Exodus 31:17, commentary and pictures

It is a sign between God and the children of Israel forever, because in six literal twenty-four-hour days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. It is a perpetual covenant to be kept throughout all generations, God's memorial of creation declaring Him the only true Creator and His seal of authority placed in the mind. Keeping it holy is the sign by which it is known that the Lord sanctifies His people, drawing a plain public line distinguishing His loyal commandment-keepers from the world and from transgressors. In all ages it has been God's test of loyalty, standing in direct opposition to the spurious Sunday sabbath set up by the man of sin, which is the mark of the beast brought to the front in the third angel's message and final conflict. Keeping the day holy means doing no unnecessary work and being refreshed as God was, spending its sacred hours in worship, prayer and service, with the seventh day alone, Saturday, bearing His blessing and sanctification.

Words and Sinai Setting

It is a sign between God and the children of Israel forever, because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. The seventh-day Sabbath is therefore a lasting sacred distinction and covenant sign between God and His people for as long as time lasts and forever, part of a perpetual covenant and part of the law they are to keep. Sabbath observance marks God's people as distinct and as His obedient subjects, preserves the knowledge of Him, and distinguishes those loyal to His law from its transgressors. Keeping the Sabbath is also the sign that the Lord sanctifies His people.

The words were spoken by Christ Himself through Moses to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai after the directions for building the sanctuary, when communing on Sinai ended. They were written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, the tables of testimony engraved with the commandments and placed in the ark as the unchangeable law of His kingdom. The Sabbath commandment is one of those engraved precepts, part of the Decalogue commemorating creation, and it remains binding though Satan and his host work diligently to make men believe it is no longer binding. The stone tablets preserve God's claim to the specified seventh day so the people will remember it and not mistake which day to keep, for the seventh day is the day God specified, blessed and set apart as His sacred day of rest, while the first day of the week is not the Christian Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath shows that the Lord sanctifies His people, the day is holy to the Lord with death and cutting off for defiling it or doing work on it, and God's people are to preach this Word and read it before congregations rather than enter controversy over Sunday laws, exalting a plain Thus saith the Lord for the seventh day so the burden rests on those who reject it, whose controversy is with God.

The six days are six literal days of twenty-four hours marked off by the rising and setting of the sun, not six indefinite periods of time handled by human theories and suppositions. For then there would be no possible way for man to observe the day specified in the fourth commandment, and God speaks in language the human family can comprehend and does not leave creation time indefinite. The Sabbath is therefore not uncertain but is marked by the sun, made for a round world controlled by the sun that rules the day, so when the seventh day comes in that round world it is the time in all countries and lands to observe it. In countries with months of no sunset or no sunrise the period is calculated by records kept, with God accepting obedience according to the circumstances of time in the sun-rising and sun-setting world. Obedience is the test to honor and glorify God in perfect consistency with the Lord's created world, not ploughing into the intricacy of precise minutes and hours, while transgression of His law will meet God as a consuming fire; keeping the appointed seventh day testifies to the Creator's work, keeps the mind directed to creation, and guards against infidelity.

The Sabbath is the creation Sabbath instituted in Eden when the foundations of the earth were laid, when all the sons of God shouted for joy, given to man that he might honor the name of the living God and keep it holy. After creating the world in six days God rested on the seventh day and was refreshed, and sanctified and blessed the day of His rest and set it apart for man to observe in honor of creation, reserving the seventh day to Himself and giving men six days for livelihood work. It was known and kept by Israel after deliverance from Egypt so they would be set apart from the world, before it was proclaimed on Sinai, and was given again to Israel when God stood on Mount Sinai and proclaimed His ten holy precepts, of which the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is plain and decided. It stands with imperishable obligation like the other precepts of the Decalogue, to be held sacred to a thousand generations, binding until God's people are in the city of God, and its memorial cannot be removed to any other day. Observance of the Sabbath is the sign between him that serves God and him that serves Him not, showing loyalty in the face of a world that worships a false sabbath, while those who transgress it do not have the sign to distinguish them from the world; all who observe it honor God and will themselves be honored. Though the whole world keeps Sunday and men devise human laws to force God's few people to follow the laws of the land, they must still keep the law instituted in Eden and not follow blind error from priests and human lawmakers, for God has never changed His rest day to the first day, and the seventh day stands certain against a day with no sanctity exalted as a spurious Sabbath and testing question.

