Ezekiel 20:12, commentary and pictures

God gave the seventh-day Sabbath to His people to be a perpetual sign between Himself and them that He is their Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. The words sign, seal, mark and token carry the same meaning, so the Sabbath is His seal and mark placed in the forehead to denote a consecrated mind wholly on the Lord's side, and it stands as a memorial of His creative power, authority and rightful rule as the true God above false gods. To be sanctified by Him is to be made conformed to His will expressed in His holy law through habitual communion with Him and living by every word in obedience to His commandments. Keeping the Sabbath therefore identifies those loyal to His government, marks them as His distinct and separate people, and distinguishes those who serve God from those who do not. In the final conflict the true seventh-day Sabbath remains His seal of loyalty upon commandment-keeping people, while the rival Sunday sabbath exalts human authority and, when its obligation is clearly understood and enforced by law, its acceptance in place of God's sign is allegiance to Rome and reception of the mark of the beast.

Words Sign Seal Meaning

The words sign, mark, seal and token carry the same meaning, so the Sabbath is God's sign, the seal of His law, and the token of His authority and power. It was given to be a sign between Him and His people that they might know He is the Lord who sanctifies them.

Unlike circumcision, which was a sign in the flesh, the Sabbath is a sign in the mind. It is appropriately said to be placed in the forehead because the forehead denotes the intellect or mind, the same as to write the law in the mind and heart. That sign is not something seen but unseen, a consecrated mind placed wholly on the Lord's side. Whether it is borne is known by examining God's Word to see if the King's mark is present and if life is set apart to honor Him. To make place for it the mind must not be filled with worldly thoughts and cares about food, drink and dress, with exciting books that lead away from present truth and love of the Bible, or with putting the Lord's coming far off, but leisure is to be spent searching the Bible.

The Sabbath is a memorial of the Creator's work and therefore a sign of His power and Godhead. It is grounded in His creative power as the institution that points to Him as Creator and declares His rightful authority and rule over the beings He made. Keeping it points to Him as the One who sanctifies His people and draws others to Him to increase the number of Sabbathkeepers. Among the first four commandments, which show duty to God, the fourth is the connecting link between God and man. It is the only commandment in the law that distinguishes the Creator from false gods, so keeping it signifies worship of the living God as Creator of heaven and earth.

That I am the Lord that sanctify them means sanctification is conformity to the will of God expressed in His holy law. It is habitual communion with God, belonging to those who honor Him by obeying His commandments and setting apart the seventh day as sacred and holy. Only those who live by every word from God are truly sanctified, and to claim sanctification while disregarding His holy rest day is false.

Gift And Rebellion In Israel

God gave His Sabbaths to Israel to be a sign between Himself and them, that they might know that He is the Lord who sanctifies them. The holy day so given is identified as the seventh day, and the Sabbaths are joined to His statutes and His judgments as one gift of obedience. Keeping the Sabbath faithfully reminded Israel that God was their Creator and Redeemer as well as their Sanctifier. Setting aside the Sabbath command led to forgetting the Creator and turning to idols, because their hearts went after idols, while keeping it in the proper spirit stood opposed to idolatry.

The house of Israel rebelled against Him in the wilderness by not walking in His statutes, despising His judgments, and greatly polluting His Sabbaths. That pollution of the Sabbaths was rebellion against Him and contempt for His law. God therefore appealed to them to return by walking in His statutes, keeping His judgments and doing them, and hallowing His Sabbaths as the sign that He is the Lord their God. The statutes and judgments themselves were good and ordained to life, so that if a man does them he shall live in them. For the continual transgressor, however, penalties were annexed to transgression that were not good for the transgressor, with the civil law given through Moses requiring death and punishment to be inflicted upon open contempt of the Lawgiver in order to restrain others by fear.

Because of that Sabbath pollution and rebellion God said He would pour out His fury upon them in the wilderness to consume them, and they came under His fury, indignation and wrath. Continued profaning brought divine indignation and wrath upon Judah also, consuming with fire and recompensing their own way upon them. The evil later brought upon Jerusalem for the fathers profaning the Sabbath confirms that breaking this sign invites punishment. Yet He spared them from destruction in the wilderness and reaffirmed the Sabbath sign to their children in the wilderness. Israel’s failure to keep the Sabbath command, which stands at the center of the Ten Commandments, brought sorrow and shame.

