THE COMMANDMENTS.—PART 1.
By A. C. Spicer
The Sabbath and the Ordinances of the Old Covenant,—Their Similarities and Dissimilarities.
Very often when non-Sabbath-keeping people are urged to “remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy,” they reply, “Well, if you are going to keep the Jewish Sabbath, you should be circumcised, and should keep the passover and the other sabbaths of the Jews. If you keep a part of the law, you are ‘debtor to do the whole law.’ Hence, if you keep the Sabbath you must not pick up any sticks thereon, nor build a fire. If you do, you must be stoned to death.” In such replies, there is an entire lack of distinction between the moral and the secular, between the universal and the limited, between the general and the special, between the object and the means. Obligation to keep the moral law of God in no sense implies obligation to keep the “law of Moses,” as the national statutes and typical law are termed, no more than obligation to obey the Constitution of the United States implies obligation to still obey the old dead territorial laws, which were once applicable here, but which expired or were abolished long years ago, when the territory became a State. The first is general, universal, and the fundamental law of God’s moral government; the second was a special, limited, secondary, and simply prudential law of the Israelites, “added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made,” and which was a “school-master,” simply to teach the rudiments of faith till Christ should come and offer himself a sacrifice for sin. The one was “ordained unto life” and must continue as the law of holiness until that life is found at the resurrection, when “Christ shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” The other was limited to the time of the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, as it was a law peculiar to that people, and regulating those ordinances, &c., “which were a shadow of things to come.” See Gal. 3; Col. 2. But because those old temporary territorial laws were abolished, or expired by limitation when the territory became a State, the Constitution of our general government did not therefore cease to exist. No more was the fundamental, universal moral law abolished by the expiration of the limited, temporary, typical, and civil law. Again, that moral law contained no precept enjoining circumcision, the passover, or either of the other festival ordinances. Look at it as spoken by God with a “great voice” from Mt. Sinai. Ex. 20:3–17. Look at it again in Deut. 5:6–22, as “engraven by the finger of God” on stone. Ex. 24:12; 31:18; 34:28; Deut. 4:13. Nowhere in the moral law as recorded, spoken, or engraven, are those ordinances commanded, or even referred to, in the slightest degree. Yet, there, in the fourth precept thereof, the observance of “the Sabbath of the Lord” is commanded. And everywhere that law is repeated the Sabbath commandment is included. Let no one, now, stultify himself by affirming that the moral law of ten commandments and the law enjoining those ordinances are all one. In Deut. 5:22, Moses distinctly declares that when God had spoken those ten precepts unto the assembly of the people with a “great voice,” “he added no more;” i. e., he spake no other precepts or laws in connection with them or at that time. And those, thus spoken separately from any others, were the ten precepts that were engraven on stone. Ex. 34:7, 8; Deut. 4:13; 5:22. Moses makes a plain distinction between the moral law and the temporary ritual law in his repeating record in Deut. 4:12–14, where he says, “And the Lord spake unto you,” &c. “And he declared unto you his covenant which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.” Then of the other law he says (verse 14): “And the Lord commanded me at that time [i. e., while in that encampment before Mt. Sinai, though on a different occasion] to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.” The fundamental law was spoken by God; and by him engraven, at one time; at another time the special, temporary, provisional law was dictated to Moses, by angels as Paul says, and then afterward written in a book by Moses. The fundamental ten precepts had been in force previously, from the first existence of the human family, and were continued in full force at, and from, the day of their rehearsal from Mt. Sinai. But the statutes and judgments were then for the first time given, and were not to take effect and be in force till the Israelites were settled in the promised land. Nor does the moral law (see Ex. 20:3–17; Deut. 5:6–21) prohibit kindling a fire on the Sabbath when such work is necessary to health and life, as it is in our country. Nor yet is the death penalty attached to the violation of the Sabbath by such acts. The case recorded in Num. 15:32–36, was an exceptional one. It is true that to crimes of a certain definite character against God in violation of the Sabbath law, God did, in the wilderness, attach the penalty of death. Ex. 31:13–15. But God by Moses carefully designated the character of the crimes to be so punished. In Ex. 31:14, it is said, “Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death.” And in Num. 15:30, 31; Deut. 17:12, their character is further defined thus: “But the soul that doeth aught presumptuously . . . the same reproacheth the Lord. . . . Because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off;” &c. “The man that doeth aught presumptuously and will not hearken, . . . even that man shall die; and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.” “And all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously.” (Verse 13.) Then, it was for despising God and his authority, for sinning wilfully, as Paul termed it, in defiance of God, while the Israelites were being subjected to special discipline in the wilderness, under God’s special directions and subject to his personal supervision and judgment, that the death penalty was attached. But that severe though just penalty was not attached alone to the Sabbath law; it applied equally to the violation of either of the commandments of the moral law. See Num. 15:30. Then as we learn from Num. 15:32–36, “while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day,” and he was stoned to death therefor. Hence the cant retort against Sabbath-keepers. But what were the facts in the case? That people were being tested by God as to their disposition to respect and obey him. Ex. 16:4; 20:20. God was thus proving them by testing their willingness to keep the Sabbath while he was miraculously feeding them with manna. Ex. 16. Then in that climate, while being thus bountifully fed, there was no need for them to build a fire on the Sabbath day. Hence kindling a fire had been expressly forbidden, Ex. 35:2, 3, as all work on that day had been specially forbidden under the penalty of death. Ex. 31:14, 15. That was all right. God was there and then specially disciplining and personally judging the