p. 4 | What Shall We Do with the Fourth Commandment?

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 5, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 10.

What Shall We Do with the Fourth Commandment?

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

III—Is God Particular?

"DON'T think it makes any difference, anyway," some one said to me the other day; "I just can't see that it makes a particle of difference to the Lord what day I keep, as long as I am sincere, and attend church, and worship Him all the day!" But my friend forgot that he had just been most energetically trying to prove from the Bible, that the first day is the Sabbath. Failing in this, he adopted the same tactics which are made to serve many others who are in like trouble,—he didn't believe it made "any difference anyway."

But some day the whole world will wake up to the fact that the Almighty is very particular. He is not playing a foolish game with man. He is in earnest. Had He not been "particular," do you think He would have given His only Son to die because of one single act of disobedience on the part of one man and one woman?—Nay, verily. Sin is exceeding sinful in His sight, and sin is the transgression of His law.

They Would Not Believe in the Coming Flood

Once in the long ago, a lone man began the building of a huge boat. What struck the people as very singular was the fact that there was no water upon which to launch the boat. But the man who was building it declared to the people that God had assured him of a coming flood, and that those who wished to save their lives would do well to enter the boat.

I suppose some argued one way and some another. They didn't believe the Almighty would send a flood anyway. Why, it had never even rained! And even if the worst came, it would be just as easy for God to save them in one place as in another. They didn't believe He was "particular."

We remember the history of this—the most awful tragedy which ever befell this old earth.

When it was too late, the inhabitants of a doomed world discovered that God meant just what He said.

Uzzah was one of those men who did not believe that God was "particular." He put no difference between the holy and the profane. The oxen shook the ark of God, and Uzzah laid hold of it to steady it. God had forbidden anything of this kind; still under the circumstances, this man ventured to disobey.

Really, he didn't see why he might not touch the ark,—his hands were clean and his motives good. But he was smitten with death for his folly. God was particular.

"O, well," says one, "you may keep the letter of the law if you deem it so necessary. As for me, I can obey God as well in spirit, without the letter."

So thought King Saul. God had commanded him to exterminate the Amalekites and all their possessions,—a nation whose heinous sins reached to heaven. But the king thought he could improve upon the command of God. He would very nearly fulfil his commission—but not quite. He didn't believe in keeping "the letter of the law." So he spared Agag, the abhorred of Heaven, to pander to his foolish pride. Then there were a few nice fat cattle belonging to the enemy. What a pity to slay all these,

when they might be saved for an offering to the Lord! "Surely," reasoned King Saul, "the Lord does not really mean me to do so extravagant and rash a deed as to destroy cattle which might be spared on purpose for His glory!" What difference could it make? They were only dumb cattle anyway.

So he decided to risk the consequences, and obey what he probably called "the spirit" instead of "the letter" of the law. And sin is so exceeding sinful, that by the time the prophet Samuel came to him with his awful message, King Saul had actually persuaded himself that he had obeyed the command of God. We know the result of his folly.

But the Uzzahs and the Sauls are not all dead yet; and it is as hard to-day as it was then to make men believe that "to obey is better than sacrifice."

Achan was another of those who thought it made little difference whether God was obeyed or not. Ananias and Sapphira were two more. I need not multiply examples of this kind. God's Book is full of them from cover to cover.

Now, in all candor, what business have you or I to conclude that the Almighty is not able to express His real meaning in plain language? Dare we undertake to improve upon the words of the Most High, to impeach His wisdom, or to correct His laws?

God means just what He says, my friend; no more, no less. When He says, "Thou shalt not steal," He doesn't mean that we may commit petty theft, neither will He approve of dishonesty of any kind, no matter under what flag it may sail. And when He declares, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," He means exactly what He says, and no manner of reasoning can make it mean the first day or any other save the one He sanctified at creation. And even tho on every first day for many hundred years the Almighty has been solemnly assured, upon the bended knees of the worshipper, that "this is Thy holy Sabbath," it alters not the truth one whit. God's perfect law is the same. It is as unchanging and as unchangeable as the throne of its unchangeable Author; and tho puny man may seek to batter down the massive pillars of eternal truth, they only loom up the clearer and stronger.