Sabbath Identity And Obligation

After creating the world in six days God gave the seventh day to His people as a day of rest, to be a sign between Him and them that they might know He is the Lord who sanctifies them. The seventh day alone bears God's seal, set apart as His day, while the six working days are given to people to preserve His order of worship. New sanctuaries built for those who accept present truth stand as memorials constantly bearing witness to this creation rest and sanctifying sign. Keeping this sign means not using God's house or His day for visiting, keeping thoughts on heaven and heavenly things, living without disunion, and putting away hard feelings toward a brother or sister before sunset in order to retain God's blessing.

The Sabbath was given for the benefit of man and for the honor of God. It is a perpetual covenant sign tied to God as Creator and to His sanctifying work. It remains a sign between God and His people forever, as long as He has a people upon the earth to serve Him. The fourth commandment is the connecting link between God and man among the first four commandments that show duty to God, while the last six show duty to fellow man. All who observe it show by that observance that they are worshipers of the living God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

The seventh-day Sabbath remains unchanged, was not abolished at the cross, and is kept in honor of God's holy name. It separates the true people of God from unbelievers and unites the hearts of the waiting saints. Its role as the sign of the true God and of His sanctifying work for His people supports its continuing obligation and explains why it is a mark of faithful witness to God.

Christ gave the Sabbath as a memorial of creation. It points to Him as Creator and Sanctifier and is given to all whom He makes holy, including those who through Him become part of the Israel of God. Having pledged His own life so that fallen human beings under Satan's rule and discipline might have a second probation and need not perish, He invites all to come to Him for rest. He puts His holy Sabbath upon those who come to Him as His seal, His sign of obedience and loyalty, and by a new inspiration of grace He unites to Himself all who will come and seals them with loyalty to His Sabbath.

The Sabbath is the Lord's test, and no human ruler may stand between God and people in matters of obedience to it. Keeping it faithfully marks loyalty to God and distinguishes those who honor Him, drawing a clear line between those who serve God and those who do not and distinguishing God's people from the world. Sabbath observance is a test of faith that calls for obedience to God's requirements rather than human demands or personal convenience. It will be a point of conflict between truth and error, so all who profess to keep God's law should unite in observing it as holy. The verse's sign is connected with the mark placed on God's people before judgments fall, and parents' Sabbath choices affect whether their children receive that mark.

Final Conflict And Protection

In the final conflict the true seventh-day Sabbath stands as God's seal of loyalty and memorial between Him and His commandment-keeping people, marking His authority and their relationship to the Creator as the One who sanctifies them. Keeping the true Sabbath in obedience to God's law is a token of allegiance to divine authority and evidence of loyalty to the Creator, while honoring a rival sabbath in its place exalts human authority above God. The rival, spurious sabbath on the day of the sun marks allegiance to rebellion and bears the mark of the opposing kingdom, obscuring God's sign; Sabbath-keepers are therefore to uphold God's Sabbath by faithful example and present it when the time is right. The Sabbath was ordained and sanctified at creation, and keeping the rest day He established acknowledges the government it represents and identifies those who belong to His kingdom.

The change of the Sabbath is the sign or mark of the authority of the Romish Church, claimed by Rome as the sign of her authority in contrast to God's Sabbaths which are His sign that He is the Lord who sanctifies His people. Sunday observance originated with Rome as a Roman custom that seeks to displace the true Sabbath, and replacing God's rest day with a spurious sabbath obscures that sign. Sunday observance stands as a rival sign, and the passage warns that it will be enforced against those who keep the true Sabbath.

Rejecting God's Sabbath sign to honor Sunday in its place rejects God and accepts the sign of allegiance to Rome, which is the mark of the beast and worship of the beast and his image. By keeping the counterfeit sabbath in place of the true Sabbath, those who understand the claims of the fourth commandment pay homage to that power and receive the mark. The Sabbath stands in direct opposition to that counterfeit sabbath on the day of the sun.

The mark is received only when the issue has been clearly explained and the world enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath. The test comes only when Sunday observance is enforced by law, and then people are brought plainly to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. Christians of past generations who observed the first day supposing they were keeping the Bible Sabbath, and honest Sunday-keepers today including true Christians in every church who supposed Sunday was the Bible Sabbath, are accepted in their sincerity and do not receive the mark; only those who then knowingly continue in transgression, honoring a human institution with no higher authority than Rome above God, receive the mark of the beast.

