“BIND UP THE TESTIMONY, SEAL THE LAW AMONG MY DISCIPLES.”
By B. F. Robbins
THE first question that suggests itself to the mind in reading this text is, What is the testimony and law mentioned? To answer this question turn to Ex. xxv, 16. “And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.” What was the testimony God gave Moses? Ex. xxxi, 18. “And he gave unto Moses when he had made an end of communing with him up on mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone written with the finger of God.” Ex. xxxii, 14, 15. “And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hands. The tables were written on both their sides, on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” Deut. x, 4, 5. “And he wrote upon the tables according to the first writing the ten commandments which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly, and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount and put the tables in the ark which I had made, and there they be as the Lord commanded me.” From these quotations we learn that the testimony and law mentioned in the text is the law of ten commandments, the law of God spoken by God in an audible voice from the summit of Sinai in the hearing of all the people in the day of the assembly [Ex. xx], and written by the finger of God upon the tables of stone which Moses put into the ark. It is the law and commandments of God of which the Scriptures affirm, “The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.” Ps. xix, 7. “Which are righteous and very faithful.” Ps. cxix, 138, 151. “Which is the truth.” “Which is holy, just and good.” Rom. vii, 12. “The commandments which are sure and stand fast forever and ever.” Ps. cxi, 7, 8. Jesus also affirms of them, “Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.” The law of God, the ten commandments, is the testimony and law to be bound up and sealed among his disciples. The text suggests to the mind that the law of God has been separated and mutilated in its precepts, and its seal torn away. Hence the command, “Bind up the testimony,” &c. That such would be the fact is clearly a subject of prophecy; and the wicked, blasphemous power that was to accomplish this work is as clearly identified. Dan. vii, 25. “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change times and laws.” 2 Thess. ii, 4. “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” By universal consent among Protestants he is identified as the Roman church, or popery. But has the pope exalted himself above God, and how? By taking away from and changing the law of God. In this he exalts himself above God, the only and supreme Law-giver. A power that repeals or changes the laws of another power or government, of necessity exalts itself above the original law-giving power or authority. This, by the voluntary confession of the Roman church, it has done, that is, so far as turning away the obedience of the majority of mankind from the law of God to their traditions, thus exalting himself above God. “Think to change times and laws.” He can only think to do it, because the principles upon which the law of God, the ten commandments, are based, are immutable and eternal, and must be an eternal rule of action to all subordinate intelligences, whether men or angels in the vast creation of God. As a perfect law it can admit of no change, because to add to it, or to change, or to diminish it, would prove it imperfect. If therefore the supreme Law-giver [I speak with reverence] should change or annul any of its precepts it would prove the testimony of his word in regard to its perfection and righteousness false, or exhibit imperfection in the Law-giver. Hence one jot or tittle can in no wise pass from the law. But in what has the law of God been changed or separated, and its seal torn from it so as to render it necessary to bind it up and re-seal it? Rome, in copying the law for the use of her people, has left out the second commandment, and changed and destroyed the fourth (this fact is undenied by that church), and substituted for the fourth an acknowledged tradition of her own. An examination of their Catechisms and published instructions, with their controversies with Protestants must convince the most sceptical. Protestants, with but few exceptions, have followed her example, and annulled the fourth commandment. We say annulled it, because to change the precept is to annul it. To change the rest-day of Jehovah from the seventh day to any other day of the week is to destroy the Sabbath institution, from the fact that the seventh day and no other is God's sanctified rest-day; and that God rested on the seventh from all his work and was refreshed, is a fixed and immutable fact to all eternity. Hence to change or substitute for the seventh day of the week is to destroy or annul the commandment. But the text speaks of sealing the law among the45disciples. This supposes that the original seal that gave the law its binding force has been taken from it, and that in consequence it is to be re-sealed. That God gave to his law the broad seal of his authority is not to be doubted; but what is the seal to a law? It is that signature and sealed impression which shows the authority of the law-making