The Lord Himself, Jehovah the Son of God and Maker of the world, spoke directly to Moses on Sinai after giving the directions for the tabernacle and before delivering the tables of stone. He charged Moses to tell Israel to keep His Sabbaths as the sign between Him and His people throughout their generations forever. That sign declares that He is the Lord who sanctifies them, giving knowledge of true sanctification in obedience to all His commandments. The Sabbath so commanded is the seventh day of rest after six days of work, grounded in creation when He made heaven and earth in six days and rested the seventh, blessed and set apart above all other days. It stands as a perpetual and everlasting covenant and test of loyalty, distinguishing those who obey God from rebels and standing in direct contrast to the spurious Sunday sabbath and the mark of the beast, with blessing and life pledged to the obedient who keep it in love and holiness.
Speaker Audience Setting
The speaker is the Lord Himself, Jehovah, Jesus Christ enshrouded in the pillowy cloud speaking from the pillar of cloud, the Son of God, Maker of the world and of man and Lord of the Sabbath. He spoke directly to Moses, not by any human voice, and the utterance is a plain Thus saith the Lord that vindicates and magnifies His law. His words introduce the command to keep His Sabbaths as holy, as the sign of the bond between the Creator and His people showing that He sanctifies obedient keepers. That Sabbath standard was blessed and set apart at creation, belongs to the Sabbath of the fourth commandment within the Decalogue defining duty to God and linked with duty to fellow man, and is not lowered under the gospel. It was Jesus Himself who instituted that economy in types and shadows pointing to Christ, who made the Sabbath and gave it to man to keep holy, and who displaced the rubbish of human tradition piled upon it to let its spiritual light shine forth.
The speaking was on Mount Sinai in awful grandeur, after the directions for building the sanctuary and tabernacle and before God handed Moses the two tables of testimony, tables of stone written with His own finger. Israel had been compelled to work on the Sabbath as slaves in Egypt and had largely lost knowledge of its sacredness, which is why the commandments were given in such grandeur. God guarded His Sabbath in particular lest in their zeal the workmen say the tabernacle work was the Lord's under His supervision and could be done without observing the Sabbath. The chapter containing the charge is to be read for the skill, exactness and care required in building the tabernacle, qualities required in every line of God's work. The highest education that can be given is learned from God Himself and His law so pronounced, greater than any teaching from human unsanctified teachers.
Moses was to pass the charge to the children of Israel and to the whole encampment, announced by trumpet signals and relayed section by section. Exodus 31:12-18 describes the denominated people of God, so the charge belongs to all who claim to be God's denominated people, who are to see and heed what Christ commanded concerning the Sabbath. It is addressed not only to Israel but as a direct call to present hearers and to blood-bought souls, giving a plain Thus saith the Lord needed as the Lord is soon coming and the great conflict begun in the heavenly courts is about to be forever decided. It directs the reader from the commandments in Exodus 20 through to the rest of Exodus 31, with every word from God to guide in the coming Sabbath controversy and to stand continually before the public.
Sabbath Sign Sanctification
The Lord's speaking to Moses introduces His command to keep His Sabbaths as a sign between Himself and Israel, His people, throughout their generations forever. That sign identifies them as His, marks them as distinct, calls them to honor Him and remain in covenant with Him, and gives power to claim His promises. The Sabbaths so commanded are the seventh-day Sabbath, a holy day of rest rooted in God's own rest after creation, a memorial of creation and a perpetual covenant grounded in His creation and rest. It is a sign of loyalty to God, showing that He sanctifies those who keep it.
The sign declares that He is the Lord who sanctifies them, and by keeping His Sabbaths His people gain the knowledge of what constitutes true sanctification. That true sanctification is obedience to all His commandments, perfect obedience and Bible sanctification, shown by willing obedience and by the obedience of those who love God supremely. The seventh day was sanctified at creation and set apart from other days for spiritual service to God as a memorial of creation, instituted in Eden when the foundations of the earth were laid to endure forever. Keeping the Sabbath is therefore that spiritual service and that Bible sanctification, honoring the living God who made the world in six days and sanctified and blessed the day of His rest.