people. So the presumptuously sinning man was brought before Moses and Aaron, and they “put him in ward,” as was done in the case of the blasphemer, “that the mind of the Lord might be showed them” (Lev. 24:12, 13), “because it was not declared what should be done to him.” They consulted the Lord in respect to his case. “And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.” That man had presumptuously gone out and “gathered sticks” in contempt and defiance of God’s authority, wilfully reproaching the Lord, and despising his word and breaking his holy commandment. God, who saw and knew all that, sat as judge in his case, and the judgment was just. But how evident it appears from the narrative of the events that that was an exceptional case. And was it not a solitary one? Why, then, should professing Christian men demand that we, who love God’s holy Sabbath and law, should therefore not build necessary fires on the Sabbath days? We acknowledge that we should do no unnecessary work of that kind, however trifling. But do those who thus retort upon us to repel the claims of God’s Sabbath acknowledge that they should be subject to the stoning-to-death penalty for any such constructive violation of either of the other nine commandments which they confess to be binding on them? Why not? Do be as consistent with your own theory as you ask us to be with ours. But dost not thou “presumptuously” reproach the Lord, despising his word and defying his authority, when thou thus repelest his commandment? Yet we do not invoke the penalty of death by stoning upon you; but we still entreat you in all kindness, Listen to the voice of God, love and “do his commandments,” that you “may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” No more does obligation to keep the Sabbath holy imply obligation to be circumcised, or to keep those old-covenant festival ordinances. 1. The Sabbath, like marriage, was an institution of holiness, and the moral law enjoining it was a law of holiness, constituted before the sin of the race, and “ordained unto life:” i. e., to guide to that holiness of character which could be rewarded with eternal life. The transgression of the race did not abrogate the obligation to develop holiness of character; though that sin forfeited to man the reward of eternal life and rendered absolute holiness an impossibility, and hence rendered it impossible for him to attain unto immortality without extraneous aid and additional facilities. Therefore that transgression did not affect man’s relation to those institutions of holiness, or his obligation to be obedient to the law of holiness; though it did render necessary additional encouragements to obedience, and a plan according to which holiness might be imputed to him, to the end that he might yet participate in the forfeited blessings of eternal life. That plan adopted was, in brief, that the punishment and death of a mediator in man’s stead might atone for the original sin, and then the “obedience unto righteousness” and “righteousness unto holiness” of that mediator should be accounted unto man for holiness on condition of all possible obedience to the moral law (with repentance for all individual transgressions), and faith in God, in his mediating Son, and in the plan adopted for justifying the sinner. At that time, there entered into the system of religion given to man the element of faith, which henceforth became a very characteristic element, and had its covenants, ordinances, and laws. All of those covenants, ordinances, and laws of faith were temporary, some being limited to one period of time marked by some great event in carrying out that plan of salvation, and some to another period of time and to other events. 2. The first great event which will be noticed here was an encouragement to obedience and the exercise of trusting, abiding faith. That was a covenant or mutual agreement into which God entered with Abraham, in which God solemnly bound himself to grant certain great blessings upon Abraham and his seed upon condition of faith and obedience to him. “If ye will obey my voice indeed” (Ex. 19:5), and “keep my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Gen. 26:5), was the condition. “All that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient,” was the responsive promise of Israel. Ex. 19:8; 24:3, 7. See also Gen. 17:1; 22:18. That covenant with Abraham was a covenant of grace and salvation. Yet it promised temporal as well as eternal blessings, the temporal being provisional to the eternal, or, in other words, encouraging facilities for attaining to the eternal. It promised temporal rewards and eternal rewards; temporal prosperity and eternal prosperity; temporal possessions and eternal possessions; temporal habitations and an eternal city; the temporal food supplies of the “goodly land,” and the eternal fruits of the “tree of life” in the “better country, that is, an heavenly.” Gen. 17:1–8, 19; 22:17, 18; 26:3–5; 35:11, 12; Ex. 19:5, 6, &c. The promises of God upon which that covenant was established were of a two-fold character; they promised physical blessings and spiritual blessings. In return for these, or as an antecedent condition upon which those promises were predicated, God required heart sanctification by repentance, faith, and obedience. That sanctification of the heart, in harmony with the outward sign thereof, was called the “circumcision of the heart” as a covenant. Antecedently God had said to Abraham, “Walk before me and be thou perfect.” Moses, while enjoining upon the Israelites, in the name of God, a fulfillment of their covenant obligations said, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your hearts, and be no more stiff-necked. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave and swear by his name.” Deut. 10:16, 20. And this was in consonance with what God had required in case of the offending of the Israelites. “If they shall confess their iniquity, . . . if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember,” &c. Lev. 26:40–42. This same thought is found repeated in Deut. 30. “And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” Verse 6. “And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments,” &c. Verse 8. (The whole chapter needs to be read.) Compare these quotations with corresponding scriptures, and especially with Col. 2:11–13; 3:1–4; Rom. 2:25–29; 3:5, 6; and true circumcision will be seen to be of the heart. It was heart sanctification. It was “setting bounds to the heart round about” by God’s law and indicated will. It was by repentance, dying to sin and the world; by faith, rising to a new life in trusting hope; by obedience, returning to God; and by love, drawing near to Him in whom the desired life was to be found. Thus it was circumcising the heart, or life, round about by the precepts and will of God, and so cutting off from access to it Satan and all his temptations to sin. Hence, it was called circumcision; circum—around, and cædere—to cut.