The Making of the Sabbath
By William Covert
For Whom Was It Made? — Designed to Keep the Creator in Mind — A Definite Day Set Apart IN order to understand the Sabbath question, it is necessary to know the reasons upon which it is based, and the purpose which it is intended to serve. Who is responsible for its existence, and who will be benefited by keeping it? Is it local in its character, or does it cover an extended field? When did its history begin, and when if ever will it end? Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, said: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2: 27, 28. MEANING OF THE WORD "SABBATH"
The primary significance of the word "Sabbath" is rest. In the Bible, the word "Sabbath" relates to a consecrated period of rest after work is done; and according to the Scriptural record, the Sabbath is coeval with our earth. Then the Sabbath was the period of one day of rest immediately following the six days' work of creation. This order of events made it the seventh day. And every succeeding seventh day thereafter was to be the Sabbath of the Lord. The first reference to the Sabbath day in the Bible says: "On the seventh day God ended 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: 2, 3. God was in creation, making the world for man (see Ps. 115: 16); and it was necessary, for man's highest good, that he should know God. Man was made in the image of God, and placed over God's works (Gen. 1: 26), to preside in the field where he was created. But he could not carry out this purpose until he knew God and understood His purpose. So the Sabbath was made for him, and given as a keepsake, to serve as a memorial of what God was to him. For this reason, God said to man: "Hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." "For it is a sign between Me and you; . . . that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Eze. 20: 20; Ex. 31: 13. THE SABBATH DAY SANCTIFIED
It has been seen that the seventh day was blessed and sanctified, and every fair-minded reader knows that this was done in connection with the creation of our world. It was then that the foundation upon which the Sabbath rests was laid; and the blessing and sanctification of the rest day set it apart for man, to be used as holy time. These were the acts by which the Sabbath was made. To sanctify a day is to set that day apart for a sacred use. The word "sanctify," as defined by Webster, is given thus: "Sanctify — to separate, set apart, or appoint, to a holy, sacred, or religious use." "Sanctified — made holy, consecrated, set apart for sacred service." "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." Gen. 2: 3. As the Sabbath was made for man, and the making of it involved its appointment to a holy or religious use, certainly God, in the very act of making the Sabbath, gave Adam definite instruction as to its significance, and the proper manner of observing it. Adam and Eve were the only members of the family of man on the earth when the Sabbath was made; and as it was made for man, it could not be said to have been made until Adam had received the appointment, and the reasons for the observance of the Sabbath. When Israel was called out of Egypt, to be instructed and commissioned for the Lord's work, they were assembled around Sinai, to hear God in audible voice proclaim His law. Then upon the subject of the Sabbath He said: "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. THE SABBATH WAS A DEFINITE DAY SANCTIFIED
The first division of time is the day. This division is registered by the revolution of the earth. The next division is that of the week, which consists of seven revolutions of the earth. These revolutions are unalterably fixed with reference to the unchangeable order of the worlds that compose the material universe. As each week is bound off by the holy rest day, the Sabbath becomes a basis for keeping time. There was a precise time when the earth was started on its round, a moment when God set it going, and at that moment the count began, and thus man's history had its birth. Earth's first revolution made the first day of creation week. Thus God proceeded with the work of creation for six days. Then came the day of rest, which completed the week. BECAUSE THE LORD HIMSELF RESTED
It is this rest day which God says is the Sabbath day, and this is the Sabbath which Christ says was made for man. It was made out of the seventh day, made to be the Sabbath because the Lord Himself rested upon it from the work of creation. It became the Lord's blessed rest day. His resting did not come because of relaxation from labor, but from a refreshing joy that He experienced in beholding His works. This blessed refreshing He put in the holy day, to bless those who keep it holy. Thus in the sacred observance of the holy day, God's people find joy. They "call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable." Isa. 58: 13. They honor God by not doing their own ways, nor finding their own pleasure, nor speaking their own words. Yes, they find a holier, sweeter joy in the Holy Spirit by communing with God, through a sanctified mind, on the sanctified day, than can be found by secular employment. By remembering the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, man has been prompted in keeping the record of time, as days, weeks, months, and years have come and gone. Referring to the keeping of records, God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." Gen. 1: 14. It was necessary for God to give Adam a history of how the world came into being, and of how and why man came upon the stage of action. He needed this information in order that he could properly proceed with the record of time and its infillings. He needed it, too, that he might know the place he is to fill in God's infinite purpose. But suppose the Lord had omitted to make the Sabbath for man, and had simply placed him here without any record or history of himself. What kind of account could he have given to the world of his genesis? In such a case, the man would have been left to guess at his origin. Many even now refuse to believe the Bible account of creation, and proceed to search for the genealogy of our race through an evolutionary process of some kind. Those who reject the dignified and beautiful account of our origin as written by Moses, usually adopt the speculations of pantheism, Buddhism, polytheism, demonism, fetishism, spiritualism, ancestorism, or some of their allied sophistries. But the blessed Father did not fail to educate His offspring. Therefore man in the beginning was fully taught as to how he came into being. He was also told about God's purpose in placing him here. God Himself united the newly created pair in holy bonds, and put His divine blessing upon them. He then taught them about569divine worship, and their kingly relation to the things on the earth. The Sabbath was made their delight (Isa. 58: 13), because it was a sign of the wisdom which the Creator possessed that enabled Him to make the heavens and the earth (Jer. 51: 15), and an index of the power by which He upholds and keeps all things that He made. Isa. 40: 26; Heb. 1: 3. When the significance of the Sabbath is well understood, and the precepts enjoining it are tenderly and devoutly observed by any man, he will not worship any false god, nor depart from the way of truth.