The Law, the Sabbath, and Redemption.
By G.
The Lord repeated His law to the children of Israel at Sinai, because He had delivered them from Egyptian servitude in order that they might serve Him. Ex. 4:22, 23. It was therefore necessary that they know His law, if they were to serve Him intelligently. Their long bondage under the heathen had well-nigh obliterated the knowledge of the law of God. But from the time Moses returned from Midian on his mission of deliverance, he had been instructing them as fast as possible. One of the signs that the Lord had given Moses at the burning bush was, “When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain” (Horeb, or Sinai). Ex. 3:12. It was meet then that the people should be fully informed as to the law they should obey. So the Lord, as He always does in due time, gave them needful information. The law, as enunciated from Sinai, contained the Sabbath commandment expressed in very explicit terms. It plainly states the day of the Sabbath—the seventh day—and the reason why it was blessed and hallowed. The day, and the reason for its hallowing, or sanctification, are the same as mentioned in Gen. 2:2, 3, and are therefore the same. Connecting this with the fact that Abraham kept the commandments of God (Gen. 26:5), we have the proof that neither the law nor the Sabbath originated at Sinai. This is also shown by the fact that some weeks previous the people had been reminded of the Sabbath in the giving of the manna, and it was made a test as to whether they would walk in the law or not. Ex. 16:4, 5. The preamble, or introductory statement, to the law has an important significance that is too generally overlooked: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Ex. 20:2. Now note the statement in Deut. 5:15: “Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.” This is another emphasis on the fact that God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt that they might have liberty to serve Him, and their remembrance and observance of the Sabbath day was to be the test of their willingness to be obedient. This point, the prominence of the Sabbath in the law, is shown by comparison of a few other texts of Scripture. In Ex. 19:5 the Lord says to Israel, “Now therefore [because He had brought them out of Egypt], if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.” Obeying God’s voice as heard by the people on Sinai, was obeying His law of ten commandments, for that was all that He spoke audibly to the people. Deut. 5:22, 23. Now practically the same promise is made for faithful Sabbath observance as for the observance of the whole law: “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; 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. Of this law, to whose observance so much importance and blessing is attached, Jesus said to the people, in His great Sermon on the Mount: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:17, 18. It is not enough that Christ Himself fulfil the law; for He died that “the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” See Rom. 8:3, 4. All men are under obligation to keep the Sabbath; for “the Sabbath was made for man” in the beginning. But, as we have shown, Israel was placed under added obligation, because of their deliverance from Egypt, just as the pardoned criminal is deemed under renewed obligation to become a law-abiding citizen. Now Israel was typical of God’s people all through the Gospel dispensation, or probationary time. God called Israel His son (Ex. 4:22, 23; Hosea 11:1); so He said of the child Jesus, when He was taken to Egypt for a time to escape the treachery of Herod, “Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” Matt. 2:15. The children of Israel were the children of Abraham, and the disciples of Christ are the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29). “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Phil. 3:3. Egypt stands for the lowest depths, the blackest darkness, of sin. Christ’s going into Egypt was typical of His stooping to redeem the sinner of the lowest degree. Therefore all who are redeemed from sin by faith in His redeeming blood are brought out of Egyptian darkness, “out of the house of bondage.” So just as Christ brought literal Israel out of literal Egypt by the hand of Moses, He has brought the spiritual seed out of spiritual darkness by His Holy Spirit. And just as the literal seed (who were also spiritual when truly converted) were under added obligation to keep the law of God, including His Sabbath which He blessed and sanctified in the beginning, so the spiritual seed, which He has redeemed from spiritual Egypt, are under a like special obligation. In either case the law and the Sabbath are spiritual institutions. Paul says, “The law is spiritual” (Rom. 7:14); and the Sabbath is a memorial of God’s rest, which was a spiritual rest, for “God is a Spirit.” John 4:24. The Lord is saying to His people to-day, as verily as He did of old, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;” “thou shalt keep therefore His statutes, and His commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, forever.” Deut. 4:40. Now “the earth” which the Lord gives to the spiritual seed “forever” is the “new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13); and in that new earth, to the kingdom of which “there shall be no end” (Luke 1:31–33), all flesh shall worship God on the Sabbath day (Isa. 66:22, 23), just as was designed in the beginning, when “the Sabbath was made for man.”