The Sabbath is holy, distinguished above all other days, and its sanctity, blessing and holiness can never be removed or made unholy by human claims or inventions. Even though Satan has succeeded in putting another day in its stead, and though men have sought out many inventions, God has not changed but remains the same through all eternity, and transgression does not change its holiness. The seventh day remains holy and blessed by God, and setting another day in its place cannot remove its sanctity. Sunday has no part in this sanctifying sign, for the command is positive and clear and stands as a perpetual covenant affirming the seventh day as holy.
The sign is Sabbath observance itself, not an outward badge, for keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is the sign between God and His people showing that He sanctifies them. Wearing God's sign represents a whole family practicing genuine religion at home and in life, not merely professing it. As such a sign it continually recalls His love and mercy, calls His people to rest and be refreshed as He rested and was refreshed, and pledges His covenant of grace and peace and His power to sanctify. It is His pledge that He has chosen and set them apart as His peculiar people and special possession, testifying to the nations and witnessing to the world that they belong to Him and are loyal to the only true and living God, Sovereign of the universe. God protects those who bear His sign, and as they keep the Sabbath holy as a memorial of creation in six days and the Creator's rest on the seventh they bear testimony that they are His chosen people.
Creation Memorial Rest
The command given is to keep His Sabbaths, and the Sabbath commanded is the seventh day, appointed as a holy day of rest to the Lord after six days given for common business and livelihood work. God put His sanctity upon that day, blessing and sanctifying it and declaring it holy, set apart for rest and refreshment, for reverencing and worshiping Him, for hearing His word and for religious meditation. On it no servile work is to be done, and using His sanctified time for common work and merchandise is forbidden as partaking of the forbidden tree. The day is marked by the sun, rejecting confusion and the day-line theory about when to observe it. It gives the positive origin of the true Sabbath as the seventh day, kept as a perpetual covenant and a sign forever.
It is grounded in creation, because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. It was instituted in Eden when the foundations of the earth were laid, belongs to the Ten Commandments given in Eden, was observed by the patriarchs, was proclaimed at Sinai, and was given again to the people delivered from bondage in Egypt. It was proclaimed by the Lord God standing on Mount Sinai in awful grandeur so that men might understand and obey, and messengers are sent to enlighten the world that these commandments are not being kept.
Keeping it preserves right knowledge of Him as the only true and living Creator, and right knowledge of the Creator makes men and women holy. It distinguishes Him from other gods, declares Israel's loyalty to Him as Sovereign of the universe, keeps His people separate from the world, and distinguishes him that serves God from him that serves Him not. Keeping the seventh day each week acknowledges before the churches and the world that God created the world in six days and blessed and sanctified the seventh, honoring Him through obedience. The Sabbath law is not a human command that people may replace with an ordinary workday, and defying it means meeting the Lawgiver over a broken law.
God blessed the seventh day after finishing the work of creating the world, and He did not make holy or bless the first day. Sunday is a common working day, a day of man's invention instituted by the man of sin, not by God. Human authority has taken the first working day and set it apart to be honored, has torn down God's memorial by changing His holy day to a common working day and placing a false rest day in its stead, making the Sabbath a nonentity that human authority can set aside. Replacing the seventh day with the first day of the week or with a human-made observance sets aside God's law and claims authority to change it, without one word of sanction from the high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity, and greatly dishonors God. Human custom, the number of people observing another day, or attempts to change God's law cannot make Sunday sacred, cannot remove the memorial to any other day, and cannot give it heaven's seal. The day God gave is to be perpetuated until Christ comes to take His people to Himself, and it is not left behind but kept in the new earth, from Sabbath to Sabbath before the Lord.
Enduring Covenant Authority
The word spoken to Moses introduces the Sabbath as holy and as a perpetual, everlasting covenant, a sign between the Lord and Israel through their generations forever. It remains a sacred distinction marking those who are His people in every age, grounded in His making heaven and earth in six days and resting refreshed on the seventh. The word forever shows His law cannot be changed, for He has not changed. Mere profession does not make anyone His child; obedience shows allegiance.
