Throughout that long period of about fifteen hundred years, which extended from Sinai to the first advent of the Lord Jesus, the story of God's holy day is one of intense interest and profit to the student of the Bible. And, remembering that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning” (Rom. 15:4), the practical lessons of that story may well be taken to heart.
In tracing the history of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, we must, in order to avoid confusion, ever bear in mind that during the entire time of Israel's existence as a nation, even so long as God owned them as His peculiar people, they were called to observe various feast-days and sabbaths, which were wholly ceremonial and simply a part of the system of types and shadows, which ended with the cross. (Reference to these typical sabbaths may be found in such texts as Ex. 12:15, 16; Lev. 23:21, 24, 25, 27-32, 39, etc.)
The scope of this article is such as to forbid more than a brief statement relative to those days. In all cases, let it be said, they were absolutely distinct and separate from the seventh-day Sabbath of the moral law, and were clearly provisional and temporary in their nature. Summing them all up, the Lord declared, “These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, . . . beside the Sabbaths of the Lord.” Lev. 23:37, 38. For an exhaustive study of the Jewish feasts and shadowy sabbaths the reader is referred to Andrews' “History of the Sabbath.”
As a fitting introduction to our study, as well as to emphasize the importance of the subject, the words of the apostle Paul to the Hebrews are in place. Heb. 4:3-11. A careful reading of this scripture will reveal that “from the foundation of the world,” when “God did rest the seventh day from all His works,” the faith of mankind has been tested by the truth of the Sabbath. Loyalty to the day of rest, to the great memorial of creation, was man's proof of loyalty to the government of God. This was particularly true of Israel from the time of Sinai onward. The word to the Hebrews shows that had the Jewish people been faithful in the observance of Jehovah's rest day, the entrance into the land of Canaan would have marked the beginning of the eternal rest that remains for the people of God.
But the Israelites were unfaithful. Failing to find God's rest in the Sabbath day, they also failed to enter that larger rest of the eternal inheritance. They “entered not in because of unbelief.” Said the Lord, “My Sabbaths they greatly polluted;” and “I would not bring them into the land . . . because they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My Sabbaths.” Eze. 20:13, 15, 16. Only two of the generation which came forth from Egypt stood the test and entered the land of promise.
That the Lord considered the matter of the Sabbath as most vital to His work is shown in His decision concerning him who presumptuously gathered fuel during the sacred hours. Num. 15:32-36. The offender was put to death under divine orders, an illustration of what will come to all, by and by, when final rewards and penalties are executed. Let none think that because sentence is not now immediately executed it is any the less certain. Eccl. 8:11. Sin is sin in whatever age committed, and will meet its certain end. Eccl. 12:13, 14.
In every possible way the Lord kept the importance of the Sabbath ever before His chosen nation. Over and over again He inspired His servant to bring home to the conscience of the people their great obligation (see Lev. 19:1-3, 30; 23:3; 16:1, 2; Ex. 31:13-17; Deut. 5:12-15), and in the system of worship ordained and practised, the Sabbath was given peculiar and great emphasis. For example, every Sabbath day the showbread on the holy table before the Lord had to be changed, new hot loaves taking the place of those which had been on the table during the week. Lev. 24:5-9; 1 Chron. 9:32; 1 Sam. 21:6. The lesson to be learned was that the Sabbath day was the time when the Lord Jesus Christ, whose presence the showbread symbolized, gave Himself, with all His new strength and warmth, to His chosen children.
But, notwithstanding all God's efforts to keep His people in living touch with Himself (as true Sabbath-keeping would do), they constantly and stubbornly and almost universally refused to obey the divine instruction. Surrounded, as they were, by the great heathen commercial world, they allowed their love for wealth and worldly aggrandizement to lead them astray. Through the prophet Amos, the Lord truly described their condition, when He said, “Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?” Amos 8:4-6.
It was such circumstances that called forth the messages and appeals of Isaiah. As Sabbath-breaking was but the open door to all forms of heathen influences and customs, so a return to the Sabbath truth would close the door against wrong, bar it from the life, and form the basis of substantial and lasting reform. In his appeals, therefore, the prophet made the question of the Sabbath very prominent. “Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment and do justice. . . . 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. 56:1, 2. Again he wrote: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath [cease trampling the Sabbath underfoot], 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.
But wonderful tho the appeal and great the blessing promised, the message fell upon deaf ears. The people refused to repair the breach, to restore right paths. Isa. 58:12. Sabbath-breaking continued to increase, bringing all its shameful reciprocal results. Then came the message of the prophet Jeremiah. Jer. 17:19-27. Plainly and pointedly he brought before them the truth that if they would turn again to God and “hallow the Sabbath day,” then Jerusalem would “remain forever;” on the other hand, a refusal to obey would invite Jehovah's wrath, and their city and nation would be destroyed.
Terrible indeed was the outcome of the rejection of the word sent. The Sabbath became almost, if not entirely, lost from the nation's experience; the people lapsed into hopeless idolatry, “till there was no remedy.” And then it was that God withdrew His protection, leaving His people a prey to the king of Babylon, who reduced Jerusalem to heaps and carried them away captive. The heathenism, which all had chosen to supplant the Sabbath and its service, was brought against them as a devouring curse. And the record states that all the horrors which overtook the unfaithful people, were “to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths.” 2 Chron. 36:14-21.
The Babylonian captivity ended, and God allowed His chosen people another opportunity to redeem themselves. Again, however, they failed, and again upon the same point. The record of Nehemiah brings to view the last effort of Heaven to restore a state of allegiance, and that record is a record of Sabbath reformation. Neh. 13:15-22.
It must not be forgotten that during all those centuries of unfaithfulness, of apostasy, of resultant calamity, God had a faithful few who were true to the Sabbath and who bore witness to its divine character. While the great multitude deliberately “hid their eyes” from the holy day (Eze. 22:26) and actually “worshiped the sun toward the east” (Eze. 8:16), some were sighing and crying over such abominations (Eze. 9:4), and upon them the Lord placed the mark of His approval.
As it was then, so it is now. The great world has turned its back, the church refuses to see, but there is a “little flock” of faithful ones. They have learned the blessedness of Sabbath obedience, they sigh and cry, and God is honoring them. Think of it, brother, sister, and make sure that you are one of them.
