p. 78 | THE SABBATH A SIGN by Joseph H. Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1875

THE SABBATH A SIGN

By Joseph H. Waggoner

THE LAW OF GOD.—NO. 3.

BY J. H. WAGGONER.

THE SABBATH A SIGN.

An important part of the evidence for the Sabbath is that which presents the Sabbath as “a sign.” This testimony is often perverted by the assertion that it was a sign between the Jews and the Gentiles to keep up a distinction between them. This is not true any further than it is true that obedience to God distinguishes his people from others who are disobedient. But in this sense the Sabbath is no more a sign than is any other duty. The Scriptures never present the Sabbath as a sign in any such light. In Ex. 31:17, the Lord said, “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.” The Bible never says it is a sign between the Jews and Gentiles. To take the name of God out of this text and insert “the Gentiles” in its place, is as presumptuous as it is to take the name of the Lord God out of the fourth commandment and make it read, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Jews.” In either case the name of God is taken away to destroy the force of the Scripture evidence for the universal obligation of the Sabbath. Perhaps in this we find a fulfillment of Isa. 30:9–11, which speaks of a rebellious people, “children that will not hear the law of the Lord; which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” We do not think this is a harsh application of this scripture, for we know of no offense more daring than to expunge the name of the Lawgiver from an instrument of his own writing, and to insert in its stead an epithet of reproach, in order to evade the obligation which his word has so plainly revealed, and for which his own signature is the authority. The Sabbath has the superscription of the Most High. The most daring would tremble to heap reproach upon it, as is often done, if the name of the “Holy One of Israel” had not been removed from it, and the name of Jew, or Gentile, as most conveniently served the purpose, substituted for it.

Having seen that it is a sign, not between Jews and Gentiles, but between God and his people, we inquire, Why is it a sign? and, Of what is it a sign? The first question is answered in Ex. 31:17: “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” It is a sign between God and his people because he rested in it from all his work of creation. As a sign it points only to creation. Of its peculiar significance we are informed in Eze. 20:20. “Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.”

When we learn that the Sabbath is a sign of creation, we are prepared to appreciate the declaration that, as a sign, it perpetuates the knowledge of God, the Creator. The power to create is that characteristic which is given in the Scriptures to distinguish the true God from false gods. In Jer. 10:1–9 is found a description of the gods of the heathen, which are “the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder.” The distinction between them and the true God is thus introduced: “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power,” etc. When the apostles made supplication to God because of their enemies, they thus addressed him: “Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is.” When Paul would point out the true God to the idolatrous Athenians, he said: “God that made the world and all things therein.”

Commemorative institutions are the very best means of imparting and perpetuating a knowledge of important events. Books of history and monuments of stone are but feeble reminders compared with a memorial day. Take our own national memorial as an illustration. No other event in our struggle for independence from Great Britain is so well and so generally known as that of the declaration made on the fourth of July, 1776. And this because the fourth of July has been celebrated as a memorial day. And so long as this is celebrated, so long will the patriotism, the sufferings, and the triumphs of our fathers be kept in remembrance.

And so of the Sabbath of the Lord. He declared it is a sign that it may be known that he is the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth. Had it been universally and uninterruptedly observed, the knowledge of the true God—the Creator of heaven and earth—could never have been lost to the nations of the world.

The significance of the Sabbath of the Lord as a sign of his power, of his supremacy and authority, is lost to all those who advocate the change of the day. No day is a memorial of the Creator but that which commemorates the work of creation—the seventh day. “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work.” It was blessed and sanctified because it was his rest-day from the work of creation. No other day could be his memorial day; no other day was consecrated as such.

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT.

The promises which God made to Abraham are often dwelt upon with great emphasis and apparent delight, by some who never inquire on what these promises are based, or how we may be made partakers of the same promises. First, then, we must ascertain why the promises were made to Abraham.

When God renewed to Isaac the promise of the land, he said, “I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” Gen. 26:3–5. We have already shown that not only Abraham, but mankind in general before and after his day, had a knowledge of the same precepts which we now call moral law. But this testimony of God’s own words to Isaac is still more explicit, as the scriptures inform us that all God’s holy commandments were observed by Abraham. In 1 Chron. 16:14–18, it is said: “He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. Be ye mindful always of his covenant, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; which he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac.”