The covenant words were followed by His giving Moses the two tables of testimony written with His own finger, preserving His claims and instructions so the people would remember and obey. That law is the transcript of His character and the standard of righteousness, revealing His will and the principles of His government, clear and leaving no excuse for sin. It is never to be changed or altered one jot or tittle, and at the judgment the stone tables will be presented as the standard by which all are judged for life or death. Those who do and teach the commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven, while those who break even the least and teach men so will be called least and have no place there.
Defiling the Sabbath by doing work on it brings death and being cut off from the people, for the seventh day is rest holy to the Lord while six days are given for work. To know the law spoken from heaven on Sinai and yet desecrate the Sabbath by labor despises His word and merits the severest punishment. Treating the command lightly or disobeying it is a serious violation of His law, with no trifling. Taking His sanctified and blessed time for selfish use, merchandise, or common work is disobedience to His holy law, and the Sabbath truth calls for obedience, self-denial, and self-sacrifice.
The instruction is positive, definite, and clear divine authority, specifying the binding claims of His law and the penalty for transgression so that anyone with a Bible can read, know, and trace the evidence. It leaves no excuse for ignorance, for trampling the seventh day, for exalting Sunday, or for making Jehovah's law of none effect. It is to be presented plainly from the Word of the living God without controversy as Thus saith the Lord, gathering the Scripture proofs and reading them before congregations, even before those determined to enact Sunday laws and even when human laws conflict. So responsibility rests on those who reject it and their controversy is with God and not with men, and no work done on that day in the face of all the light is without accountability.
Loyalty Test Controversy
Exodus 31:12 opens the charge in which the Sabbath is set forth as God's own test of obedience and sign of loyalty, not a test devised by men. It is the sign between Him and His people by which those who obey and stand under Christ's blood-stained banner are distinguished from rebels. Sabbath keeping is declared to be loyalty to God and His people. In the last great conflict this test divides all people into only two parties, and the truth of Exodus 31:12-18 is to be brought clearly to the front because it concerns life for those who receive it.
His Sabbaths are His sign and mark in direct contrast to the mark of the beast and to the forced acceptance of a spurious Sabbath in days of peril. All need to understand this mark to escape the wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and receive his mark. Keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is the sign of loyalty to Him, for He never changed His rest day to the first day, while a coming testing question will exalt a false Sabbath that has no sanctity in it. To resolve to rest on the first day contradicts His law and power, carries out Satan's work from the first rebellion, and dishonors God. There is to be no neutrality, but the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus on the banners.
Resting from labor on Sunday when it advances the cause and lessens prejudice does not mean receiving the mark of the beast, and Sunday may be spent in missionary visiting and Bible reading while the Sabbath is kept fully while there is liberty to keep it. Exalting Sunday observance to avoid arrest, or honoring the idol Sabbath, is disloyalty. Under force, as under threat of death or the chain gang where believers may be compelled to work on the Sabbath, existing conditions must be met with sanctified common sense and no imprudent action should hasten the final Sabbath crisis before its time.
For the last days of this earth's history specific instruction about His Sabbaths is given, when the commandment-keeping people of God are to exalt the Lord God of heaven by keeping His law. A decided work of reformation is done by a people raised up who obey this light by keeping holy the seventh day, acknowledging His sign and being distinguished from the world as His commandment-keeping people. They repair the breach made in His law, make plain the binding claim of the seventh-day Sabbath as Bible-testing truth in the third angel's message, and remain faithful to His commandments amid deception and persecution. The Sabbath is evidence of His kindness, mercy and love, a token by which His people are distinguished from all false religionists, marking His creative power and His claim to human reverence and homage. It gives His tested people foundation and strength, becomes more precious as the law is made void, and keeping the Sabbath of creation which He sanctified and blessed brings the oppressive power of persecution under oppressive Sunday laws.
