To the believer in the Bible there can be no question after the reading of the fourth commandment and the origin of the institution of the Sabbath in Gen. 2:1–3. The Creator rested on the seventh day of the septenary cycle. He blessed the seventh day; He sanctified, or set it apart unto Himself; and this He did because that in it He had rested. He commands men to keep holy the day, the seventh, which He made holy. See Ex. 20:8–11.
But one asks, “What difference can there be between twenty-four hours of time at the beginning of a week and twenty-four hours of time at its close?” To human sight, to the eyes of the flesh, there is no difference. But God condemns those “who put no difference between the holy and profane,” who “have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.” Eze. 22:26.
“But what makes the difference between the two?”—It is God’s special presence. It was the presence of God which made the ground holy where Moses and Joshua were. Ex. 3:5; Joshua 5:15. It was the presence of God which made Mt. Sinai holy ground. Ex. 19:12. There was nothing in the physical appearance of Jesus which made Him seem to the natural eye different from other men; but the presence of God within Him made Him the Holy One. God’s presence sanctifies; His Word hallows and blesses.
So His special presence in the last day of the septenary cycle makes that day holy time. Man may not see it. Moses did not see that the ground was holy. Neither did Joshua. But they accepted it by faith. So with the Sabbath day. To the blind, unbelieving heart the time goes on as in all other days. But faith knows that God has blessed and hallowed that day as it comes to all His children, and what He blesses is blessed, and becomes a blessing to all who will by faith so receive it. See Num. 23:20; Gen. 12:3.
“But may we know the seventh day?” Why not? Is it possible that God has given us commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy, that He has pronounced blessings upon those who obey and curses upon those who do not, and yet we may know nothing about the day? No one who loves God or who regards His Word can so impeach His justice. In justice the day, the particular day, must be made clear. Has God done this? Let us see.
1. There could be no question in the beginning. God talked with man face to face, and gave him the Sabbath. He named the days of the week so that man could not forget the Sabbath. They were called First-day to the Sabbath, Second-day to the Sabbath, Third-day to the Sabbath, Fourth-day to the Sabbath, Fifth-day to the Sabbath, Sabbath-eve (Preparation day), Sabbath. As long as man retained the divine nomenclature, he could never forget the Sabbath.
2. But we may suppose, tho it is not at all probable, that man lost the Sabbath during the first two and one-half millennia of the earth’s history. Is the Sabbath thereby lost to the earth?—Nay, not at all. When Israel came from Egypt, God tested His people upon the Sabbath, pointing out the specific day by a threefold weekly miracle for forty years, and enforcing it by a command spoken by His own voice from Sinai. See Exodus 16, and 20:8–11. Therefore, one thousand five hundred years before Christ, men knew the Sabbath of the Lord.
3. The faithful Jews kept it from that time on. When Jesus was upon the earth He kept the day. Luke 4:16, 31. And when He died, His disciples, following the same custom, “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56. The next day was “the first day of the week.” Luke 24:1. The Sabbath was, therefore, the seventh day of the week when Jesus was upon the earth. It is so still. There has been no change since. The Jews, scattered to all parts of the world, have carried with them the true day. Sabbath-keeping Christians have existed from Christ’s death to the present, observing the seventh day. And the pagan Sunday, the first day of the week, has for centuries, in garbs of various character, demanded recognition.
“But,” we are told again, “men can not keep the Sabbath synchronously, that is, the exact hours at the same time all over the world, because the world is round.” True, but does not God know this? Did He not know it in the beginning, when he created man and made for him the Sabbath, and commanded him to keep it? “The Sabbath was made for man.” “God that made the world and all things therein . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.” Mark 2:27; Acts 17:24–26. Listen: The Lord has never asked any man to keep the Sabbath in two places at once; He asks him simply to keep it as it comes to him.
Do men ever have any trouble in knowing when the first day comes? If they had simple faith in the Word, in the example of Christ, could they have any difficulty over the true Sabbath?