The day specified is the seventh day, Saturday, not the first day or Sunday, an institution given after the world was made. Scripture leaves no ignorance and no uncertainty about which day is the Lord's Sabbath, plainly showing which day God sanctified and blessed and set apart as the rest day of man. Sunday, the first day of the week and the first working day, is not the Sabbath and has no sanctity, sacredness or blessing placed in it; the day God sanctified and blessed is to be kept as His requirement, and its observance brings a blessing.

Perpetual Covenant Memorial

The Sabbath is a perpetual covenant to be kept throughout all generations for as long as time lasts. It is an enduring sign between the Lord and Israel forever, grounded in His making heaven and earth in six days and resting and being refreshed on the seventh day, and Sabbath obedience identifies the Lord as the one who sanctifies His people. Its wording is to be kept as written, its meaning has not diminished, it cannot be changed by human conjecture, and its everlasting covenant does not change. It must be held up as the Lord's test given to all the world and not left for man-made tests.

The Sabbath is God's enduring memorial of creation that keeps ever present the true reason worship is due to Him, that He is the Creator and men are His creatures. It declares Him the only true and living God, distinct from other gods, the personal all-powerful Maker and Monarch of the universe. It witnesses to His creative power, Godhead, love, mercy and claim on reverence, memorializes His creative work, marks the covenant relationship between Him and His people, and serves as a continuing sign and pledge by which He recognizes His people and sanctifies them. By observance of the Sabbath on the part of His people God designed that a knowledge of Himself should be preserved, and had it always been kept there would never have been an idolater, atheist or infidel. Jesus made the world and made man, and He also made the Sabbath and gave it to man to keep holy, as Lord of the Sabbath displacing the rubbish of human tradition piled on the Sabbath of the fourth commandment to make its spiritual meaning plain, with the Sabbath part of the golden treasure of truth entrusted to the Jewish nation in an economy instituted by Jesus Christ.

The Sabbath is God's seal, signet and mark placed in the forehead, meaning written in the intellect. Unlike circumcision which was a sign in the flesh, it is a sign in the mind, the token of His authority and power, the sign of God and the seal of His law. It stands in the bosom of the Decalogue whose tables are the foundation of His government in heaven, as God's government mark, the signet of the faithful and the everlasting covenant that is a sign between man and his Maker. Keeping the Sabbath in obedience to the Lord is the condition for being sealed, and refusal to obey by keeping it means a person cannot receive the seal of God. Sealing indicates a person is God's chosen, appropriated to Himself as Christ's purchased possession whom no one shall pluck out of His hands, secure in His hands with perfect security, and if any in families refuse obedience in keeping His Sabbath the seal cannot be placed upon them. No one who does not bear that sign will pass through the pearly gates of the city of God, for every soul who is saved cherishes pure principles proceeding from the very essence of truth, is loyal to the principles of God's word and loyal to the everlasting covenant, and is fastened by golden links to the everlasting power and love of the God of truth.

The Sabbath belongs to the first four commandments showing duty to God, given for the benefit of man and for the honor of God. It stands in the center of the moral law as the connecting link between God and man, and is distinct from the ceremonial, social and political laws given to Israel. All who observe the Sabbath signify by that observance that they are worshipers of the living God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, continuing as long as He has a people on earth to serve Him. Among the Jewish nation it was later perverted and entirely misinterpreted, loaded down with inventions and requirements of men which God never specified until its sacred, divine character was lost. By self-righteous priests and rulers it was made an exacting, arbitrary institution and a curse and a yoke of bondage, just as Satan wanted, so that no one could keep it, with the farther the people departed from God the more traditions of their own manufacture were added.