He who controls the religious movements of nations will preserve, deliver and seal those who keep it. He has pledged Himself to bless the obedient in covenant relation with Himself and to fulfill His promise to all that are obedient. Observance of the Lord's Sabbath is eternal life insurance for every soul that strives in the right way and upon right principles, and those who receive it shall never fall. It is the covenant between God and man, the golden clasp uniting man to God in supreme obedience and reverence and uniting man to his fellow man, for reverencing the Sabbath engraved on the first table of stone leads to keeping the first three commandments toward God and the last six revealing duty to fellow man. Man's observance of the Lord's day of rest again causes joy among the angels of heaven as when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, and there is God's positive declaration of large success and blessings to the obedient who keep His commandments.
Receiving the Sabbath truth brings life that measures with the life of God, a treasure in heaven that fails not, while rejecting it brings death, so blinded eyes must be opened and the truth urged earnestly now, for there is no second probation. Exalting the first day in place of the Lord's Sabbath sets up a worshiped image just as Nebuchadnezzar set up an image on the plain of Dura for all to worship. Those who set His law aside as of no consequence and make it a dead letter, who dishonor the Sabbath and cast their influence on the side of His enemies, will certainly be punished and must bear the consequence of sin, judged out of the books in the future judgment where every case is decided and justified or condemned according to obedience or disrespect of His law. Those who read these words and obey them now will escape reading them with self-condemnation in the day when the books are opened and everyone is judged out of what is written in them.
Obedient Life Witness
True keeping of the word spoken to Moses is the road of loving obedience, a sign of power to sanctify and of loyalty to His kingdom and government through truth. It is more than a legal act, expressing obedience to all the commandments and reverence shown by willing obedience, with regard for His word above human claims. It requires repentance and conversion, self-denial and lifting the cross, giving up one's own way and inclinations even when evidence is clear, which many refuse because truth opposes their course. Its spiritual meaning must shape the transactions of life and be seen in good works, with Sabbath worship uplifting the week and its influence shaping conduct in business and at home in truth and righteousness.
Kept holy, the Sabbath shows to the world recognition of Him as the One who created heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh, witnessing to the only true and living God before nations and unbelievers. It draws a plain public line of demarcation between him that serves God and him that serves Him not, marking His people as loyal subjects who honor Him by keeping His commandments, with holiness to the Lord as their cheerful and happy badge in assurance of blessing. It is a distinct and peculiar standing, separate from the world, free from worldly policy and confederacy with those who do not discern His claims or walk in the light, conscientiously honoring Him and keeping covenant relation to receive blessings essential for severe trial. It is a truth to be defended without shame against contempt rather than trampled, and upon its keepers lies the responsibility to do mercy and benevolence, binding medical missionary work with gospel ministry as the message sealed with the seal of God, as taught in Isaiah 58 against mere outward show.
Its full meaning is shown through proper observance in every detail, with parents under solemn duty to teach children to obey so they may be numbered among His people. Sanitariums and all connected with them are to make the sign prominent and uphold it openly before the world without disguising it or conforming to worldly policy, letting its significance be seen and exalting it in methods of work. Restaurants are to be closed on the Sabbath to give rest to workers and opportunity to proclaim truth, and the day is to be kept holy from beginning to close by honoring God in conversation, resting in peace, putting away sadness and shining with the Sun of Righteousness. Its truth is to be taught clearly in a way that illuminates rather than needlessly offends, joined to proclaiming the third angel's message and displaying the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus while repairing the breach by keeping all His commandments and restoring His moral image in humanity.
The charge calls not only for voice but for helping human hands, with zeal and use of faculties to place the standard of truth in every place and to give much more honor to the Sabbath in order to realize the experience spoken in Isaiah. Its evidence, confirming the seventh day on which He finished creation and was refreshed, calls people to keep it and to warn the world against breaking His law. It is the truth for these last days and must never be cut out of publications such as the Sentinel to increase circulation or heed worldly counsel, a proposal met with decided, firm reproof binding public testimony to loyalty to His law rather than to the first day which bears no sanctity. The words of highest importance teaching heaven's requirements belong continually before the eye as a public illustration in every published paper in place of strange idolatrous pictures.
