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The Commentary

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 6, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 1.

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The Commentary.

CREATION AND THE SABBATH.

LESSON 2.—SABBATH, JANUARY 14.

1. WHO was the direct agent in the creation of the earth? John 1:1, 3.
2. State briefly what was done on each of the first four days.
3. What was made on the fifth day? Gen. 1:20-23.
4. What upon the sixth day? Verses 25-27.
5. How did God regard his work when it was done? "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Verse 31.
6. How did he spend the seventh day? "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." Gen. 2:1, 2.
7. After he had rested on the seventh day, what did he do? "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Verse 3.
8. What is the meaning of "sanctify"?—"To set apart for a holy or religious use."—Webster.
9. What is the name of the seventh day? "But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." Ex. 20:10.
10. For whom was the Sabbath made? "And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Mark 2:27.
11. What is necessarily implied in the statement that after God had rested upon the seventh day he sanctified or set it apart?—That he told man what he had done, and commanded him to keep it holy.
12. Give two instances of the use of the word "sanctify," which confirm this. Ex. 19:12, 23; Josh. 20:7, margin.
13. What is the great object of the Sabbath? "Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctified them." Eze. 20:12.
14. How does the Sabbath serve as a "sign" to make us know the true God? "Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death." "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." Ex. 31:15, 17.
15. What is God's distinguishing characteristic? "For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens." Ps. 96:4, 5; Jer. 10:10-12.
16. What is the difference between God and men? "Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." Ps. 100:3; Isa. 55:9; 40:15, 17.
17. Then what was the Sabbath designed to do for men?—To be a continual reminder of God's greatness, and of their dependence upon him, and of their duty to serve him with humility.
18. If Christ created the heavens and the earth, who must have made the Sabbath?—Christ, for the same one that worked six days, rested on the seventh.
19. Then what relation does he sustain to it? "Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2:28.
20. Then in keeping the Sabbath, whom do we honor?
21. And when the Sabbath is not kept, who is dishonored?