Next, attention is called to the emphatic and incontestable recognition of the then existing Sabbath, appointed by God in Eden, at the close of his six days’ creative work (Ex. 16: 22–30), and an intimation, at least, that the whole moral law of God was then and there known, in the wilderness of Sin, before it was ever announced from Mt. Sinai. Verse 28.
Replying to the murmurings of the people, God said, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” Chap. 16: 4. This definitely presents the fact that God then had a law which he desired the people to walk in. It is implied in the above language that the people had failed to walk in that law. And now God declares his purpose to test their willingness to keep his law by some circumstances connected with the giving of bread from heaven, and the gathering of the same by the people at “a certain rate every day.”
In what did this trial or “proof” consist? “And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Verse 5. “Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man,” &c. Verse 16. “And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.” Verse 22. And Moses said unto them, “This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.” Verse 23. Then, the gathering of two rations on the sixth day, and preparation thereof for eating on that day, was preparatory to the keeping of the Sabbath. But when had God said, “To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord”? It certainly is not recorded anywhere in this narrative, thus far, that God had so said. Nor is the language used so far anywhere in this narrative the language of a legislator proclaiming the appointment of an institution or the giving of a law. It appears only as the language of authority, regulating conduct under, and subject to, an existing, known institution, and its protecting law.
“And Moses said, Let no man leave of it [the manna] till the morning. . . . But some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank. . . . And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating; and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.” Verses 19–21. On the sixth day Moses said, “Bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that which ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning. . . . and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.” Verses 23, 24. Sabbath morning “Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord. To-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days shall ye gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.” Verses 25, 26. Here should be noticed the marked respect which God manifests for the Sabbath, and the care he takes that the people shall keep it holy, working a miracle thereon by preserving the food on that day, while on other days it spoiled when an attempt was made to keep it over. Note further that, on the Sabbath, God ceased from the special work of giving that bread—an example to the people to cease from labor on that day, and that the seventh day is called “a Sabbath unto the Lord,” as in verse 23 it was termed “the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.” Here the thought is suggested (and it is believed subsequent investigation will fully confirm it) that the Sabbath was not only “made for man,” and given to him in which to cease from ordinary labor and learn of God and worship him and do good, but that it was and is an especial “rest-day unto the Lord,” he ceasing on that day from labor as an example to man, as he ceased from his labors of creating at the close of the sixth day, in Eden, and rested therefrom as an example to the race.
The Sabbath, then, is not the Jew’s Sabbath, nor yet man’s Sabbath, but the “Sabbath of the Lord thy God”—God’s Sabbath, though instituted for the benefit of man.
Nor is the language used in the 25th and 26th verses in respect to the Sabbath indicative of the first appointment and establishment of an institution; it is not the language used in instituting and proclaiming any such institution as the Sabbath, or even an ordinance, as may be seen by reference to the original appointment of the Sabbath; Gen. 2: 2, 3; by reference to the establishment of the passover festival; Ex. 12; of God’s covenant with Noah; Gen. 9: 12; of his covenant with Abraham; Gen. 17: 1–14; and by reference to the original appointment of the passover festival as sketched above from Ex. 12, or to the language instituting the feast of the first-fruits of the harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the end of the year. Ex. 23: 16–19; 34: 22, &c. It is not the language even of the original proclamation of an appointed institution then for the first time made known. This is not an announcement that the seventh day was to be “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” but the language only of special directions to guide the people in complying, under the peculiar circumstances of that peculiar occasion, with the law of the Sabbath already instituted and already well known. In fact, the mention of the Sabbath by Moses in verse 23 was simply incidental to the approval of the previous act of the people in gathering their double rations on the sixth day, and further directing them what to do with the peculiar material after it was gathered; and the mention of the Sabbath in the language of verses 25 and 26 was incidental to the assurance by Moses that no manna would be found in the field on that day. In short, the whole language used in this chapter, and the events and circumstances described thereby, indicate that the Sabbath was an institution already established and well known to the people, and that with the usages and law of the Sabbath and its requirements they were entirely familiar; but that under the peculiar circumstances occasioned by the special miracle wrought at that time to feed them, they needed special instructions how to manage the strange and unfamiliar and very peculiar material so supplied to their hands.
But “it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” Verses 27–29. Here in these verses is completed the definite answer to the inquiry, In what did that “proof,” test, or trial, of the willingness of that people to “walk in God’s laws” consist? which is spoken of in verse 4. The keeping of the Sabbath was made the test. And here is again brought to view the fact that God had not only given to the people, previous to this day, “laws” to be obeyed, but also “commandments,” in which the people were instructed, with which they were familiar, and which they broke by going out to gather manna on the seventh day. Otherwise, the rebuke contained in verse 28 was out of place and meaningless. Most clearly and most certainly does it appear in this chapter that the Sabbath had been given and was known to the people, and that there was a law or commandment enjoining and regulating the Sabbath, given and known before this time. Whoever gives close attention to the language used by God and that used by Moses, as represented in this sixteenth chapter of Exodus, must see that it is not language ordaining or announcing a new institution, but language simply regulating conduct under the peculiar circumstances, according to a law already known at this time, when God would discipline the people in special lessons of obedience, as a test or “proof” of their disposition to obey him.