The Lord Himself, Jehovah the Son of God and Maker of the world, spoke directly to Moses on Sinai after giving the directions for the tabernacle and before delivering the tables of stone.
He charged Moses to tell Israel to keep His Sabbaths as the sign between Him and His people throughout their generations forever.
That sign declares that He is the Lord who sanctifies them, giving knowledge of true sanctification in obedience to all His commandments.
The Sabbath so commanded is the seventh day of rest after six days of work, grounded in creation when He made heaven and earth in six days and rested the seventh, blessed and set apart above all other days.
It stands as a perpetual and everlasting covenant and test of loyalty, distinguishing those who obey God from rebels and standing in direct contrast to the spurious Sunday sabbath and the mark of the beast, with blessing and life pledged to the obedient who keep it in love and holiness.
Speaker Audience Setting
The speaker is the Lord Himself, Jehovah, Jesus Christ enshrouded in the pillowy cloud speaking from the pillar of cloud, the Son of God, Maker of the world and of man and Lord of the Sabbath. He spoke directly to Moses, not by any human voice, and the utterance is a plain Thus saith the Lord that vindicates and magnifies His law. His words introduce the command to keep His Sabbaths as holy, as the sign of the bond between the Creator and His people showing that He sanctifies obedient keepers. That Sabbath standard was blessed and set apart at creation, belongs to the Sabbath of the fourth commandment within the Decalogue defining duty to God and linked with duty to fellow man, and is not lowered under the gospel. It was Jesus Himself who instituted that economy in types and shadows pointing to Christ, who made the Sabbath and gave it to man to keep holy, and who displaced the rubbish of human tradition piled upon it to let its spiritual light shine forth.
The speaking was on Mount Sinai in awful grandeur, after the directions for building the sanctuary and tabernacle and before God handed Moses the two tables of testimony, tables of stone written with His own finger. Israel had been compelled to work on the Sabbath as slaves in Egypt and had largely lost knowledge of its sacredness, which is why the commandments were given in such grandeur. God guarded His Sabbath in particular lest in their zeal the workmen say the tabernacle work was the Lord's under His supervision and could be done without observing the Sabbath. The chapter containing the charge is to be read for the skill, exactness and care required in building the tabernacle, qualities required in every line of God's work. The highest education that can be given is learned from God Himself and His law so pronounced, greater than any teaching from human unsanctified teachers.
Moses was to pass the charge to the children of Israel and to the whole encampment, announced by trumpet signals and relayed section by section. Exodus 31:12-18 describes the denominated people of God, so the charge belongs to all who claim to be God's denominated people, who are to see and heed what Christ commanded concerning the Sabbath. It is addressed not only to Israel but as a direct call to present hearers and to blood-bought souls, giving a plain Thus saith the Lord needed as the Lord is soon coming and the great conflict begun in the heavenly courts is about to be forever decided. It directs the reader from the commandments in Exodus 20 through to the rest of Exodus 31, with every word from God to guide in the coming Sabbath controversy and to stand continually before the public.
Sabbath Sign Sanctification
The Lord's speaking to Moses introduces His command to keep His Sabbaths as a sign between Himself and Israel, His people, throughout their generations forever. That sign identifies them as His, marks them as distinct, calls them to honor Him and remain in covenant with Him, and gives power to claim His promises. The Sabbaths so commanded are the seventh-day Sabbath, a holy day of rest rooted in God's own rest after creation, a memorial of creation and a perpetual covenant grounded in His creation and rest. It is a sign of loyalty to God, showing that He sanctifies those who keep it.
The sign declares that He is the Lord who sanctifies them, and by keeping His Sabbaths His people gain the knowledge of what constitutes true sanctification. That true sanctification is obedience to all His commandments, perfect obedience and Bible sanctification, shown by willing obedience and by the obedience of those who love God supremely. The seventh day was sanctified at creation and set apart from other days for spiritual service to God as a memorial of creation, instituted in Eden when the foundations of the earth were laid to endure forever. Keeping the Sabbath is therefore that spiritual service and that Bible sanctification, honoring the living God who made the world in six days and sanctified and blessed the day of His rest.
