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IX.
Sabbath
Chapter 93
:
Reasons for Sabbath-Keeping
1. WHAT is the one
great feature by which the true God is
distinguished from all false gods?
"The Lord is the true God, He is the
living God, and an everlasting king. . . .
The gods that have not made the heavens and the
earth, even they shall perish from the
earth, and from under these heavens. He hath
made the earth by his power, He hath
established the world by His wisdom, and hath
stretched out the heavens by His discretion."
Jer. 10:10-12.
2. When Paul wished to
preach the true God to the idolatrous Athenians,
how did he describe Him?
"Whom therefore ye ignorantly
worship, Him declare I
unto you. God that made the world and and
things therein." Acts 17:23,24.
3. What did the
apostles say to the idolaters at Lystran?
"We. . . preach unto you that ye
should turn from these vanities unto the
living God, which made heaven, and earth, and
the sea, and all things that are therein."
Acts 14:15. See also Rev. 10:6; 14:6,7.
4. What reason is given
in the fourth commandment for keeping the
Sabbath day holy?
"For in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh day." Ex. 20:11.
NOTES.-The Sabbath is the great memorial or
creation and or God's creative power, a
constant reminder or the true and living
God. God's design in making the Sabbath, and
in commanding that it be kept holy, was that
man might never forget Him, the Creator of
all things.
"The original Sabbath being a perpetual
memorial of God, the Creator calling man to
imitate God in the observance of the same,
man could not keep the original Sabbath and
forget God."- Prof. E. W. Thomas, M. A.,
in Herald of Gospel Liberty, June 19,1890.
When we remember that two thirds of the
world's inhabitants today are idolaters, and
that since the fall, idolatry, with its
train of associated and resultant evils, has
ever been a prevailing sin, and then think
that the observance of the Sabbath, as God
ordained it, would have prevented all this,
we can better appreciate the value of the
Sabbath institution, and the importance of
Sabbath-keeping.
5. What does God say
the Sabbath will be to those who hallow it, or
keep it holy?
"And hallow My Sabbaths; and they
shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may
know that I am the Lord your God." Eze.
20:20.
6. How important is it
that we know God?
"And this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." John 17:3.
7. Is there any danger
of God's chosen people forgetting Him?
"Beware that thou forget not the
Lord thy God, in not keeping His
commandments, and His judgments, and His
statutes." Deut. 8:11.
8. What other reason is
given for keeping the Sabbath?
"Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep:
for it is a sign between Me and you throughout
your generations; that ye may know that I am the
Lord that doth SANCTIFY you." Ex. 31:13.
NOTE.-To sanctify is to make holy, or to set
apart for a holy use. The sanctification, or
making holy, of sinful beings can be wrought
only by the creative power of God through
Christ by the Holy Spirit. In I Cor. 1:30 we
are told that Christ is made unto us
"sanctification;" and in Eph. 2:10 it is
said that "we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good
works." The Sabbath, therefore, is a sign of
sanctification, and thus of what Christ is
to the believer, because it is a reminder of
the creative power of God as manifested in
the work of regeneration. It is the sign of
the power of God, therefore, in both
creation and redemption. To the believer, it
is the evidence, or sign, that he knows the
true God, who, through Christ, created all
things, and who, through Christ, redeems the
sinner and makes him whole.
9. What special reason
did the Israelites have for keeping the Sabbath?
"And remember that thou wast a
servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord
thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty
hand and by a stretched-out arm: therefore
the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the
Sabbath day." Deut. 5:15.
NOTE.-In their bondage the Israelites had to
some extent lost the knowledge of God, and
departed from His precepts. The Sabbath came
to be greatly disregarded by them; and in
consequence of the oppression of the
Pharaohs, especially the Pharaoh of the
exodus, as witnessed by the rigorous
exactions made upon them by this latter king
through their taskmasters, its observance
was made apparently impossible. See Ex.
5:1-19. The special point, both of reform
and of conflict, just preceding their
deliverance from bondage, was over the
matter of Sabbath observance. Moses and
Aaron had shown them that obedience to God
was the first condition of deliverance.