Sanctification and Distinct People

The Sabbath is the lasting sign by which it is known that the Lord sanctifies His people, and keeping it holy in obedience is the only true sanctification, Bible sanctification. It is holy and blessed by God as the memorial of His making heaven and earth in six days and resting on the seventh, kept as a perpetual sign and never-ending covenant by working six days and keeping the seventh as holy rest because God rested and was renewed. Defiling it brings cutting off and death, while keeping it in the spirit of true obedience shows that all His commandments are to be practiced and marks those whom He accepts and makes holy through obedience to His law. Every Sabbath kept in faith brings special blessing in obedience, with peace, rest, refreshing, and the presence of Jesus in the midst of even little companies gathered to worship Him to enlighten, bless and sanctify them, and its sacred hours are to be employed in holy conversation, testimony, exhortation, and labor and prayer for souls. God's people now must join voice with helping hands to carry the truth everywhere and give the Sabbath much greater honor in order to receive as reality the life promised in Isaiah. It stands as a divine, everlasting covenant and a sign and mark of God's government, so that to discard the living God's word and accept those who seek to change times and laws means much, and each person must inquire whether in observing a day of rest his faith is drawn from the Scriptures or from a spurious representation of truth. Every soul fastened to this covenant is fastened to a golden chain of obedience in which every link is a promise, showing he regards God's word as above the word of man and God's love as preferable to the love of man, and those who repent of transgression and return to loyalty by accepting God's mark show themselves true subjects ready to do His will and obey His commandments, with the Sabbath mark to be placed upon His commandment-keeping people.

Sabbath observance is God's ordained means to preserve a knowledge of Himself, marking His obedient subjects who keep His law holy and distinguishing those loyal to His law from its transgressors. It is a forever sign between God and Israel distinguishing them from all other nations and from the people of the world, drawing an unmistakably plain public line between His loyal, commandment-keeping people and the world, idolaters, transgressors and unbelievers. Those who knowingly transgress it are cut off from among His people, while those who keep it show they have chosen the living God and receive His promised blessing and protection. It is a perpetual covenant to be kept throughout all generations, to be borne without shame, with leaders giving it strong emphasis and all remaining loyal by obeying it with every other commandment, the Sabbath being holy unto God so His people may know He sanctifies them, with six days for work and the seventh the Sabbath of rest holy to the Lord, and work on that day bringing death. Parents are to teach their children to obey its commandment so they may be numbered among God's people.

The Sabbath is a continual sign of God's love, mercy, kindness and sanctifying power, and of His covenant of grace. It is His pledge that He sanctifies, chooses and sets apart His peculiar people, having taken the obedient into covenant relation with Himself as their God to bless them and fulfill His promise to them. Keeping it holy bears testimony to the nations that they are His chosen people and distinguishes them from those who serve other gods, while keeping the Sabbath of creation which God sanctified and blessed exalts the Lord God of heaven. As God rested and was refreshed, satisfied with His work of creation, His people are to rest and be refreshed, continually reminded they are included in His covenant of grace. It is the golden clasp uniting man to God in supreme obedience and reverence and uniting man to fellow man, with reverence for the Sabbath engraved on the first table leading to keeping the first three commandments of duty to God and the last six of duty to fellow man, and is the sign and eternal life insurance for every soul striving rightly on right principles, guaranteeing they shall never fall. Its faithful keeping may bring joy again among the angels of heaven as at creation, even as it brings upon the church the oppressive power of persecution.

