The Purpose of the Sabbath
The Purpose of the Sabbath.
GOD blessed and sanctified, or made holy, the seventh day because He had rested in it. Sanctifying the day was to set it apart, or appoint it, to a holy use. Appointing a day for a rest-day was to proclaim it, or to command that it be used, as a holy rest-day. God’s rest on that day was a spiritual rest, because He is spiritual; His rest was holy because He is holy. As “the Sabbath was made for man,” it was to man that the appointment was announced, to whom the commandment was given. God’s rest was in commemoration of the new creation; hence the commandment was in order that this memorial be perpetuated. There was a far-reaching reason for this. God knew the end from the beginning; He knew that man would be tempted, and would fall; that there would be a long conflict between righteousness and unrighteousness; that there would be strenuous and persistent effort on the part of the adversary to draw men away from the allegiance due to God. The observance of the weekly Sabbath was to be a continual help to him in maintaining his hold upon God. It would always be a reminder of the connection between the true God and the creation of the world. By the observance of the Sabbath day, this lesson would be especially emphasized every week. Just as long as man would remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as God had kept it holy, he would be protected from idolatry. On the same day that Adam sinned, the Gospel was presented to him, and he accepted it. This is evident from the fact that he did not die on the day that he ate of the forbidden fruit, according to the sentence, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Like the Sabbath day the Gospel was given for man. Adam was not deceived by Satan (1 Tim. 2:14); the woman was deceived, and Adam ate because she did, he knowing just what he was doing. Therefore the offer of salvation would appeal to him as extraordinary leniency on the part of the Creator, and would be more readily accepted and the more highly appreciated. Christ maintained the principle that he who is forgiven most will love the most. Luke 7:41–43. The postponing of the sentence of death, and the granting of a new probation to Adam on his repentance, has its counterpart in the case of Nineveh. Jonah was sent to proclaim, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” But the people repented, and the execution was stayed. Obedience the Fruit of Faith.
Now that Adam had received the Gospel, he renewed his allegiance to God and obeyed His commandments. Naturally he became the teacher of his family, and the principal teacher of his race while he lived. His renewed allegiance implied renewed obedience, and the Sabbath would logically be the object of renewed obligation and of renewed delight. Adam became a teacher of “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Being the head of his race, he was a type of Christ (Rom. 5:14); therefore he kept the Sabbath day, of which Christ was Lord. Every true type of Christ must have kept the law of God, for that was the purpose of His coming to the earth (Ps. 40:7, 8); and no part of the law of God has been so specially emphasized as the command to keep holy the Sabbath day. It is therefore clear that Adam taught the keeping of the Sabbath day. His descendants through the line of Seth were the recognized people of God, down to the time of Noah; therefore they recognized God’s holy day in commemoration of His creative work—the one great indicator that points to the true God. “All the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens.” Ps. 96:5. According to the chronology of the Common Version of the Bible, the whole period of time from creation to the flood was covered by Adam, Lamech, and Noah. Adam and Methuselah spanned the time from creation to within one year of the flood. There is no doubt that the “patriarchs” in the line of Seth were recognized as the people of God in contradistinction to the descendants of Cain. In this patriarchal line we have Enoch especially mentioned as walking with God three hundred years (Gen. 5:22); so faithful was he that God translated him at the age of 365 years without his experiencing death. Whatever may have been the degree of faithfulness manifested in the lives of Methuselah and Lamech, Noah was found righteous before the Lord. Notwithstanding the fact that in Noah’s time there was a general apostasy on the part of God’s nominal people, this condition had been reached gradually, and the Lord had not been without representatives. There were all the time those who kept the commandments of God. Therefore they kept the Sabbath, and a neglect of the Sabbath obligation would be the very thing that would lead to apostasy. It would be a neglect of the memorial especially designed to keep men in touch with the true God—to keep Him in their mind, and therefore to retain a knowledge of Him and a reverence for Him. That the law of God was in force in the patriarchal age is evident from the facts that “death reigned from Adam to Moses” (Rom. 5:14); that “death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (verse 12), and that “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). From the very beginning the law of God contained the command to keep the Sabbath day. Abel “obtained witness that he was righteous” (Heb. 11:4); Enoch had this testimony, that he “pleased God” (verse 5), and the Lord said to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.” Gen. 7:1. Now the psalmist tells us that all the commandments of God are righteousness (Ps. 119:172); therefore these men must have obeyed the commandments of God in order to gain His testimony to their righteousness. All these men had faith (so says the record in Hebrews 11), and this is how and why they kept the law of God; for “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Without faith there can be no inclination to please Him by literal obedience. But the faith that pleases God is the “faith which worketh by love.” Gal. 5:6. As in the case of Abraham, it was by works that faith was made perfect. James 2:22. It was because of Enoch’s righteous “walk,”7his obedient life, or life of faith, that God translated him. It was because of Noah’s righteousness, his obedience of the commandments of God, actuated by his spirit of faith, that he was commissioned to build the ark. It was not merely the faith manifested in the building, but the faith shown in his previous life, that caused him to be entrusted with so great a work. Gen. 6:7, 8, 17, 18. After the flood, evidently because of neglect of God’s memorial institution, men again drifted into idolatry. So God called out Abraham, and began the building of a new nation that would exercise the obedience of faith. God said of Abraham, “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” Gen. 18:19. And after Abraham’s death the Lord testified of him, “Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Ch. 26:5. This was the characteristic that distinguished the “friend of God” from those who served other gods. It always was true that, of all the institutions of God, the Sabbath day was the special sign of allegiance to Him. Ex. 31:13, 17; Eze. 20:12, 20. It was appointed for that special purpose; hence the commandment, and the blessing attached to its observance.