Here is something brought to view entirely distinct from the promises made to Abraham; it is a “covenant commanded.” But the scripture continues: “And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.”

Here again the promise of the land cannot be the covenant commanded, or the law. Both are embraced in the Abrahamic covenant, according to this scripture. And this is also shown in Gen. 26:3–5, as above quoted. There the Lord said he would perform the oath which he sware unto Abraham, to give him the land, because Abraham kept his commandments. And in 1 Chron. 16:14–18, the promise of the land is connected with the covenant commanded, even to a thousand generations.

And, as a means of identification, we have not only the promise to Abraham twice based upon the law or commandments, but of this it is said he “hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.”

We find in the word of God many covenants as promises, or mutual agreements. See Gen. 9:8, 13; 17:7; Ex. 19:3, 8; Deut. 5:2; 2 Sam. 23:5; Ps. 89:3, 4; Jer. 31:31–35; Heb. 8:7–13; but only one covenant as a law, or commandment, namely, that upon which the promise to Abraham was based. Every promise of a blessing must be based upon some condition or command; for God’s gracious purposes are toward the righteous, (doers of right, 1 John 3:7,) and it cannot be determined who are righteous and who are wicked, unless we have a law for a standard of judgment. Rom. 3:20; 1 John 3:4. Whatever may be the opinions of men respecting this covenant commanded, the word of God is safer and more satisfactory, and to this alone we appeal. In Deut. 4:12, 13, Moses said to the children of Israel: “And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, only ye heard a voice, and he declared unto you his covenant which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments.”

There is a difference between enacting and confirming a law. The covenant commanded, which was kept by Abraham and Isaac, was confirmed to Jacob and to Israel. And Moses said the covenant commanded to Israel was the ten commandments.

We are also informed that God’s holy covenant, which he confirmed to Israel and wrote on two tables of stone, contained only ten precepts or commandments. In Deut. 5:22, it is said, “These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly, in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no more; and he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.” This shows that God’s covenant or law of the ten commandments is not to be confounded with those statutes which were given through Moses, and were not spoken by the Lord nor written on the tables of stone.

The same is referred to in the words of the Lord by the prophet. “For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice,” &c. This expression, Obey my voice, having respect to that which he commanded them when he brought them out of Egypt, yet being specifically separated from the ordinances of offerings and sacrifices, is thus referred solely to that which God spake with his voice, the ten commandments.

All this makes it very certain that the commandments which Abraham kept, and by the keeping of which he obtained the promises, were the ten commandments which were afterward confirmed as a law to Israel. And this is still further proved by the words of Paul; “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law; . . . that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.” We do not now stop to notice the proof that this text affords of the law having jurisdiction over the Gentiles, a subject for future consideration, but call attention to the one point, that the curse of the law must be removed before we can receive the blessing of Abraham. If the promises to Abraham had no relation to the law, as some say, how could the curse of the law stand between them and the blessing of Abraham?

It must appear plain to all that the curse of the law falls only on the transgressors of the law, and only on account of the transgression. Hence, the curse of the law rests on any one as long as he transgresses. And if the curse be removed by pardon, it will return again if we transgress. This must be true unless the pardon gives liberty to continue in transgression. But the gospel of Christ is not a system of indulgence or license, but of forgiveness, and salvation from sin. Christ died “to put away sin;” not to make the way of sin easy and secure. And as Abraham received the promises by obeying God’s commandments, and he would not have received them if he had not obeyed, even so we may be heirs with him of the same promises if the curse of past transgression is removed, and we walk in future obedience.

It may be, and often is, objected that this idea frustrates grace, and rests our salvation upon our obedience; whereas Abraham received the promise through faith. But this objection is based on wrong ideas of the object of grace and of the nature of saving faith. Grace is opposed to sin. “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.” And “faith without works is dead.” As the spirit vitalizes the body, so do works give life and power to faith. It was the obedience of faith which justified Abraham; and if we would be blessed with him we must “walk in the steps of that faith” which he had. The steps which he took were in obedience to God’s commandments. Sin frustrates grace, and forfeits the favor of God under the gospel, as well as in the past dispensation, for Christ is not the minister of sin, but of righteousness. “Blessed are they who do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14. And every man shall be rewarded according to his works.