Wherever God has a people on earth to serve Him it remains the sign, extending beyond Israel after the flesh to all who join themselves to God by faith. Through Christ both Jew and Gentile may enter the spiritual fold and become part of that covenant people, and God receives all who hold the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end, and with these alone He will fulfill the covenant. It marks a whole family whose religion is lived out in practical godliness at home. It is the sign borne by physicians who belong to a distinct and holy people unto the Lord, and by ministers and physicians who give perfect and entire obedience to the precepts of the Word in all their work, acting at every step as Christ would act and yoking with Christ as restorers of health to body, mind, heart and soul rather than practicing extortion, robbery, selfishness and avarice which violate God's law and fail to love God supremely and neighbor as self. Those who truly believe in Christ openly conform to Jehovah's law, making visible their conformity by observing the Sabbath as the mark of distinction between God's chosen people and the world.

True Sabbath Versus Counterfeit

The seventh day alone is the day God rested upon, blessed, sanctified, set apart and reserved to Himself, giving men six days for work while keeping the seventh holy to the Lord as a perpetual covenant and sign forever that He sanctifies His people. After finishing creation in six days He rested on the seventh and was refreshed, and set it apart for man to honor, leaving no ignorance and no uncertainty about which day is His Sabbath. Sunday is the first working day, a common working day with no sanctity, and God never made it holy, never blessed it, never placed sanctification in it, and never changed His rest day to it. Human authority, human custom, majority choice and widespread observance cannot make another day holy, cannot remove God's memorial to another day, and cannot replace the seventh day God sanctified and blessed. Setting the Sabbath aside for a day God did not institute is disobedience to His law, and to be deceived on this point is to come to judgment as a transgressor of the law of God.

The man of sin has changed this signpost by setting up a false sabbath to make men think they obey the Creator by resting on it. Through the papacy acting for the prince of evil, and through Satan working from the first rebellion, a false, spurious, idol sabbath has been set up on the day of the sun, tearing down God's memorial, changing times and laws, and exalting the first day without one word of sanction from God. The Roman church took upon itself to think to change times and laws as if changing God's law were its prerogative, and its first-day child has been accepted by human authorities and presented to the Protestant world as the true Sabbath, while the world wondered after papal authority. In this way the religious world has been led captive, ministers see the force of the plain Thus saith the Lord yet refuse it because obedience involves a cross, and shepherds turn from it to repeat fables, a thus saith the papacy. No human power can change the declaration that God rested and was refreshed, and even universal acceptance of the rival sabbath cannot invalidate Jehovah's holy Sabbath.

The seventh-day Sabbath is God's mark and sign borne by all who love Him and keep His commandments, standing in direct opposition to the seal or mark of the beast, which is the counterfeit sabbath. It is a sign between God and His people forever and a perpetual covenant throughout all generations, holy to its keepers, declaring that the Lord sanctifies them because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day rested and was refreshed. Observing the true rest-day acknowledges subjection to God's kingdom and shows true subjects ready to do His will, while observing a spurious rest-day acknowledges subjection to the kingdom of rebellion. Those who desire the seal of God in their foreheads must keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment rather than accept a man-made institution in its place, for understanding this mark is for the interest of all so they may escape the wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and receive his mark. In the day of final destruction God will pass over those who bear His sign, and the destruction that falls upon the world will not fall upon them.

Honoring the seventh day honors the Creator and His law, while replacing it with an ordinary workday violates God's law and brings accountability to the Lawgiver. The Sabbath memorializes creation and bears the Creator's authority, marking God as Creator and acknowledging that there is no other God, so refusing its claims to pursue one's own work, treating His command as though the day kept makes no difference, or teaching others to set it aside dishonors Him. Changing the sanctified seventh-day rest to the first day voids His law, exalts principles opposed to those that rule in heaven, and brings the plainly stated penalty on those who choose the path of self-gratification, for sin is the transgression of the law. Keeping the Sabbath distinguishes those loyal to God from those who accept a human institution in its place, drawing the distinction between him that serves God and him that serves Him not. It is eternally important to know whether the mark of God's government or the mark of rebellion is borne, since the Sabbath was established at creation as God's designated day, not the day chosen by the majority.

