren land to the creatures of His own making—to worms of the dust. “The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints: from His right hand went a fiery law for them.” The Law Given by God Himself
Not by prophet, nor yet by priest, did Jehovah make known to the nation of His choice the great and eternal words of His law. By His own voice the foundation principles of His kingdom and throne were thundered forth. And so divinely complete were those fundamentals, so perfect, so far-reaching, so infinite in all their meanings, that Inspiration has seen fit to record the word, “And He added no more.” Deut. 5:22. The Law Eternal, Unchangeable
That wonderful law the apostle calls “holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12. He also calls it “spiritual.” Verse 14. And because it is holy, just, good, and spiritual, it is to “stand fast forever and ever.” Ps. 111:7, 8. God’s government is moral, hence these moral precepts. Says the Baptist Church Manual, “We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government.” Recognizing the law as spiritual and moral, we must recognize it as unchangeable, because no moral precept can know change. The unchangeableness of the commandments was clearly set forth in the striking fact that God, by His own finger, graved them in the granite of the mount from which He spoke. In view of the truth set forth in the preceding paragraph, we may appreciate the word of Rev. Geo. Elliot in his “Abiding Sabbath:” “Long should pause the erring hand of man before it dares to chip away with the chisel of human reasoning one single word graven on the enduring tables by the hand of the infinite God. . . . Is the eternal tablet of His law to be defaced by a creature’s hand? He who proposes such an act should fortify himself by reasons as holy as God and as mighty as His power.” To this every candid heart will respond with a reverent, Amen. But in the very bosom of that wonderful, holy, unchangeable, moral code, Jehovah placed the word, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” In “The Lord’s Day the Test of the Ages,” there is found this striking word: “Note again the position of the Sabbath commandment-in the law. It is not at the beginning or at the close. Were it at the beginning, it might be declared to be no part of the law. Were it at the close, it might be declared to have been added. But divine wisdom placed it in the very heart of the moral law, so that three immutable precepts guarding man’s duty to God must be passed over, on the one hand, and six immutable precepts guarding man’s duty to his fellow, crushed out, on the other hand, before the impregnable fortress of the Sabbath can be reached in order to attack it. But not one of these massive walls which surround it can be successfully assaulted. The Sabbath law is a part of the Decalogue, and no sophistry can evade it.” The Morality of the Sabbath
Without doubt the Sabbath commandment is a moral precept, and as such must continue, unchangeable and unchanged, throughout all ages and unto all generations. The commandment is: “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 maidservant, 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. It is necessary only to call attention to the fact to enable one to see that all through the commandment the matter of the day is emphasized. “Remember the Sabbath day;” “the seventh day is the Sabbath . . . in it thou shalt not do any work;” God “rested the seventh day;” and God “blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Man’s mind is directed toward the day, not toward an institution which may be moved from one day to another. It is the day which belongs to God. And surely every candid mind will quickly see that divine ownership of the day is in itself a moral question. When God declares, The day is Mine, man may not set up a counter claim and remain innocent. He who takes for himself the property of a fellow man is regarded, even among men, as a criminal, even tho the value of what he takes be no greater than a pin. That he can see no valid reason why his neighbor should cherish the pin is no excuse whatever for his theft. The principle of ownership is sacred. And how true this is in the case of the Almighty. Well may the Lord ask, as He once did, “Will a man rob God?” The Sabbath of the Decalogue is moral in that it involves God’s right to command. Has He decreed that the first six days are ours and the seventh His? That, in itself, is an everlasting and incontrovertible argument which man’s reasoning can not nullify. To question God’s right in any respect is the very height of presumption. Does He ask for sacred fire in the sanctuary ministrations? Then common fire is only sacrilege which calls for certain and swift punishment. Lev. 10:1-3. Does He give particular instruction concerning the apparently simple matter of the removal of the ark? Then man’s carelessness or forgetfulness brings down upon him the bolts of divine wrath, and he dies. 2 Sam. 6:6, 7. Human reasoning may have had some part in both these cases, but certainly it brought only ill to the reasoners. No greater reason why man should rest upon the seventh day is needed than that Jehovah Himself rested on that day and asks man to do likewise. But this is not all. The seventh day is, as it were, a weekly birthday of the completed creation. It alone, and it in its appointed place at the end of the week, can truly be the memorial of creative power manifested during the first week of time. This is the truth of the commandment. “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, . . . and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Dear reader, let us not doubt our Father’s word: The seventh day is His. In that day and in none other He has placed His blessing—His hallowing, sanctifying presence. In keeping holy His day, we shall find within each and all its sacred hours the power of His own life. Read once again the commandment, feast once more upon the divine assurance of Isa. 58:13, 14, and then before God, with bowed heart, submit as never before to the word which says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”