Movements in the United States to secure for the institutions and usages of the church the support of the State, whose principal object is the enforcement of Sunday observance, follow in the steps of papists. They open the door for popery to regain in Protestant America the supremacy she has lost in the Old World. The spirit of conformity to worldly customs and veneration for human traditions above the commands of God is permeating the Protestant churches and leading them to do the same work of Sunday exaltation which the papacy has done before them. The record of the means Rome employed in ages past for that object, and the spirit Rome manifested toward the Sabbath and its defenders, shows the agencies to be employed in the soon-coming contest and how papists and Protestants united will deal with those who reject their dogmas.

The Sabbath is God's appointed signature and mark placed upon every one of His people in this age to show they are His property, to place them in harmony with His holy law, and to make known that He sanctifies them. As the blood over the doors of the Hebrew dwellings showed Israel was God's property and preserved them from general ruin, so the Sabbath preserves God's people from general ruin. The seal placed upon God's people safeguards them when destruction and the wrath of God come upon the persecutors enforcing the mark of the beast, while it is that part of His law for keeping which His people will suffer persecution.

The seal is to be received now while Jesus is still in the most holy place, with only very little time left, in preparation for the time of trouble. Only those with clean hands and a pure heart will stand that trying time, so hearts must be set in order, treasure laid up in heaven, and the mind not filled with worldly thoughts and cares about food, drink, dress, with exciting books that lead away from present truth and love of the Bible, or with putting the Lord's coming far off, but leisure spent searching the Bible. Before the plagues, while Christ ministers in the sanctuary and the work of salvation is closing, the Sabbath will be proclaimed more fully with power from the latter rain. Some of God's children do not yet keep it because they have not rejected the light about it, and they will then unite on this central dividing issue between God's true Israel and unbelievers.

The verse foretells the state of the world just before the second coming, when the end of all things is at hand. Iniquity then abounds because men have transgressed the law and broken the everlasting covenant given on condition of obedience by continual transgression. They turn away from God and His righteous government and come more and more under the sway of seducing spirits, professing godliness while indulging their own traits of character in self-indulgence and self-centeredness unless conscientiously under the control of God.

Loyal People Distinguished

The seventh-day Sabbath is the sign between God and His people that identifies them as loyal to the God of heaven, trusting His truth and power as Creator, and marks them as those He recognizes as His own. Keeping it expresses submission to His government and cannot rightly be set aside by human commandments, for its observance belongs to His righteous, holy law. Keeping it holy acknowledges before the universe that God created the world by His power and that life is found in obedience.

God's people bear this appointed sign and mark by living in harmony with His holy law and keeping His commandments, and Sabbathkeepers must not dishonor it. Those who understand its meaning bring His laws into daily life, with His commands written in their hearts and shaping their conduct. Obedience to His word brings them into close relationship with Christ and is a public sign of loyalty to Him. Keeping the seventh day holy shows to the world that they are His peculiar, chosen people, sacredly denominated and placed under His theocracy, belonging to His government and kingdom. Examining His Word reveals whether they bear the King's mark and have been set apart to honor Him as the One who sanctifies them.

Observing the Sabbath makes conformity to God's law visible and distinguishes His chosen people from the world. Its observance marks them as a distinctive people, separate from the world in habits and practices, through whom He gathers people from all nations. It is the dividing line between God's true Israel and unbelievers, separating the true people of God and true worshipers of the living God, Creator of heaven and earth, from others. The seventh day remains unchanged and was not abolished at the cross, but is kept in honor of His holy name and unites the hearts of the waiting saints.

The Sabbath draws a clear line between those who serve God and those who do not, distinguishing those who honor Him in covenant relation from those in rebellion. Keeping the true Sabbath marks a covenant relationship with God, belongs to the Lord, and shows desire to obey Him and whose side they are on. Those who knowingly disregard His command reject their allegiance to Him and fail to receive this sign. Keeping it honors Him and reflects faithfulness needed for severe trials, while treating it as unimportant dishonors God and turns from His commandments.

