The Sabbatic Division of Time
By F. W. Bishop
TIME is measured duration, and duration is like God, everlasting. If time were not divided into different periods, we would be unable to assign dates to events, and all would be confusion. But God has appointed the times and the seasons, and we should be perfectly intelligent concerning them. Time was divided into periods at the beginning, when God divided the light from the darkness, thus producing the day. Seven days were marked off arbitrarily into the week by the Sabbath of the seventh day. Outside of this, the real reason for the week, no one can explain the existence of the week, which is, and always has been, in existence among all the nations of the earth. The fact that all have the week shows that it must have begun with the history of the race. And the fact that the week is the same among all nations shows that it must have had a common origin. One hundred and eight languages out of a total of one hundred and sixty which name the days of the week, call the seventh day the “Sabbath,” or by an equivalent name. The year marked by the relation of the earth and the sun was further divided into twelve months (Eze. 32:1), and four seasons (Gen. 8:22). All this was comprehended in the original plan of God when He gave the creative fiat, “Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” Gen. 1:14. The weekly cycle is marked by the Sabbath, and is time’s honor to the Sabbath. It is not the only division of time in the providence of God, however, that does honor to the rest day. When the Israelites went out of Egypt, they traveled sixteen days in the first month, or from the fourteenth to the thirtieth. Ex. 13:3. The second month they were thirty days en route, and three days were occupied in the third month. Ex. 19:1, 2, 15. In this journey of the Israelites, we have forty-nine days, or a week of Sabbaths; that is, seven Sabbaths in succession, or seven weeks. The Israelites always remembered that journey by counting seven Sabbaths, or forty-nine days. Lev. 23:15. This is the only origin that can even be implied for the Day of Pentecost, which was fifty days from the Passover. This same period seems to have continued until the time of the crucifixion of Christ. After His resurrection He was seen of His disciples on a number of occasions for a period of forty days, until the time that He ascended, which, including the two days of the crucifixion and burial, make forty-two days. Seven days more bring us to the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, fifty days from the Passover. Thus Heaven itself set its seal upon the last Sabbatic week in accordance with the instructions given ages before. “Ye shall7count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath . . . seven Sabbaths shall be complete.” Lev. 23:15. There were also weeks of years. The Israelites were to count forty-nine years, or seven Sabbaths of years. Lev. 25:8. Every seventh year the earth was to rest from cultivation. Lev. 25:1-4. When the seven sevens had expired,—the forty-nine years,—a jubilee was to be proclaimed; all servants were to be set free; all land was to revert to its original owners. Again there was a division of time in which a thousand years were to stand as one day. 2 Peter 3:8. Following the Biblical chronology as nearly as is possible, we find that the world has stood nearly six thousand years. We do not know exactly when the six thousand years end, but when the date which is known only to God arrives, the work of this earth will cease, and it will enter upon the long period of a thousand years of rest, and this last thousand years is the seventh, or the Sabbath, thousand. How is the earth made to rest?
When Christ comes He will take away all of His people. 1 Thess. 4:17. They will be with Him one thousand years. Rev. 20:4. All the wicked alive when He comes will be destroyed. 2 Thess. 1:8. They will not be raised until the thousand years are completed. Rev. 20:5. With the righteous in heaven and the wicked all dead, there will be no man on the earth during this long period to till the ground, and hence the earth will keep her Sabbath. In Hosea we have a reference to three days very difficult to understand unless we take them to mean typical days of one thousand years each. He says that “after two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.” Hosea 6:2. This evidently refers to the resurrection, when all God’s children will be revived, or made alive, and raised up to live in His sight. In the verse preceding he speaks of the division of the nation, which took place under Jeroboam, just as the fourth thousand years was beginning. This fourth day of a thousand years began at some time quite close to the date of the disruption of the Jewish nation. The nation was torn, but God would heal it; it was smitten, but God would bind it up. Hosea 6:1. Three thousand years had already expired in the time of Hosea; three thousand years have nearly expired since then, and now we are brought to the close of the sixth day of a thousand years. After the two thousand years, and in the third thousand years, the resurrection will take place, and Israel will once more be “healed,” or bound up, as promised by Hosea. We are now in the third day, or after the two days, and the reviving or resurrection can not be many years in the future. Thus the Sabbath is seen in the seventh day. We are reminded of it also in the week of Sabbaths, and in the week of years, and in the week of ages of one thousand years each. Thus the Sabbath and the close of the reign of sin are linked in one golden bond, for we shall keep the seventh age, the Sabbatic thousand years, in the home of the saved. Thus the Sabbath and redemption are joined in holy association. God’s people may toil on in faith in this world of sin for six days of a thousand years, but they shall keep the seventh day of a thousand years at home at rest with the Lord.