Our Bible Reading

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 10, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 35.

Our Bible Reading

Institution of the Sabbath

1. When was the Sabbath instituted?

“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. 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.” Gen. 2: 1-3.

2. Does the Sabbath commandment also refer to the close of creation week as the time when the Sabbath was instituted?

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 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: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20: 8-11.

NOTE.—The foregoing texts plainly show that the Sabbath was instituted at the close of creation’s week. “Remember,” the first word of the Sabbath commandment, points us backward to the time when the Sabbath was instituted. We “remember” the things of the past. The memory does not go forward into the future. The Lord gives as His reason for instituting the Sabbath, that in six days He made the heavens and earth and all things that they contain, and because of this manifestation of His power as Creator He gave us the Sabbath. The Sabbath, then, was instituted as a memorial of creation. And since creation is a thing of the past, and can not be changed, neither can the Sabbath be changed. Our God desires to have us sense His power, and therefore His ability to save and protect us. And hence He desires that we shall observe the memorial of His power, the Sabbath that keeps in mind the mighty forces that He put into operation in creation.