The Sabbath a Definite Part of Time
By F. M. Wilcox
MANY claim to-day that the requirement of the Sabbath institution is for one seventh of time, and not for one definite seventh day. This argument, allied to others that have been advanced against the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath institution, is a product of nineteenth- and twentieth-century thought, and its ostensible purpose is to evade the claims of God's great memorial. The object-lesson given the children of Israel in the wilderness forever silences this objection. By the exhibition of his mighty power, God brought his chosen people out of the land of servitude. Their triumphal egress from the land of Egypt marked the overthrow of their oppressors. They were at last free, and it would seem that every sense of gratitude which they possessed would have been called out in response to the marvelous workings of divine power in their behalf. They started on their journey to the land of promise. The wilderness of Sin encompassed them. They were shut in on every side by fruitless wastes. The food supply, which they had hastily prepared and taken with them in their flight from Egypt, was exhausted. Where would food be found to feed this vast multitude in their journeyings? He who had undertaken their deliverance was abundantly able to supply the lack. From heaven the Lord rained bread for his people. Every morning for six days in the week they were to gather the fallen manna. Here on this occasion, in a great threefold miracle extending over a period of forty years, God pointed out in a definite and unmistakable manner the day which he had ordained that his people should regard as sacred: — 1. The manna fell for six days in the week. This of itself was a miracle: it was contrary to any natural order. 2. An exception was made to this special order of events in that on the seventh day the manna was withheld. 3. During the week the children of Israel were commanded to gather from day to day for immediate daily use. The manna left over from one week-day to another became corrupt and unfit for food. On the sixth day they were commanded to gather a double portion, to make up for the failure in the falling of the manna on the seventh day. The second portion which they gathered on the sixth day maintained its sweetness and freshness on the seventh day, and was then eaten as food. Had any of the Israelites been advocates of the seventh-part-of-time theory, and planned to keep the Sabbath on another day than the seventh, they would have been thrown into much embarrassment. The day which they might choose would necessarily become an enforced fast day through the circumstances attending the food supply. Had they chosen the first day of the week, their search for food on the seventh day would have been fruitless. Had they chosen the fifth or sixth day and laid in a double supply of manna on the day preceding, they would have found it utterly unfit for use. It was necessary for them to conform to God's order, and accept the plain distinctions in the days of the week which he made back in the beginning, and which he emphasized by this threefold miracle. Referring to this experience in the falling of the manna, in his comment on Ex. 16: 23, Dr. Adam Clarke says: — There is nothing either in the text or context that seems to intimate that the Sabbath was now first given to the Israelites, as some have supposed; on the contrary, it is here spoken of as being perfectly well known, from its having been generally observed. The commandment, it is true, may be considered as being now renewed; because they might have supposed that in their unsettled state in the wilderness they might have been exempted from the observance of it. Thus we find (1) that when God finished his creation, he instituted the Sabbath; (2) when he brought the people out of Egypt, he insisted on the strict observance of it; (3) when he gave the law, he made it a tenth part of the whole: such importance has this institution in the eyes of the Supreme Being. Some of the children of Israel, neglectful of the preparations for the Sabbath which the Lord had enjoined, went out to gather manna as usual on the8seventh day. They searched in vain. Their perverseness called forth from the Lord a stern rebuke. Of Moses he inquired, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day." Ex. 16: 28-30. These words of the Lord clearly indicate the existence of God's law, and that it was known by the children of Israel at this early period in their deliverance. In withholding the manna on the seventh day of the week, God tested Israel as to whether they would walk in his commandments. God to-day is no less particular with reference to Sabbath observance. He requires not only that we shall observe the day he has enjoined,—the seventh day,—but that we shall observe it in the manner which he has ordained. To-day, as with Israel in the wilderness, the sixth day of the week is given as a day of preparation. The following excellent instruction from "Patriarchs and Prophets," page 296, is to the point in this connection: — God requires that his holy day be as sacredly observed now as in the time of Israel. The command given to the Hebrews should be regarded by all Christians as an injunction from Jehovah to them. The day before the Sabbath should be made a day of preparation, that everything may be in readiness for its sacred hours. In no case should our own business be allowed to encroach upon holy time. God has directed that the sick and suffering be cared for; the labor required to make them comfortable is a work of mercy, and no violation of the Sabbath; but all unnecessary work should be avoided. Many carelessly put off till the beginning of the Sabbath little things that might have been done on the day of preparation. This should not be. Work that is neglected until the beginning of the Sabbath should remain undone until it is past. This course might help the memory of these thoughtless ones, and make them careful to do their own work on the six working-days. We see from the record contained in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, as we found last week in considering the Sabbath in Egypt, that this institution was known to the Jews before the giving of the law at Sinai. Ordained of God in the garden of Eden, it had been handed down from family to family and from generation to generation. The knowledge of the Sabbath, as well as the knowledge of the true God, had been kept alive in the hearts and in the experience of his people. F. M. W.