Sermons on the Sabbath and the Law

SERMON FOUR — THE SABBATH AT THE FALL OF THE MANNA

“Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Exodus 16:4, 5. SOSL 41.1

THE first fall of the manna in the wilderness constitutes a memorable epoch in the history of the Sabbath. The origin of the Sabbath is dated at this point by all who hold it to be a mere Jewish institution. But all who believe that the Sabbath was made for the human family, date its origin at the close of creation. Here is a very wide difference, certainly. One of the parties must be in serious error. There are, however, several tests by which we may determine where the truth lies. SOSL 41.2

1. Was the law of the Sabbath in existence before the fall of the manna? or was it enacted on that occasion, and to meet that very circumstance? SOSL 41.3

2. Was the violation of the Sabbath a sin which Israel here, for the first time, committed? or was it one of which they had long been guilty? SOSL 41.4

3. Was the Sabbath instituted to commemorate the fall of the manna? or was the fall of the manna made to conform to the sacredness of the Sabbath? SOSL 41.5

4. Does the Sabbath commemorate the flight of Israel out of Egypt? or is it a memorial of the creation of the heavens and the earth? SOSL 41.6

The answers to these questions must determine, beyond all reasonable dispute, which class is right respecting the origin of the Sabbath. And certainly the questions themselves do admit of definite answers. SOSL 41.7

1. Was the law of the Sabbath in existence before the fall of the manna? or was it enacted on that occasion, and to meet that very circumstance? SOSL 41.8

(a) When God announced to Moses his purpose to feed the people with bread from heaven, he referred to his law as an existing code. He said that he would prove the people, whether they would walk in his law, or not. When they were subjected to the proof, it turned directly upon the observance of the Sabbath. See Exodus 16:4, 5, 22-29. It is certain, therefore, that God had a law in existence before the fall of the manna, and that one precept of that law required the observance of the Sabbath. SOSL 42.1

(b) When the people had violated the Sabbath by attempting to gather manna upon it, God said, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” This shows with certainty, first, that God had commandments and laws at that very time; and, second, that one of those commandments related to the observance of the Sabbath. SOSL 42.2

(c) It is to be specially noticed that although the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, in many ways, recognizes the sacredness of the Sabbath, it contains no precept expressly enjoining its observance till after the people had violated it. Thus we are clearly taught that the law of God relative to the Sabbath did not originate in that chapter nor at that time. SOSL 42.3

(d) The existence of the law of God from the beginning has been established by proofs which can never be invalidated. And, moreover, the existence in particular of the law of the Sabbath from the time that the Creator set apart the seventh day in Eden in memory of his own rest on that day, has been plainly proved. These four points do, therefore, certainly determine the fact that the law of the Sabbath existed before the fall of the manna. SOSL 42.4

2. Was the violation of the Sabbath a sin which Israel here, for the first time, committed? or was it one of which they had long been guilty? SOSL 42.5

(a) The words of the Lord to Moses very clearly answer this question. When the people went out to gather manna on the Sabbath, the Lord said, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” Verse 28. This language does certainly imply the long-continued violation of the Sabbath. It is certain that God was particularly testing them with reference to it. Verse 4. SOSL 42.6

(b) The evidence already adduced to show that the law did not originate at this time, proves that they had long been under obligation to observe it. But when in Egyptian bondage, they could plead, as a body, the difficulty, and perhaps impossibility in the case of many, of observing this sacred day. Now that God had broken their yoke, and changed their condition from that of servitude to that of freedom, and had begun to feed them from Heaven in such a manner that every facility for observing the Sabbath was now theirs, he could say of his providence, for he had done nothing by way of adding to his law on the point, that he had given them his Sabbath. It is in evident allusion to the fact that, though their difficulties had been great in time past in the observance of the Sabbath, and had been, therefore, some sort of excuse, now such excuse did not exist. When, therefore, the people were thus subjected to the test, to prove them respecting the Sabbath, and a portion of them continued to violate it, though God had made everything perfectly ready to their hand, he uses the strong language already quoted respecting their long-continued disobedience. We may be certain, therefore, that this was not their first transgression of the Sabbath law. SOSL 43.1

3. Was the Sabbath instituted to commemorate the fall of the manna? or was the fall of the manna made to conform to the sacredness of the Sabbath? Or, to state this question in a different form, Did the seventh day become the Sabbath by virtue of the fact that the manna did not fall that day? or did the manna cease from falling on that day because it was the sacred rest day of the Lord? SOSL 43.2