In the last days Sabbath keeping is a test that distinguishes those who serve God from those who do not. It is the sign by which the righteous are known, preserving their knowledge of Him as Creator and marking them as a commandment-keeping people. Opposing it by changing His law means opposing God Himself. Obedience to His commandments is a remedy for strife and a means of unity in the church, so all who profess to keep His law should unite in observing it as holy, even as it becomes a point of conflict between truth and error.

Faithful Observance And Mission

The Sabbath was set apart for rest and religious worship, so ordinary work for livelihood or worldly gain was to cease upon it. Acts of mercy and benevolence honor it and are not restricted by time or place, including relieving the afflicted and comforting the sorrowing. In medical institutions unnecessary treatments and operations should be deferred so far as possible, while the needs of the sick are never to be neglected.

Bearing the King's mark requires honest dealing and forbids every dishonest transaction, robbery or extortion in marketplaces, stores, courts, lawyers' offices and medical work. Those so stamped follow Christ's compassionate medical missionary methods plainly specified in Isaiah 58, cleansing corrupt practices and healing the blind and lame. Keeping the sign means not using God's house or His day for visiting, keeping thoughts on heaven and heavenly things, living without disunion, and putting away hard feelings toward a brother or sister before sunset in order to retain God's blessing. Sabbath observance must remain an unmistakable witness and must not be set aside by opening restaurants for business on that day. Those who become involved in political strife cannot bear it as God's faithful people. To make place for the seal the mind must not be filled with worldly thoughts and cares about what to eat, drink and wear, with exciting books that lead away from present truth and love of the holy Bible, or with putting the Lord's coming far off, and leisure time must be spent searching the Bible.

Proper observance brings knowledge of true sanctification, which comes through willing obedience with God's word held even at cost of reputation or life. Obedience in observing testifies of the sanctification received through its observance. Sanctification from God belongs to those who honor Him by obeying His commandments, so claiming sanctification while disregarding His holy rest day is false. Rejecting the seventh-day Sabbath, which points to God as Creator and Ruler and when observed binds people to their Creator, dishonors this sign and misrepresents God's character.

God's Sabbaths are His government mark, the signet of the faithful and the everlasting covenant sign between man and his Maker, without which none will pass the pearly gates. Every soul saved cherishes pure principles fastened to the everlasting power and love of God, loyal to His word and covenant, with conduct controlled by high righteousness. Strength of mind, learning and power of influence cannot insure eternal life, for God weighs the action, and each must form an individual character after Christ with conscience taught of God and anchor fastened to heaven's unalterable law, since without this position faith is shipwrecked. Breaking God's laws and despising and trampling the Sabbath breaks the King's contract so God cannot work in their behalf. Those who do so no longer bear His sign, have corrupted faith, have changed leaders, cannot be trusted in test or trial but will act the traitor's part.

The Sabbath truth was to be carried to many places, where it would draw people to God and increase Sabbathkeepers. It is to be kept as a memorial to God throughout the world, with memorials of His Sabbath raised in churches and sanitariums to show forth His grace. As the message advances into new fields, new centers, publishing houses, sanctuaries, memorials and institutions in missionary lands give character to the work, attract attention, develop believers' talents, unify churches and spread the message by rapid dissemination. Exalting it as testing truth and making it prominent as a witness stands in contrast with the papal power that made void God's law. Accepting the Sabbath of creation is part of a reformation joining people to God's church and people, by which they know obedience to God's commandments means eternal life. Honoring it shows they have returned to loyalty and stand firmly for His law, and keeping it in covenant relation brings the blessings needed in severe trials. Treating it as unimportant dishonors God and turns from His commandments.

Deliverance from Satan's power demonstrates God's saving power and shows the Sabbath remains a sign of His sanctifying work and His power to defend His people and make truth triumph. Bearing witness by precept and example to Christ's power on the heart commends this truth to others, and recognizing the Sabbath honors His commandments. The sign is connected with the mark placed on God's people before judgments fall, and parents' Sabbath choices affect whether children receive that mark. Keeping space apart from unbelievers helps preserve distinct identity as a Sabbathkeeping people, and Sabbath observance gives patients and students a visible example of whose side they are on. The Sabbath draws the line between those who serve God and those who do not and will be a point of conflict between truth and error, so God's faithful people are to honor and defend it openly and stand firm despite reproach.