THE SABBATH LAW by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 11, 1891

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 17, No. 19.

THE SABBATH LAW.

By Editor

FROM a correspondent, writing from Medicine Lodge, Kansas, we have received the following communication, which we print, not because of its value, but because it is a sample of many others which we receive:—

A QUESTION ABOUT THE SABBATH.

M. W. C., in his article in No. 12, volume 17, of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, refers to Ex. 20:10 to prove the "origin of the Sabbath," which reads as follows:—

"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 man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates."

And [in] Ex. 26:29 I find the following added: "Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath-day."

But they were to "abide every man in his place" on that day. Keep in your own doors. The question I want answered is this: When was that part of the law abolished which prevented a woman from picking up sticks on the Sabbath and from making a fire on that day; that prevented a man from working his ox, his ass, his horse, or of traveling more than a Sabbath-day's journey on that day, which was three-fourths of a mile?

I say, When abolished? for I see that none of the Sabbatarians, so far as I know, keep it as Moses commanded it. Or must a person still be stoned to death for doing any of the forbidden things on the Sabbath. Please give time, place, and the words in which it was abolished, and much oblige a truth-seeker.

1. "Truth-seeker" has evidently read the article referred to, as well as the Bible, very carelessly. Ex. 20:10 was not cited as proving the "origin of the Sabbath," but as proving that the Sabbath is the Lord's day. And that text, with the others used, most conclusively proves this.

2. The words which our querist quotes as being found in Ex. 26:29 are found in Ex. 16:29, and were given some time before Israel came to Sinai. They, therefore, were not "added" to the law. They were simply a part of the specific instruction which God gave to Israel, governing them while they were in the wilderness and provided for by the miraculous supply of the manna. Moses, in speaking of the ten commandments, expressly says that God "added no more." Deut. 5:22.

3. There is nothing said in the Sabbath law about a woman picking up sticks or a man working his ox. The law does not discriminate between the sexes. The incident which our friend refers to is evidently the incident recorded in Num. 15:32-36. This man was stoned to death because he committed a presumptuous sin. That this was a special case is shown by the fact that the man was put "in ward, because it was not declared what should be done with him" (verse 34); and his penalty was determined by a special sentence from the Lord. The deed was not one of necessity; it was an act of daring, presumptuous sin. In fact, the Lord uses this man and his sin to illustrate what is meant by "doing aught presumptuously." See verses 30, 31. But neither this nor Ex. 16:29 was any part of the Sabbath law.

4. The prohibition against the labor of the ox, etc., is obligatory to-day, modified by the term, "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." It is lawful to do work for God on the Sabbath. The priests did double work in the temple on that day. Num. 28:9, 10. Works of necessity, mercy, and charity were works allowed of God, neither were they forbidden by the Sabbath law. Jesus, who gave that law, declared that it was "lawful [that is, according to law] to do well on the Sabbath-days." Matt. 12:12. The local injunctions and prohibitions of the Old Testament related to the wilderness, to Palestine, and to Israel as a nation. Some of them were local in their nature, and applied only to the theocracy. When that theocracy expired, the laws expired by limitation. The law of the priesthood and the laws regulating sacrifices and offerings, and the laws of a civil character governing the Jewish people, all fall in this category. They were not, strictly speaking, abolished. They were given for a certain time, and that time had expired. Shadow reached substance, and the shadow ended. The type reached the antitype. The good reached the better. See Heb. 7:12; 9:9-12. But the moral law of God, the decalogue, stands unchanged in jot or tittle. Matt. 5:17-19; Luke 16:17. The Sabbath is a part of that law, and according to that law man may "do well," may work for God, on that Sabbath-day. There is no law in the Scriptures saying what a Sabbath-day's journey is.

5. Moses was only the servant of God. The law of the Sabbath was not Moses' law, neither were the other laws. Some of them were called the law of Moses because given through Moses, but all were laws of God. The true Sabbatarian Christian keeps the Sabbath, as he does all the law, from love of Christ. The spirit of the law is in harmony with the Spirit of the Giver, our Lord Jesus Christ; and he who has the Spirit of Christ will keep the commandments of God and count them not grievous. 1 John 5:3. M. C. W.