The Sabbath

and the Lord's Day

The Covenant From Sinai

  We open at Exod. 19 and read: "In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai" (vs. 1). Moses was mediator between the Lord and the children of Israel (see vs. 3). Moses came down and delivered to Israel God's terms. "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people" (vss. 5, 7). The people answered, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (vs. 8). Here was an agreement between God and Israel. They agreed to obey his covenant, and he agreed to bless them.

  Next they prepared to hear his voice, to hear the covenant ( vss. 9 25 ) . Then chapter 20 begins with God speaking aloud to Israel, and the very first thing heard are the Ten Commandments, extending to verse 17. He then follows the Ten Commandments with various precepts through Moses, to the end of chapter 23. "Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord." "And all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do" (chap. 24:3). Then "Moses wrote all the words of the Lord" in a book, verse 4, and that book was called "the book of the covenant" (vs. 7).

  "And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words" (Exod. 24:7, 8).

  That closed the covenant. It embraced all included in the record from Exod. 19:1 to Exod. 24:8, for this is the covenant in detail written out. It was a testament, disposition, arrangement; and an agreement between God and the Israelites. But is the Decalog included in it? Adventists might as well deny that the sun shines. It is written out in full in the covenant (Exod. 20:1 17); and the seventh day Sabbath is in its very heart (vss. 8 11). We are sure that this was the first or old covenant. Paul quotes Exod. 24:7, 8, and says it was "the first covenant" (see Heb. 9:18 20). That settles it.[37]

  The Decalog was such a prominent part of the Covenant that the stones on which it was written were called "the tables of the covenant" (Deut. 9:9), the book which it was written was called "the book of the covenant" (Exod. 24:7); and the ark in which it was deposit was called "the ark of the covenant" (Deut. 31:26).

  All Saturday keepers rest their claims for the observance of that day upon the Decalog. But the Decalog was a prominent part of the "old" or Sinaitic coven With that covenant the seventh day Sabbath stands falls, for there is no possible chance for the law teachers to take their Sabbath out of the first covenant, made Sinai. The enjoining of the observance of that day in the very heart of that covenant. If the code is force, the seventh day is in force, for that is the specified in it; but if that enactment of Jehovah's superseded by the new testament, in this dispensation then the seventh day is abolished.

  Uriah Smith (leading Adventist) says in his book entitled Two Covenants, page 5, "If the Ten Comma meets constituted the old covenant, then they are fore gone." The Bible declares in so many words that " words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments," is very covenant God made with Israel "when he brought them out of the land of Egypt" ( Exod. 34: 28; 1 Kings 8:9, 21). Then the Ten Commandments constituted, were included in the old covenant, and "are forever gone.

The Covenant From Sinai Abolished

  "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, and the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.... But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all.... Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he [38] that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born of the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free" (Gal. 4:21 31).

  Some of the Galatian brethren had become "bewitched" (3:1) through false teaching, and believed it necessary to be circumcised and to "keep the law of Moses." They, like their modern brethren, "observed days" (4:10), and became "entangled with the yoke of bondage." To them is directed this entire Epistle of solemn warnings and powerful arguments against the doctrine that the law system is in force in this dispensation. Because they gave heed to some law teachers, who "perverted the gospel of Christ" (1:7), and in obedience to their teaching observed law "days," etc., the apostle addressed them, "O foolish Galatians, . . . are ye so foolish?"

  In the foregoing scripture the apostle uses a powerful argument to show the abrogation of the law system. This he does by an allegory. The four principal characters in this allegory are Hagar, Ishmael, Sarah, and Isaac. These two women, Hagar and Sarah, represent "two covenants." Hagar represents the covenant made or given on "Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage." Sarah represents the covenant from Jerusalem—"the truth which came by Jesus Christ," which makes men free. The two sons of one father (Abraham) represent the children of the two covenants: Ishmael, the Jews; and Isaac, the Christians—both Jews and Gentiles.

  Mark this fact, that the covenant from Sinai is denominated a bondwoman," and all who cling to that covenant are her "children." "Ye that desire to be under the law." This applies to all Saturday keepers. "Do ye not hear the law?" What law? Answer: The "covenant, the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar." The Sinaitic covenant was "bondage," and the apostle warned them to "be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (chap. 5:1). "What saith the scripture ? Cast out the bondwoman and her son." Language could not be framed to teach more clearly the abrogation [39]

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