Their efforts to restore the observance of
the Sabbath among the Israelites had come to
the notice of Pharaoh; hence his accusation
against them, "Wherefore do ye, Moses and
Aaron, let [hinder] the people from
their works? get you unto your burdens. . .
. Behold, the people of the land are many,
and ye make them rest [Heb., Shabbath]
from their burdens." Ex. 5:4,5. Deliverance
from this oppression was indeed, therefore,
an additional and special reason for their
keeping the Sabbath. But Egypt and Egyptian
bondage simply represent sin and the bondage
of sin. See Rev. 11:8; Hosea 11:1; Matt.
2:15; Zech. 10:10. Every one, therefore who
has been delivered from sin has the same
reason for keeping the Sabbath as had the
Israelites who were released from Egyptian
bondage.
10. What does the
psalmist say was the reason why God brought His
people out of Egypt, and placed them in Canaan?
"And He brought forth His people with
joy, and His chosen with gladness: and gave them
the lands of the heathen: . . . that they
might observe His statutes, and keep His laws."
Ps, 105:43-45.
NOTE.-Their deliverance from Egyptian
bondage was a reason for the keeping not
only of the fourth commandment, but of every
precept of God's law. This is indicated by
the preface or preamble to the law as given
on Sinai: "I am the Lord thy God, which have
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no
other gods before Me," etc. Ex. 20:2,3. See
also Lev. 19:35-37; Deut. 10:19; 15:2-15;
24:17,18. Likewise, every one who, through
Christ, has been delivered from the bondage
of sin, God calls to obedience, not only in
the matter of Sabbath-keeping, but to every
precept of His holy law. Blessed is the man
that doeth this, and the son of man that
layeth hold on it; that keepeth the
Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth
his hand from doing any evil." Isa.
56:2.
11. What is the meaning
of the word sabbath?
Rest.
NOTE.-Previous to the fall, God designed
that man's time should be occupied with
pleasant, invigorating, but not wearisome
labor. Gen. 2:15. Laborious, wearisome toil
came in consequence of sin. Gen. 3:17-19.
While under the fall the Sabbath, therefore,
may bring physical rest to both man and the
beasts of burden (Ex. 23:12) in a way not
originally intended, physical rest was not
its original and primary design or purpose.
Cessation from the ordinary labors and
occupations of the week was ordained, not
because these are wrong or sinful in
themselves, but that man might have an
appointed time and a frequently recurring
period for the contemplation of the Creator
and His works. Under the gospel, the Sabbath
is a sign of spiritual rest and freedom from
sin. So we read, "For he that is entered
into His rest, he also hath ceased from his
own works, as God did from His." Heb. 4:10.
12. Who gives this rest
from sin?
"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and
are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for
I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls." Matt. 11:28,29.
NOTE.-The Sabbath, then, is the sign of the
soul-rest which Christ gives to the weary
and ladened with sin.
13. Was the Sabbath
intended as a day for public worship?
"Six days shall work be done: but the
seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy
convocation." Lev. 23:3.
NOTE.-A convocation is an assembly of
people.
14. Does the New
Testament teach the same duty?
"Let us consider one another to
provoke unto love and to good works: not
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,
as the manner of some is; but exhorting one
another: and so much the more, as ye see the day
approaching." Heb. 10:24,25.
15. What does Malachi
say of those that fear the Lord?
"Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another: and the Lord
harkened, and heard it, and a book of
remembrance was written before Him for them that
feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.
And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts,
in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will
spare them, as a man spareth his own son that
serveth him." Mal. 3:16,17.
16. Will the Sabbath be
observed as a day of worship in the new earth?
"For as the new heavens and the new
earth, which I will
make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so
shall your seed and your name remain. And it
shall come to pass, that from one new moon to
another, and from one Sabbath to another ,
shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith
the Lord." Isa. 66:22,23.
NOTE.-"Thou hast made us for Thyself, and
our heart is restless till it find its rest
in Thee."-St. Augustine.
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