But grant for the moment, what has been so persistently claimed by many, that these Israelites previous to this knew nothing of the Sabbath, and that the language of the fourth and fifth verses is the first intimation they have had of the appointment of a Sabbath; then how shall they determine what is meant by the term “sixth day”? The “sixth day” from what point of time? If, for more than twenty-five hundred years, there had been no Sabbath to divide time into weeks—to mark the termination and recurrence of the septenary period of time, then what could those Israelites have known about the “sixth day,” or the “seventh day,” as spoken of in this chapter? Nothing in nature determines or marks the septenary period, as the days, months, and years are determined and marked. God’s working six days and resting from his works on the seventh day, and then blessing and sanctifying the seventh day as a day of sacred rest “for man,” alone determined the septenary period of time; while the Sabbath alone marked it, dividing days into weeks, and designated when and where, in point of time, to begin to number the days of the week, and when and where to end. Without the Sabbath, those Israelites would have been then, as doubtless the race would be now, as weekless as the millions of Buddhists of India, who are said to have no Sabbath, and hence no weeks.
Logically, the fact of the existence of the septenary period determines the fact of the existence of the Sabbath, which alone marks that period. It is believed that the testimony is conclusive that the septenary period was established by God at the creation of man; that it has always existed since that time, and been recognized almost universally; and that the Sabbath has existed contemporaneously with it, marking the beginning and ending of the week. It is also believed that the testimony from Genesis, and now here in this sixteenth chapter of Exodus (see especially verses 4 and 28), is sufficiently conclusive to silence all cavils against the conclusion that91the fourth-commandment law, prescribing regulations for man’s conduct in respect to the Sabbath, and guarding and protecting that sacred institution, was given and made known when the Sabbath was ordained in Eden, and that a knowledge thereof, sufficiently full and definite upon which to predicate moral action and moral responsibility, was retained and continued all along through the ages down to the point of history mentioned in this chapter. For moral responsibility and accountability, such as are implied in this chapter (especially in verses 4, 28, and 29), argue the presence of a law to which the people were responsible under God, and a knowledge of that law.
Again, the presence of a law governing and protecting an institution (as in this case), logically argues the presence of the institution to be protected by it; and, conversely, the presence of an institution (as the Sabbath as set forth in this chapter) logically argues the presence of the law, in short, of all the laws and regulations needed to regulate and protect said institution. Therefore, not only must those Israelites, in the wilderness of Sin, and at least two weeks before they reached Mt. Sinai, have had a definite knowledge of the Sabbath of God, but also the Sabbath commandment guarding and protecting the institution, and all needed general rules to regulate their conduct in respect thereto, must have been known and understood by them; otherwise, God’s method of “proving them,” “whether they would walk in his law or no,” and his very severe rebuke of the people for refusing to keep his commandments and laws (verse 28), would seem a very great severity and injustice to them. Here notice that he charges them, impliedly, not with neglecting or accidentally failing to keep his commandments and laws, with which, perhaps, they were but partially acquainted, but with “refusing” to keep commandments and laws well known and understood, and, doubtless, perversely refusing so to do. This is the implication here.
To argue that this reference to the Sabbath here in Ex. 16 is only made prophetically as foreshadowing its institution and proclamation to the Jews from Mt. Sinai, and simply preparatory to that great event, seems very unreasonable, to say the least. For, verily, the people were required there, at that time, to “abide every man in his place” “on the seventh day,” because it was the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. “So the people rested on the seventh day.” Verse 30. Surely, then and there was the Sabbath, and then and there was it kept by God’s people.
To argue, on the other hand, that the time spoken of here in Ex. 16 was the time when the Sabbath was first given to man seems scarcely less unreasonable; for not only do the forms of speech, style of language, and tense of verbs used, and all the events and circumstances here recorded, indicate that the Sabbath was at that time a previously existing and well-known institution; but if this language of Ex. 16 is to be interpreted as originally ordaining and proclaiming the Sabbath as a new and before unknown institution, then, surely, the Sabbath was at first given without giving a reason for it; for no reason for the Sabbath is given in Ex. 16. Such a transaction would be unlike God, for, according to that supposition, the people were imperatively required to keep the Sabbath, which, as we learn elsewhere from the Bible, was ordained as a memorial to commemorate a very great event in the providence of God, and yet were not told what that institution commemorated.
Verily, keeping in mind all the facts above stated,—the septenary period, and the fact that the appointment of the Sabbath alone determined it or marked its recurrence; the language used in Ex. 16; the events that there took place; and then the reasons given in God’s word for the institution of the Sabbath,—we are necessarily carried back to Gen. 2: 2, 3, to find an account of the origin of the Sabbath, and the object and reasons for it, which here we find to be an existing and known institution.