Loyalty Test and Judgment

In every age the Sabbath of creation which He sanctified has stood as God's own test of loyalty and obedience, showing the importance He attaches to His law, and not as any man-made test for which others need be sought. It is the sign between God and His people throughout their generations and forever, a perpetual covenant grounded in His making heaven and earth in six days and resting with refreshment on the seventh, by which it is known that the Lord sanctifies them. Keeping it holy distinguishes those who keep the commandments of God from those who transgress His law, setting forth His definite requirements for honoring His day of rest, whose authority takes precedence over conflicting human laws. Those who observe it with a heart consecrated to God find the day God sanctified to be more than they had any idea of, while turning aside from that plain Thus saith the Lord brings condemnation and leaves no transgressor excusable.

The Sabbath remains a sign in every age and has lost none of its meaning, standing as clean, pure, testing truth that means life to the receiver and as a prominent part of the third angel's message and the last message of warning that Christ is soon to come. Its verity and confirmation are to have the heaviest evidences brought in now, as plain, decided testing truth to be brought to the front and never cut out or hidden to gain larger circulation, worldly favor, or favor from hearers whether many or few. It is to be read before congregations and proclaimed openly in cities, in Washington, and in camp-meetings and tent efforts in or near large cities, with abundance of ministerial help so workers do not become overwearied and give the trumpet an uncertain sound, and it must not be set aside by excitement over minor matters that diverts minds to questioning and division of sentiment. It draws the line of demarcation between those who keep the commandments of God and those who do not, and that line is to be revealed with unmistakable clearness by a more decided stand for truth and righteousness, a holy life, and a faith that dominates life. Keeping the Sabbath keeps covenant relation with God as His people and brings the blessings essential for the severe trial ahead, for His commandments are life, while to dishonor God by indifference denies that He is God and they are His people, and leaders in the coming conflict between the prince of darkness and the Prince of Light must teach it by precept and example without shirking and advance with its increasing light or become blind leaders of the blind. As it is made void and set aside it becomes more precious and sacred and demands greater respect and reverence.

In the final conflict over allegiance obedience to the Sabbath will be central, for Babylon forces men to accept a spurious Sabbath and human laws require Sunday observance, which do not override the perpetual obligation grounded in creation. The seventh-day Sabbath marks God's commandment-keeping people, who face hatred, oppression and persecution because they remain faithful to God's law when human laws demand that they disregard it. It is the sign of God's creative power and a witness to His claim on human reverence and worship, serving as the foundation and source of security for those who keep covenant with God amid deception and persecution. In the time of Sunday-observance enforcement and in the hour of trial He will preserve those who remain faithful to this sign, sanctify them and give them His approval as commandment keepers, acknowledge them in heaven, and pass over them in the day of final destruction, while those who break their covenant with God are left without hope.

The stone tables bearing these laws that make God's will and the principles of His government known will be presented as the only unerring standard of righteousness at the judgment, when all are judged out of the things written in the books and receive life or death according to the law. Exalting the first day of the week and putting it in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord is setting up an image to be worshiped under Satan's direction, just as Nebuchadnezzar set up an image on the plains of Dura and commanded all men to fall down and worship it. Those who read these words and obey them now will not have to read them with self-condemnation in that day. No one can trifle with sacred and eternal interests or trample upon God's law with impunity, for rejecting the Sabbath brings cutting off and death, and refusing obedience because it requires self-denial does not remove that consequence. Dishonoring the Sabbath by binding money in worldly schemes or by selfish use forfeits God's blessing, and in mercy God withholds increased talents from one who would use them to dishonor it, for God will not be trifled with, yet He draws the transgressor by the cords of His love and will fulfill His word in showing loving-kindness and tender mercy if he will walk humbly with God. To exalt Sunday and trample the seventh day makes void the law of Jehovah, and refusing the sign to exalt a false rest-day leads to ruin when its virtue is fully seen.

