History of the Sabbath by John Nevins Andrews

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 3, 1861

History of the Sabbath.

By John Nevins Andrews

THE CREATION.

TIME, as distinguished from eternity, may be defined as that part of duration which is measured by the Bible. From the earliest date in the book of Genesis to the resurrection of the unjust at the end of the millennium, the period of about 7000 years is measured off. Before the commencement of this great week of time, duration without beginning fills the past; and at the expiration of this period, unending duration opens before the people of God. Eternity is that word which embraces duration without beginning and without end. And that Being whose existence comprehends eternity, is he who only hath immortality, the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God.

When it pleased this infinite Being, he gave existence to our earth. Out of nothing God created all things; "so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." This act of creation is that event which marks the commencement of the first week of time. He who could accomplish the whole work with one word chose rather to employ six days, and to accomplish the result by successive steps. Let us trace the footsteps of the Creator from the time when he laid the foundation of the earth until the close of the sixth day, when the heavens and the earth were finished, "and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good."

On the first day of the week God created the heaven and the earth. The earth thus called into existence was without form and void, and total darkness covered the Creator's work. Then "God said, Let there be light; and there was light." "And God divided the light from the darkness," and called the one day and the other night.

On the second day of the week "God said, Let there be a firmament [margin, Heb., expansion] in the midst of the waters; and let it divide the waters from the waters." The dry land had not yet appeared; consequently the earth was covered with water. As no atmosphere existed, thick vapors rested upon the face of the water; but the atmosphere being now called into existence by the word of the Creator, the fogs and vapors that had rested upon the bosom of the water are borne aloft by it. This atmosphere or expansion is called heaven.

On the third day of the week, God gathered the waters together and caused the dry land to appear. The gathering together of the waters God called seas; the dry land, thus rescued from the waters, he called earth. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind; and it was so." "And God saw that it was good."

On the fourth day of the week "God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also." Light had been created on the first day of the week; and now on the fourth day he causes the sun and moon to appear as light-bearers, and places the light under their rule. And they continue unto this day according to his ordinances, for all are his servants. Such was the work of the fourth day. And the great Architect, surveying what he had wrought, pronounced it good.

On the fifth day of the week "God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good."

On the sixth day of the week "God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and God saw that it was good." Thus the earth having been fitted for the purpose, was filled with every order of living creature, while the air and waters teemed with animal existence. To complete this noble work of creation, God next provides a ruler, the representative of himself, and places all in subjection under him. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Last of all God created Eve, the mother of all living. The work of the Creator was now complete. "The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Adam and Eve were in Paradise; the tree of life bloomed on earth; sin had not entered our world, and death was not here, for there was no sin. "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Thus ended the sixth day.

THE INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH.

The work of the Creator was finished, but the first week of time had not yet expired. Each of the six days had been distinguished by the Creator's work upon it; but the seventh was rendered

memorable in a very different manner. "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." In yet stronger language it is written: "On the seventh day he rested and was REFRESHED."

Thus the seventh day of the week became the rest-day of the Lord. How remarkable is this fact! "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary." He needed no rest; yet it is written, "On the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." Why does not the record simply state the cessation of the Creator's work? Why did he at the close of that work employ a day in rest? The answer will be learned from the next verse. He was laying the foundation of a divine institution, the memorial of his own great work.

"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." The fourth commandment states the same fact: He "rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it."

The blessing and sanctification of the seventh day was because that God had rested upon it. His resting upon it then, was to lay the foundation for blessing and sanctifying the day. His being refreshed with this rest, implies that he delighted in the act which laid the foundation for the memorial of his great work.

The second act of the Creator in instituting this memorial was to place his blessing upon the day of his rest. Thenceforward it was the blessed rest-day of the Lord. A third act completes the sacred institution. The day already blessed of God, is now, last of all, sanctified or hallowed by him. To sanctify is "to separate, set apart, or appoint to a holy, sacred, or religious use." To hallow is "to make holy; to consecrate; to set apart for a holy or religious use."

The time when these three acts were performed is worthy of especial notice. The first act was that of rest. This took place on the seventh day; for the day was employed in rest. The second and third acts took place when the seventh day was past. "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work." Hence it was on the first day of the second week of time that God blessed the seventh day and set it apart to a holy use. The blessing and sanctification of the seventh day, therefore, relate not to the first seventh day of time, but to the seventh day of the week for time to come, in memory of God's rest on that day from the work of creation.