The Sabbath is holy, distinguished above all other days, and its sanctity, blessing and holiness can never be removed or made unholy by human claims or inventions. Even though Satan has succeeded in putting another day in its stead, and though men have sought out many inventions, God has not changed but remains the same through all eternity, and transgression does not change its holiness. The seventh day remains holy and blessed by God, and setting another day in its place cannot remove its sanctity. Sunday has no part in this sanctifying sign, for the command is positive and clear and stands as a perpetual covenant affirming the seventh day as holy.
The sign is Sabbath observance itself, not an outward badge, for keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is the sign between God and His people showing that He sanctifies them. Wearing God's sign represents a whole family practicing genuine religion at home and in life, not merely professing it. As such a sign it continually recalls His love and mercy, calls His people to rest and be refreshed as He rested and was refreshed, and pledges His covenant of grace and peace and His power to sanctify. It is His pledge that He has chosen and set them apart as His peculiar people and special possession, testifying to the nations and witnessing to the world that they belong to Him and are loyal to the only true and living God, Sovereign of the universe. God protects those who bear His sign, and as they keep the Sabbath holy as a memorial of creation in six days and the Creator's rest on the seventh they bear testimony that they are His chosen people.
Creation Memorial Rest
The command given is to keep His Sabbaths, and the Sabbath commanded is the seventh day, appointed as a holy day of rest to the Lord after six days given for common business and livelihood work. God put His sanctity upon that day, blessing and sanctifying it and declaring it holy, set apart for rest and refreshment, for reverencing and worshiping Him, for hearing His word and for religious meditation. On it no servile work is to be done, and using His sanctified time for common work and merchandise is forbidden as partaking of the forbidden tree. The day is marked by the sun, rejecting confusion and the day-line theory about when to observe it. It gives the positive origin of the true Sabbath as the seventh day, kept as a perpetual covenant and a sign forever.
It is grounded in creation, because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. It was instituted in Eden when the foundations of the earth were laid, belongs to the Ten Commandments given in Eden, was observed by the patriarchs, was proclaimed at Sinai, and was given again to the people delivered from bondage in Egypt. It was proclaimed by the Lord God standing on Mount Sinai in awful grandeur so that men might understand and obey, and messengers are sent to enlighten the world that these commandments are not being kept.
Keeping it preserves right knowledge of Him as the only true and living Creator, and right knowledge of the Creator makes men and women holy. It distinguishes Him from other gods, declares Israel's loyalty to Him as Sovereign of the universe, keeps His people separate from the world, and distinguishes him that serves God from him that serves Him not. Keeping the seventh day each week acknowledges before the churches and the world that God created the world in six days and blessed and sanctified the seventh, honoring Him through obedience. The Sabbath law is not a human command that people may replace with an ordinary workday, and defying it means meeting the Lawgiver over a broken law.
God blessed the seventh day after finishing the work of creating the world, and He did not make holy or bless the first day. Sunday is a common working day, a day of man's invention instituted by the man of sin, not by God. Human authority has taken the first working day and set it apart to be honored, has torn down God's memorial by changing His holy day to a common working day and placing a false rest day in its stead, making the Sabbath a nonentity that human authority can set aside. Replacing the seventh day with the first day of the week or with a human-made observance sets aside God's law and claims authority to change it, without one word of sanction from the high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity, and greatly dishonors God. Human custom, the number of people observing another day, or attempts to change God's law cannot make Sunday sacred, cannot remove the memorial to any other day, and cannot give it heaven's seal. The day God gave is to be perpetuated until Christ comes to take His people to Himself, and it is not left behind but kept in the new earth, from Sabbath to Sabbath before the Lord.
Enduring Covenant Authority
The word spoken to Moses introduces the Sabbath as holy and as a perpetual, everlasting covenant, a sign between the Lord and Israel through their generations forever. It remains a sacred distinction marking those who are His people in every age, grounded in His making heaven and earth in six days and resting refreshed on the seventh. The word forever shows His law cannot be changed, for He has not changed. Mere profession does not make anyone His child; obedience shows allegiance.