power and the extent of that authority. Hence the enactments of our State legislature to give them binding force upon the people of the State, must have the signature of the Governor as the head of the law-making authority, and the seal of the State to show the extent of the authority of the law. What then is the seal of the law of God that gives it binding force or authority? It is the fourth commandment. Take away the fourth commandment and the seal of the law is gone; all that gives it binding force or authority is taken from it; we have no knowledge of the Law-giver, nor the extent of his authority. But the Sabbath commandment is the sign or seal of God from the fact that it shows us the supreme and rightful Law-giver, and the extent of his authority. The Lord that made heaven and earth, &c. Hence as the Creator by immutable right he is the Law-giver, and the extent of his authority is his creation. Therefore in taking away the fourth commandment the seal of God's law is gone, and all that gives it binding force and authority is torn from it. The stability of our argument upon this point is sustained by direct testimony from the word of God, in which the Sabbath is recognized as the sign or seal between God and his people forever. Ex. xxxi, 16, 17. “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath, throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” Eze. xx, 20. “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.” Now from these testimonies we learn the all-important truth that in both dispensations all who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment are the sealed and signed servants of God the Creator, and acknowledge their allegiance to him as the supreme Law-giver, and on his part they receive from him the acknowledgement, I am the Lord your God. I know it is objected that the words quoted above were spoken to the literal descendants of Jacob, the children of Israel, and therefore only applied to them. But I would ask, Has not God an Israel now? Are not they that be Christ's Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise? Who, we would ask, constituted Paul's “Israel of God” but the believers in Jesus in Galatia? And was not the Sabbath to be a perpetual covenant, a sign between God and the children of Israel, or the Israel of God, forever? And is not the knowledge of God as the Creator, and the Lord our God, as important for us as for them? How weighty the responsibility that rests upon the professed Christian teachers of this age in view of their influence upon the world of mankind! To them applies the declaration of Jesus [Matt. v], “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” And yet by their precept and example they are sustaining the rival institution to God's Sabbath, that of the man of sin, the son of perdition; thus leading the people from God's seal and mark to take upon themselves the mark of the authority of the man of sin. When is this work of binding up the testimony and sealing the law to be accomplished? It is when the people associate themselves and are to be broken in pieces. Verse 9. When they take counsel and it shall come to nought. Verse 10. It is when the Lord speaks and instructs not to walk in the way of this associated people, who are saying, A confederacy, or a union, among themselves. Verses 11, 12. It is when the Lord's people are to fear and sanctify him. Verse 13. When he shall be a sanctuary for them, but a stone of stumbling and rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. Verse 14. When many shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and taken. Verse 15. When some are waiting upon the Lord and looking for him. Verse 17. It is when the people are consulting familiar spirits, for the living to the dead. Verse 19. When the only appeal is to the law and to the testimony. Verse 20. This evidently refers to the present time and the work of binding up the testimony and sealing the law is a present work to be accomplished. And why? Because the predictions of the prophet in this chapter are being fulfilled now. The different sects of nominal Christians notwithstanding their diversity of opinions are associating and confederating themselves into a nominal union, and are all of them opposing the commandments of God and the true faith of Jesus. Ministers of the rival sects can cordially unite and associate themselves in opposition to God's sanctified Sabbath, and multitudes of professed Christians and ministers of this day openly deny the obligation of God's holy and perfect law. The first house of Israel stumbled and fell over the humility and suffering of Jesus at his first advent; so the present professed house of Israel stumble, and are preparing themselves to be broken, and snared, and taken, in his second advent, and from the same cause, unbelief of the word of God. It is at the present time that the people are seeking unto familiar spirits, the living to the dead for knowledge, and not unto God and his word. Now the command of the text, as the voice of God, is calling upon all who tremble at his word and believe its testimony to arise and bind up the testimony and seal the law among the honest disciples of Jesus.
B. F. ROBBINS.
Friendship, N. Y.