Church of God, Carmichael, CA
H. M. Riggle, 1928
[Original Page Numbers]
The plan of redemption was conceived in the mind of God prior to the foundation of the world. It was a mystery then hid in him alone. Long ages before that mystery was unlocked to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ, who made the world's atonement, it cast a love betokening shadow upon earth. That shadow was the law. The law embraced the five books of Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In proof of this, I cite a quotation from each book.
Paul says that women "are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law" (1 Cor. 14:34). Where does the law say this? In Gen. 3:16. I quote from the LXX: "The submission shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Genesis, then, is in the law. "The law had said, Thou shalt not covet" (Rom. 7:7). Where? In Exod. 20:17. So Exodus is in the law. Jesus makes two quotations from the law: 1. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." This is taken from Deut. 6:5. 2. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." This is from Lev. 19:18. So both Deuteronomy and Leviticus are a part of the law. Again: "Have ye not read in the law, how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?" (Matt. 12:5). This is from Num. 28:9. So all the five books of Moses are embraced in "the law."
"The law having a shadow of good things to come" (Heb. 10:1). The whole law system was but a shadow, containing types and figures of the plan of perfect redemption. Its Passover, atonements, sacrifices, offerings, tabernacle, temple, altars, blood, priests, circumcision, and sabbaths, all belonged to the law of shadows going before.
Among the promises of coming redemption was that of Shiloh—the rest giver (Gen. 49:10). "And his rest shall be glorious" (Isa. 11:10). In fulfillment, Jesus came, [11] saying, "Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest . . . And ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matt. 11:28; 29). In the law of shadows there must be a type of this sweet and tranquil rest found in redeeming grace. Hence God set apart one day in seven, the seventh, as a "sabbath of rest."
"Sabbath" means "rest." Rest is the sole idea of the term. The law said, "Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest" (Exod. 31:15). This is made still clearer in the Septuagint, where it is rendered, "But the seventh day is the Sabbath, a holy rest to the Lord." That sabbath, or rest, was "a shadow of things to come." It reached its fulfilment in Christ, in whom our souls have found an everlasting rest (see Col. 2:14-17; Heb. 4:1-11).
The Sabbath, then, was instituted by God, among the types and shadows of his great redemption. It pointed back to the creation, and forward to Christ, just as the Passover pointed back to Israel's exodus from Egyptian bondage and forward to "Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us." Whether, therefore, the Sabbath was instituted before Moses or not, it belonged to the law of types and shadows. Sacrifices began in the family of Adam, circumcision began with Abraham, yet both were nailed to the cross with all the ordinances of Moses.
But let us investigate, and find just when and where the Sabbath was first enjoined upon man. Saturday keepers lay no small stress upon a supposed pre Mosaic Sabbath. In fact, it is one of their main pillars. Back there in the dim past the events of an age were covered by a few lines in the Bible. Yet "the main reliance of Sabbatarians is upon arguments drawn from those remote times of darkness, while in the New Testament they find little to support their theories, but much to explain away.''
The scholarship of the world is somewhat divided on the subject of a pre Mosaic Sabbath. Much has been written on both sides of the question. In either case it has little bearing on present observance. But since our Sabbatarian friends rely greatly upon a belief in Sabbath observance from Eden, I desire to set before the [12] reader what I sincerely believe to be the truth of the matter. After reading much on both sides of the controversy, I have been led into the settled conviction that the argument for Sabbath observance from Eden down through the Patriarchal age rests upon a very sandy foundation. I shall submit the following proofs against it:
There is not one command in the book of Genesis to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath. In the language of Canright, "There is no statement that any of the patriarchs kept the Sabbath or knew anything about it. Sabbatarians say the record is so brief that it was omitted. Their proof, then, is what was left out!"
The first mention of the Sabbath as a rest day enjoined upon man that is recorded in the Bible is found in Exod. 16:23-30. This was twenty five hundred years after the creation of man. It was a new command to the Jews. On Friday, Moses said to the people, "Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath unto the Lord" (verse 23, Revised Version). On Saturday, he said, "Today is a Sabbath unto the Lord" (verse 25). "So the people rested on the seventh day" (verse 30). "And the people keep Sabbath on the seventh day" (LXX). This language, with its context, seems to prove that the children of Israel there and then began resting on the seventh day; that the keeping of the Sabbath was a new thing to them. Their deliverance from Egypt marked a new era in their history. At this time the Lord gave them a new year and a new beginning of months. (See Exod. 12:2.) So, also, he for the first time gave them the Sabbath (Exodus 16). Many scriptures teach this fact, a few of which are given below.
"Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them)' (Ezek. 20:10, 12). This text is conclusive. It simply states that God gave them the Sabbath when he brought them out of Egypt. "I gave them my sabbaths" implies the act of committing it to them, and proves that they did not have it before. It was a new thing to them, and only for them. The place where God gave Israel the Sabbath was: ``the wilderness." It was given as a sign [13] between himself and that nation. So positively teaches the text quoted.
"And remember that thou west 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). God commanded Israel to keep the Sabbath as a memorial of their deliverance from Egypt. Then, they never kept it until the reason existed for keeping it. Thus, it was first enjoined upon them in the wilderness.
The covenant enjoining the seventh day was not made before Moses. "The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day" (Deut. 5:2, 3). "Then follows a recital of the Ten Commandments, the covenant referred to. So if we are to credit the inspired statement of Moses, we must admit that the law embodying the seventh day Sabbath had never been given to the ancestors of the Jewish nation. Nay, "The Lord made not this covenant with out fathers but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day."
We affirm that every assumption that the Sabbath had been previously given is a direct contradiction of these texts.
"Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven . . . and makest known unto them thy holy Sabbath" (Neh. 9:13, 14). "Though the Sabbath had been introduced a short time before when the manna first fell, it is but natural that Nehemiah should speak of it with the rest of the law, as given on Sinai, by the audible voice of God, . . . and made a statute in Israel. If, then, we credit the testimony of Nehemiah, we trace the origin of that Sabbath to Moses in the wilderness. There is where God came down and gave that law."
I shall now quote from The Sabbath and also from Canright. "Smith and Barnum's Dictionary of the Bible says, 'In Exod. 16:23 29 we find the first incontrovertible institution of the day, as one given to, and to be kept by, the children of Israel. Shortly afterward it was re enacted in the fourth commandment.'[14]