Breaking down the Sabbath by taking a day that has no sacredness or sanctity, a spurious first-day sabbath, and trampling the true Sabbath underfoot makes a breach in God's law. Keeping the seventh day honors Him as the only true and living God to be worshiped, identifies the seventh day — not the first day — as holy, and marks those who love God as bearing His sign as part of keeping all His commandments. Those who observe the seventh day and lift it up raise the foundation and are called repairers of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in, restoring the foundation of many generations. This restoration of God's law and the Sabbath is a special work for God's people, for the Sabbath has been displaced, and its observance is bound up with restoring God's moral image in humanity and with religious meditation and worship, by exalting the trampled Sabbath and calling it honorable.

Faithful Observance Today

Keeping the day holy means resting as God rested and was refreshed, doing no unnecessary work and laying aside ordinary labor, secular distractions, and duties that can be planned ahead. Food is to be prepared the day before so the Sabbath is free for reverent worship, honoring God, and spiritual service, with holy conversation, testimony, prayer for souls, and communion with Him. The day is holy time set apart for God, a memorial of creation for which He safeguards observance lest it be forgotten or set aside even for religious work, and its keeping brings peace, rest, and the sanctifying blessing He intends. Work during the six days is to be ordered so that people are not left too weary to serve Him when the sacred hours come.

Restaurants are to remain closed on the Sabbath and not serve meals even to a few regular boarders who plead earnestly for them, rather than making it a day of taxing labor in feeding large numbers while waiters have much to do. Food that will last over the Sabbath is to be provided on Friday, so workers have the day for the worship of God and for recruiting physical and spiritual strength, while only truly necessary work continues with as little labor as possible. Keeping this line between God's people and the world unmistakably plain must come before supposed human necessities, even when obedience causes great inconvenience to those who have no respect for it. Closing gives opportunity to proclaim the truth, for people will ask why the restaurant is closed, reasons for keeping the Sabbath can then be given, reading matter can be shared with those who become interested, and seeds of truth can thus be sown, though to many it will be a great mystery.

Those connected with sanitariums and medical missionary work are to properly observe the Sabbath and make God's sign prominent before the world without concealment, exerting a strong influence for good as a public witness. Ordinary treatments and operations that can be postponed are to be set aside, while real suffering is still to be relieved and the sick ministered to after the Saviour's example of mercy and benevolence. Health institutions as the right hand of the gospel are to stand free from worldly policy, openly avow themselves Seventh-day Adventist, and represent the various features of gospel missionary work in preparing the way for the coming of the Lord. Implicit obedience in this new life in Christ gives genuine medical missionary work a clearer meaning, and the Sabbath word should be effectively brought before the mind in short, pointed gospel talks in sanitariums that point sufferers to their only hope for salvation of the soul.

Parents are to teach their children to obey the Sabbath commandment so they may be numbered among God's people, distinguished from the people of the world. Ministers are to preach this Word and read it before congregations, exalting a plain Thus saith the Lord for the seventh day rather than entering controversy over Sunday laws, so the burden rests on those who reject it, whose controversy is with God. All are to uphold the sign without shame or compromise as a public witness, openly conforming to Jehovah's law, standing distinct from the world, and carrying the work forward in missionary lines, with the creation week as an established fact to be made prominent among all nations and not made less important. Its claims are to be openly acknowledged and its light made to shine through the way people work.

The Sabbath command is to be read in the same connection as Isaiah 58, which rebukes ceremony, fasting, selfishness, strife, oppression, and unhumbled hearts while calling for honoring God's holy day rather than trampling it. Closely examining the Word shows whether one bears God's government mark, the King's mark stamped upon the soul of the one who keeps it, chosen and set apart to honor God. Bearing that mark forbids any dishonest transaction, because God will not be a party to robbery and extortion, and requires following Christ's tender compassion and medical missionary methods plainly specified in Isaiah 58. The exactness, skill, wisdom, and perfection required in the building and service of the sanctuary after the pattern God gave Moses are also required in every line of service for God.