The covenant words were followed by His giving Moses the two tables of testimony written with His own finger, preserving His claims and instructions so the people would remember and obey. That law is the transcript of His character and the standard of righteousness, revealing His will and the principles of His government, clear and leaving no excuse for sin. It is never to be changed or altered one jot or tittle, and at the judgment the stone tables will be presented as the standard by which all are judged for life or death. Those who do and teach the commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven, while those who break even the least and teach men so will be called least and have no place there.
Defiling the Sabbath by doing work on it brings death and being cut off from the people, for the seventh day is rest holy to the Lord while six days are given for work. To know the law spoken from heaven on Sinai and yet desecrate the Sabbath by labor despises His word and merits the severest punishment. Treating the command lightly or disobeying it is a serious violation of His law, with no trifling. Taking His sanctified and blessed time for selfish use, merchandise, or common work is disobedience to His holy law, and the Sabbath truth calls for obedience, self-denial, and self-sacrifice.
The instruction is positive, definite, and clear divine authority, specifying the binding claims of His law and the penalty for transgression so that anyone with a Bible can read, know, and trace the evidence. It leaves no excuse for ignorance, for trampling the seventh day, for exalting Sunday, or for making Jehovah's law of none effect. It is to be presented plainly from the Word of the living God without controversy as Thus saith the Lord, gathering the Scripture proofs and reading them before congregations, even before those determined to enact Sunday laws and even when human laws conflict. So responsibility rests on those who reject it and their controversy is with God and not with men, and no work done on that day in the face of all the light is without accountability.
Loyalty Test Controversy
Exodus 31:12 opens the charge in which the Sabbath is set forth as God's own test of obedience and sign of loyalty, not a test devised by men. It is the sign between Him and His people by which those who obey and stand under Christ's blood-stained banner are distinguished from rebels. Sabbath keeping is declared to be loyalty to God and His people. In the last great conflict this test divides all people into only two parties, and the truth of Exodus 31:12-18 is to be brought clearly to the front because it concerns life for those who receive it.
His Sabbaths are His sign and mark in direct contrast to the mark of the beast and to the forced acceptance of a spurious Sabbath in days of peril. All need to understand this mark to escape the wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and receive his mark. Keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is the sign of loyalty to Him, for He never changed His rest day to the first day, while a coming testing question will exalt a false Sabbath that has no sanctity in it. To resolve to rest on the first day contradicts His law and power, carries out Satan's work from the first rebellion, and dishonors God. There is to be no neutrality, but the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus on the banners.
Resting from labor on Sunday when it advances the cause and lessens prejudice does not mean receiving the mark of the beast, and Sunday may be spent in missionary visiting and Bible reading while the Sabbath is kept fully while there is liberty to keep it. Exalting Sunday observance to avoid arrest, or honoring the idol Sabbath, is disloyalty. Under force, as under threat of death or the chain gang where believers may be compelled to work on the Sabbath, existing conditions must be met with sanctified common sense and no imprudent action should hasten the final Sabbath crisis before its time.
For the last days of this earth's history specific instruction about His Sabbaths is given, when the commandment-keeping people of God are to exalt the Lord God of heaven by keeping His law. A decided work of reformation is done by a people raised up who obey this light by keeping holy the seventh day, acknowledging His sign and being distinguished from the world as His commandment-keeping people. They repair the breach made in His law, make plain the binding claim of the seventh-day Sabbath as Bible-testing truth in the third angel's message, and remain faithful to His commandments amid deception and persecution. The Sabbath is evidence of His kindness, mercy and love, a token by which His people are distinguished from all false religionists, marking His creative power and His claim to human reverence and homage. It gives His tested people foundation and strength, becomes more precious as the law is made void, and keeping the Sabbath of creation which He sanctified and blessed brings the oppressive power of persecution under oppressive Sunday laws.
