3010 — The Sabbath for Israel
By Editor
If the Sabbath is a law for the Gentiles and the church, why do the Scriptures say, with precision, it is a law and a sign for Israel in the past and in the future? Ex. 31:13-17; Eze. 20:12, 13. If for the church, cite Biblical passages that ordained it. Question to Seventh-dayists. Let us say to our readers as emphatically as we can, that God has no promise for the Gentiles in His Word at all, only as they become Israel. The Gentile as a Gentile is utterly without hope, and so God's Word repeatedly declares. For to Israel pertain "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all." Rom. 9:4, 5. Our Lord Jesus Christ was of the stock of Israel. So were all the prophets, and all the apostles; and Jesus Himself declares, "Salvation is of the Jews." John 4:22. The very term "Israel" is of spiritual significance. It was given to Jacob because he prevailed with God, and means "prevailer with God." "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob [supplanter], but Israel: for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed." Gen. 32:28. Only those who have thus prevailed with God can ever keep God's Sabbath; for the Sabbath is holy, and only holy men can keep a holy thing. God does not declare that the Sabbath shall be sanctified by our keeping it. He has already sanctified it. We are to keep it holy as He has made it holy, and the only way it can be kept holy is by having a holy heart. Our Lord Jesus Christ declared, when the young man came to Him, "Keep the commandments." Matt. 19:17. The apostle Paul declares: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." And the writer of Hebrews tells us that under the new covenant, God's law, the law which existed in Jeremiah's day, six hundred years before Christ, is written in the hearts of His children. Heb. 8:8-12. But the Lord does not leave outside the Gentile, called by Him "the stranger." And here is one of the promises which the Gentile may appropriate: "Also the foreigners that join themselves to Jehovah, to minister unto Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast My covenant; even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer." Isa. 56:6, 7. Without that covenant relationship with Israel, the apostle Paul declares that men have no hope, and are without God in the world, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. Eph. 2:12. It is only Israel that shall be saved. In that glorious city which God shall give to His children, there are twelve gates, and those gates are named after the tribes of Israel; and all who pass through those gates, in God's plan, will pass in as members of one of the tribes. For Israel shall be saved with everlasting salvation. It is utter folly to ask a man to keep the Sabbath of the Lord who does not know the Lord. Nobody can compel one to keep the Sabbath who does not know God. What folly it is for men to attempt it!