The days of the week are measured off by the revolution of our earth on its axis; and hence our seventh day, as such, can come only to dwellers on this globe. To Adam and Eve, therefore, as inhabitants of this earth, and not to the inhabitants of some other world, were the days of the week given to use. Hence, when God set apart one of these days to a holy use in memory of his own rest on that day of the week, the very essence of the act consisted in his telling Adam that this day should be used only for sacred purposes. Adam was then in the garden of God, placed there by the Creator to dress it and to keep it. He was also commissioned of God to subdue the earth. When, therefore, the rest-day of the Lord should return from week to week, all this secular employment, however proper in itself, must be laid aside, and the day observed in memory of the Creator's rest.

The Hebrew verb, kadash, here rendered sanctified, and in the fourth commandment rendered hallowed, is defined by Gesenius, "to pronounce holy, to sanctify; to institute any holy thing, to appoint." It is repeatedly used in the Old Testament for a public appointment or proclamation. Thus, when the cities of refuge were set apart in Israel, it is written: "They appointed [margin, Heb., sanctified] Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim," &c. This sanctification or appointment of the cities of refuge was by a public announcement to Israel that these cities were set apart for that purpose. This verb is also used for the appointment of a public fast, and for the gathering of a solemn assembly. Thus it is written: "Sanctify [i. e., appoint] ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God." "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify [i. e., appoint] a fast, call a solemn assembly." "And Jehu said, Proclaim [margin, Heb., sanctify] a solemn assembly for Baal." This appointment for Baal was so public that all the worshipers of Baal in all Israel were gathered together. These fasts and solemn assemblies were sanctified or set apart by a public appointment or proclamation of the fact. When therefore God set apart the seventh day to a holy use, it was necessary that he should state that fact to those who had the days of the week to use. Without such announcement the day could not be set apart from the others.

But the most striking illustration of the meaning of this word may be found in the record of the sanctification of mount Sinai. When God was about to speak the ten commandments in the hearing of all Israel, he sent Moses down from the top of mount Sinai to restrain the people from touching the mount. "And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai; for thou chargedest us, saying, Set bounds about the mount and sanctify it." Turning back to the verse where God gave this charge to Moses, we read: "And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount or touch the border of it." Hence, to sanctify the mount was to command the people not to touch even the border of it, for God was about to descend in majesty upon it. In other words, to sanctify or set apart to a holy use mount Sinai, was to tell the people that God would have them treat the mountain as sacred to himself. And thus also to sanctify the rest-day of the Lord, was to tell Adam that he should treat the day as holy to the Lord.

The declaration, "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it," is not indeed a commandment for the observance of that day; but it is a record that such a precept was given to Adam. For how could the Creator "set apart to a holy use" the day of his rest, when those who were to use the day knew nothing of his will in the case? Let those answer who are able.

This view of the record in Genesis we shall find to be sustained by all the testimony in the Bible relative to the rest-day of the Lord. The facts which we have examined are the basis of the fourth commandment. Thus spake the great Law-giver from the summit of the flaming mount: "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." "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."

The term Sabbath is transferred from the Hebrew language, and signifies rest. The command, "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy," is therefore exactly equivalent to saying, "Remember the rest-day to keep it holy." The explanation which follows sustains this statement: "The seventh day is the Sabbath [or rest-day] of the Lord thy God." The origin of this rest-day is given in these words: "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." That which is enjoined in the fourth commandment is to keep holy the rest-day of the Lord. And this is defined to be the day on which he rested from the work of creation. Moreover the fourth commandment calls the seventh day the Sabbath-day at the time when God blessed and hallowed that day; therefore the Sabbath is an institution dating from the foundation of the world. The fourth commandment points back to the creation for the origin of its obligation; and when we go back to that point, we find the substance of the fourth commandment given to Adam: "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it;" i. e., set it apart to a holy use. And in the commandment itself the same fact is stated. The Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it, i. e., appointed it to a holy use. The one statement affirms that "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it;" the other that "the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it." These two statements refer to the same acts. Because the word Sabbath does not occur in the first statement it has been contended that the Sabbath did not originate at creation, it being the seventh day merely which was hallowed. From the second statement it has been contended that God did not bless the seventh day at all, but simply the Sabbath institution. But both statements embody all the truth. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; and this day thus blessed and hallowed was his holy Sabbath, or rest-day. Thus the fourth commandment establishes the origin of the Sabbath at creation.

J. N. A.

(To be Continued.)