Lessons for Bible Students.
(HISTORY OF THE SABBATH, PP. 50–63.)
WHEN the voice of the Most High had ceased, what positions did Moses and the people take? In the brief interview which follows, what three classes of precepts did God give to Moses? In this interview the Sabbath is not forgotten; what does the Lord say in regard to it? Of what does this scripture furnish incidental proof? What did Moses do when he returned to the people? What response did the people make? After he had read the book of the covenant in the audience of the people, what response did the people again make? For what was the way now prepared? What was the signal honor now conferred upon the law? Upon what day may we infer that the ten commandments were given? p. 51, note. How long did Moses remain in the mount? During these forty days what did God give to Moses? When these things were ordained, and God was about to commit to human hands his law as written by himself, what mention is made of the Sabbath? With what other scripture should this testimony be compared? Do either of these scriptures teach that the Sabbath was made for Israel? Do they teach that it was made after the Hebrews came out of Egypt? Do they even seem to contradict those texts which place the institution of the Sabbath at creation? What then do we learn from these scriptures? Whenever the word LORD is found in the Old Testament in small capitals, to whom does it refer? What is Dr. Clarke's testimony relative to the Hebrew verb, kadash, to sanctify? p. 54, note. From what time did God set apart the Hebrews? To what expressions relative to himself did this relation give rise? What was it that set apart Israel from all other nations? What was the most expressive sign that God could give them, that it was the living God that sanctified them? Did the Sabbath derive its existence from being given to the Hebrews? What was it, and upon what did it rest, when given to them? What then constituted the Sabbath a gift and sign to that people? Is it any more remarkable that the Sabbath which was made for man should be given to the Hebrews, than that God should give his oracles and himself to that people? [It only signified that to them was committed the office of preserving a knowledge of the true God and his worship, in the midst of a race, who, with the exception of themselves, had become wholly apostate.] Did the Sabbath originate from the fall of manna for six days and its cessation on the seventh? If the fall of the manna did not originate the Sabbath, why was it given thus? [Thus the Sabbath regulated the fall of the manna, not the fall of the manna the Sabbath.] As the Sabbath became a sign between God and Israel, did it thereby become a ceremony and a shadow? p. 56, note. What considerations prove this? It is objected that if the Sabbath is now binding, the penalty anciently affixed must now be executed, and the Sabbath-breaker must now be stoned; what shows the fallacy of this claim? As a part of what code was it that the penalty of death was affixed to a violation of the Sabbath and the other commandments? What did this infliction of the magistrate probably foreshadow? By what decision did the Saviour suspend, for this dispensation, such penalties? Did our Lord by this decision set aside the penalty of the law? When and by whom will the real penalty of the law yet be inflicted? What was the last act of the great Law-giver in the memorable interview of forty days with Moses on the mount? When Moses came down from the mount, in what condition did he find the people? What did he do with the tables of stone received from God, when he saw their idolatry? What did Moses do to the people on account of their sin? After he had inflicted retribution upon them, what did he next do? What did God then promise him? On what texts does this fact throw light? p. 58, note. Before Moses went up the second time to meet with the Lord, what was he commanded to do? How long did this second interview last? Ex. xxxiv, 28, speaking of this interview, says, "He wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant," &c.; to whom does the word, he, refer? p. 59, note. What parallel case can be referred to, where the pronoun, he, does not refer to its nearest apparent antecedent? What texts furnish positive testimony that God, and not Moses, wrote upon the second tables? By what other name are the ten commandments sometimes called? How did the writing on the second set of tables differ from that on the first? The two high honors of being spoken with God's own voice, and written with his own finger, are enjoyed alike by all the commandments; but what other one does the Sabbath commandment alone possess? What is suggested by the commandments' being given on two tables?125 What position does the Sabbath commandment occupy in these two tables? What two passages show that the ten commandments of themselves form a complete code of moral law? Where were the tables of stone containing the moral law deposited? What was the top, or cover, of the ark called? Why was it called the mercy-seat? Was it a real, or shadowy, law that was deposited in the ark? What kind of an atonement must then be made for the transgressors of that law? Was the atonement, accomplished by the blood of beasts under the typical dispensation, shadowy, or real? [Shadowy; hence the necessity of the real atonement by Christ, the great antitype of the Levitical sacrifices.] And to what law must this real atonement relate? What must be the character of a law which demands an atonement, that its transgressor may be spared? What should be remembered in relation to the fourth commandment?