He who controls the religious movements of nations will preserve, deliver and seal those who keep it. He has pledged Himself to bless the obedient in covenant relation with Himself and to fulfill His promise to all that are obedient. Observance of the Lord's Sabbath is eternal life insurance for every soul that strives in the right way and upon right principles, and those who receive it shall never fall. It is the covenant between God and man, the golden clasp uniting man to God in supreme obedience and reverence and uniting man to his fellow man, for reverencing the Sabbath engraved on the first table of stone leads to keeping the first three commandments toward God and the last six revealing duty to fellow man. Man's observance of the Lord's day of rest again causes joy among the angels of heaven as when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, and there is God's positive declaration of large success and blessings to the obedient who keep His commandments.
Receiving the Sabbath truth brings life that measures with the life of God, a treasure in heaven that fails not, while rejecting it brings death, so blinded eyes must be opened and the truth urged earnestly now, for there is no second probation. Exalting the first day in place of the Lord's Sabbath sets up a worshiped image just as Nebuchadnezzar set up an image on the plain of Dura for all to worship. Those who set His law aside as of no consequence and make it a dead letter, who dishonor the Sabbath and cast their influence on the side of His enemies, will certainly be punished and must bear the consequence of sin, judged out of the books in the future judgment where every case is decided and justified or condemned according to obedience or disrespect of His law. Those who read these words and obey them now will escape reading them with self-condemnation in the day when the books are opened and everyone is judged out of what is written in them.
Obedient Life Witness
True keeping of the word spoken to Moses is the road of loving obedience, a sign of power to sanctify and of loyalty to His kingdom and government through truth. It is more than a legal act, expressing obedience to all the commandments and reverence shown by willing obedience, with regard for His word above human claims. It requires repentance and conversion, self-denial and lifting the cross, giving up one's own way and inclinations even when evidence is clear, which many refuse because truth opposes their course. Its spiritual meaning must shape the transactions of life and be seen in good works, with Sabbath worship uplifting the week and its influence shaping conduct in business and at home in truth and righteousness.
Kept holy, the Sabbath shows to the world recognition of Him as the One who created heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh, witnessing to the only true and living God before nations and unbelievers. It draws a plain public line of demarcation between him that serves God and him that serves Him not, marking His people as loyal subjects who honor Him by keeping His commandments, with holiness to the Lord as their cheerful and happy badge in assurance of blessing. It is a distinct and peculiar standing, separate from the world, free from worldly policy and confederacy with those who do not discern His claims or walk in the light, conscientiously honoring Him and keeping covenant relation to receive blessings essential for severe trial. It is a truth to be defended without shame against contempt rather than trampled, and upon its keepers lies the responsibility to do mercy and benevolence, binding medical missionary work with gospel ministry as the message sealed with the seal of God, as taught in Isaiah 58 against mere outward show.
Its full meaning is shown through proper observance in every detail, with parents under solemn duty to teach children to obey so they may be numbered among His people. Sanitariums and all connected with them are to make the sign prominent and uphold it openly before the world without disguising it or conforming to worldly policy, letting its significance be seen and exalting it in methods of work. Restaurants are to be closed on the Sabbath to give rest to workers and opportunity to proclaim truth, and the day is to be kept holy from beginning to close by honoring God in conversation, resting in peace, putting away sadness and shining with the Sun of Righteousness. Its truth is to be taught clearly in a way that illuminates rather than needlessly offends, joined to proclaiming the third angel's message and displaying the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus while repairing the breach by keeping all His commandments and restoring His moral image in humanity.
The charge calls not only for voice but for helping human hands, with zeal and use of faculties to place the standard of truth in every place and to give much more honor to the Sabbath in order to realize the experience spoken in Isaiah. Its evidence, confirming the seventh day on which He finished creation and was refreshed, calls people to keep it and to warn the world against breaking His law. It is the truth for these last days and must never be cut out of publications such as the Sentinel to increase circulation or heed worldly counsel, a proposal met with decided, firm reproof binding public testimony to loyalty to His law rather than to the first day which bears no sanctity. The words of highest importance teaching heaven's requirements belong continually before the eye as a public illustration in every published paper in place of strange idolatrous pictures.