Morality of the Sabbath AND Its Importance.
XII. The Sabbath is the seal to God's moral law, without which that law would be of no authority. Creative power is the distinguishing attribute of the living God, and to this the Lord always appeals as the evidence of his existence, his power, and his authority, and as that which distinguishes him from all false gods. Notice how prominent this fact is always made in the Bible. It is the very first thing mentioned in the word of God. Gen. 1 : 1. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” David says, “For all the gods of the people are idols; but the Lord made the heavens.” 1 Chron. 16 : 26. Nehemiah thus exalts him: “Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all.” Ch. 9 : 6. The Psalmist thus gives the reason why all should fear God. “Let all the earth [Gentiles as well as Jews] fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. [Why?] For he spake and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast.” Ps. 33 : 8, 9. “Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that made us, and not we ourselves.” Ps. 100 : 2, 3. When David would designate what God he relies upon he says, “My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” Ps. 121 : 2. Again he says, “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is. Ps. 146 : 5, 6. Here are set forth as the mark of the true God, the very facts named in the fourth commandment as the basis of the Sabbath. See Ex. 30 : 11. Hezekiah in the time of his great distress cried to God thus: “O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. . . . Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone.” 2 Kings 19 : 15-18. Thus Hezekiah distinguishes the true God from the false gods by the fact that he created heaven and earth. Jeremiah uses the same arguments against the heathen gods. “But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.” Jer. 10 : 10-12. The fact that God did make heaven and earth is that to which the Lord always appeals as the proof of his existence and authority. In the Bible great prominence is everywhere given to this fact. No wonder that God has set apart one day in the week to celebrate and commemorate this great event upon the proof of which his authority as lawgiver rests. Once the Lord commanded Jeremiah to send a message to the heathen kings of Moab, Edom, Zidon, &c. But they did not know the Lord. How should their servants describe the God who sends the message? The Lord tells them to introduce him thus: “Thus shall ye say unto your masters; I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power,” &c. Jer. 27 : 4, 5. When Jonah wished to tell the heathen what God he served he said, “I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.” Jonah 1 : 9. Turning to the New Testament we find the Christian writers using the same facts in describing the living God. Thus at Lystra when the heathen were about to worship Paul and Barnabas, Paul cried out, “Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.” Acts 14 : 15. So again when Paul wished to introduce to the Athenians the true God he says, “As I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Acts 17 : 23, 24. See also Ps. 89 : 11, 12; 96 : 5; 100 : 2, 3; 124 : 8; 148 : 5, 6; Isa. 40 : 18-28; 42 : 5; 44 : 24; 45 : 12, 18; 51 : 13; Jer. 51 : 15; Rev. 4 : 11; 10 : 6; 14 : 7. Finally Paul says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Rom. 1 : 20. Thus we always find all the inspired writers of both the Old and the New Testaments appealing to the facts of the creation in proof of the existence and authority of God; the proof and memory of which facts the Sabbath was given to perpetuate among men. The Lord expressly says that he gave his people his holy Sabbath that hereby they might know that they were worshiping the true God. Thus he says: “Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Ex. 31 : 13. “And hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20 : 20. For what did the Lord give them the Sabbath? As a sign by which they might know the Lord. So then there is that in the Sabbath commandment which does point out the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the author of the moral law. This being true, the moral importance of the careful preservation of the Sabbath among men cannot be overestimated. Simply securing to man a day of rest and worship is but a small part of the object for which the Sabbath was instituted. No, the great design of the Sabbath is that it should be a memorial of creation, a sign of the true God, and a seal to his immutable law. In this light we can see why the all-wise God who never makes a mistake, placed the Sabbath in the moral law. It was because it serves the highest of all moral purposes, viz., to point out the true God, the author of the law. None can fail to see that if we remove the Sabbath precept from the ten commandments, there is nothing left in the law to tell who the lawgiver is, what his authority is, or how far it extends. It would leave the law incomplete and without any authority whatever. This shows that the Sabbath precept is a necessary part of, and a seal to, the moral law, and hence is in the highest sense a moral commandment. XIII. The seventh-day Sabbath differed from all other holy days in many important points. 1. It has for its basis God's own act of creation. Gen. 2 : 1-3. God worked six days and rested the seventh. This, as we have shown, is the basis of the seventh-day Sabbath. This is not true of any other holy day ever given to man. 2. The seventh-day Sabbath is the rest day of God himself. Ex. 20 : 11. This is not true of any other holy day. Why do we keep the seventh day? Because the Creator himself rested upon it. Is this true of any other day? No, indeed. This fact alone puts an infinite difference between God's holy rest day and all other rest days. 3. The seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by God's own voice speaking from Heaven. Neh. 9 : 13, 14. Here is another fact which is not true of any other day. 5. It was engraven on tables of stone. This probably was to indicate its enduring and unchangeable nature. The law relating to other holy days was written by men upon parchment, indicating that, like the material upon which they were written, they were soon to pass away. But not so of God's rest day. 6. The seventh-day Sabbath was placed in the moral law. Ex. 20 : 1-17. No others were. This is a stubborn fact which our opponents can never account for. If the Sabbath was a mere typical, shadowy, or ceremonial institution like the festival days of the Jews, why did God himself put it in the moral law and thus associate it with moral precepts? Why did he not place it with the other Jewish holy days, if it was like them? Did God make a mistake and place it where it did not belong? Our opponents with their view of the Sabbath, certainly never would have put it where God did, in the moral law. Here God has marked an important difference between the Sabbath and all other sacred days. 7. This law was placed in the ark, in the most holy place. Deut. 10 : 1-5; 1 Kings 8 : 9. The law regulating the festival days was not thus honored, but was written in a book and placed by the side of the ark. Deut. 31 : 24-26. 8. All other holy days grew out of man's actions as a sinner, and they would never have existed but for sin. Here we have a marked contrast which we wish the reader to distinctly notice. The Sabbath grew out of the action of a holy and infinite God, but all festival days originated in some action of man himself. See a complete list of these days in Lev. 23. 9. All other holy days originated this side of the fall, after types and shadows were introduced. This marks them as shadowy and typical. But the Sabbath, as we have shown, was given in Eden before types were instituted. 11. The people had to go up to Jerusalem to-keep the other holy days; Ex. 23 : 14-17; but they kept the Sabbath in all parts of the country wherever they were. 12. The seventh-day Sabbath was weekly, but all other holy days were yearly. So many and so marked differences between God's holy Sabbath and all other holy days show that they are of a very different nature,—the first unchangeable, perpetual, and for all people; but the second only ceremonial, temporal, and for one nation.