(a) Certainly, it makes very great difference which way this question is answered. And yet there can really be no serious difference as to the true answer. SOSL 43.3

(b) Either the cessation of the manna on the seventh day made that day to become the Sabbath; in which case it follows that the Sabbath is a memorial of the fall of the manna; SOSL 44.1

(c) Or, the existing sanctity of the seventh day caused the Author of the Sabbath to withhold the manna on that day. In this case, the Sabbath is proved to be more ancient than the fall of the manna. SOSL 44.2

(d) But we do know that the Sabbath does not allude to the six days’ fall of the manna, and the cessation thereof on the seventh day (see Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 20:8-11; 31:17; Hebrews 4:4); but to the six days’ work of creation, and the rest of the Creator on the seventh. SOSL 44.3

(e) It is not recorded that at the fall of the manna God rested upon the seventh day, nor that he blessed the day as that time, nor that he did then sanctify it. SOSL 44.4

(f) But all these things were done at the close of the creative work. SOSL 44.5

(g) It does, therefore, follow that the institution of the Sabbath did not originate at the fall of the manna, but did originate at the creation of the heavens and the earth; and that the seventh day did not become the Sabbath in consequence of the cessation of the manna on that day; but that the manna itself ceased on that day because of the existing sanctity of the Sabbath. SOSL 44.6

4. Does the Sabbath commemorate the flight of Israel out of Egypt? or is it a memorial of the creation of the heavens and the earth? SOSL 44.7

The following reasons are assigned to prove that the Sabbath commemorates the flight of Israel from Egypt: SOSL 44.8

(a) The Sabbath originated in the wilderness of Sin, about one month after the flight out of Egypt. SOSL 44.9

(b) When Moses, in Deuteronomy 5, repeats the ten commandments, he closes the fourth precept with these words: “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.” Verse 15. Our opponents, therefore, claim that the Sabbath is a memorial of the flight out of Egypt. SOSL 44.10

(c) God said to Moses respecting the Sabbath: “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” Exodus 31:17. See also verse 13, and Ezekiel 20:12-20. The Sabbath, in the view of our opponents, is therefore a Jewish institution, made for them, beginning with their flight out of Egypt, designed to commemorate that event, and expiring with the call of the Gentiles. SOSL 45.1

Such are the grounds for asserting that the Sabbath is a memorial of the flight of Israel out of Egypt. Let us now weigh them one by one. SOSL 45.2

(a) The first of these is of no account, simply because it is not founded in fact. It has been shown that the Sabbath originated at the close of the work of creation, and did not originate at the fall of the manna. This fact is not only fatal to the first of these three reasons, but to all three of them. For if the Sabbath of the Lord was made at creation, it is not a memorial of an event that did not happen till twenty-five hundred years forward. SOSL 45.3

(b) Nor does the second reason possess any real force, even though the fact that the Sabbath originated long before the flight out of Egypt, be left out of the account. For these words of Moses are the last which he utters in behalf of the Sabbath, and are his final appeal to that people who had so generally violated it during the forty years he had led them in the wilderness. See Ezekiel 20:13-24. It would seem very strange, if the Sabbath was ordained to be a memorial of the flight of Israel from Egypt, that Moses should not tell them of that fact till forty years afterward. But it does not appear that he made such a statement even then. One of two views must be taken of his words. Either they were designed to teach that the Sabbath commemorates the deliverance out of Egypt, or they were simply an appeal to their gratitude for such mercies, that they should honor God in the observance of his Sabbath. It is in our power to test this thing by quoting, from the same book, other words of Moses, which form an exact parallel to the text under consideration. Thus Moses says (Deuteronomy 24:17, 18): “Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge; but thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence; therefore I command thee to do this thing.” These words relative to not oppressing the widow and the fatherless, are the same that Moses uses concerning the Sabbath. If they prove in the one case that the Sabbath is memorial of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, they prove in the other that acts of justice and mercy toward the widow and the fatherless, are also a memorial of the flight out of Egypt! Again, if they prove respecting the Sabbath that it was not obligatory upon men till the deliverance from Egypt, they prove in the other case that justice and mercy toward the widow and orphan was not a part of man’s duty till after the Israelites left Egypt! But such conclusions need only to be stated, in order to show how unreasonable are the premises that lead to them. There is another view to be taken, and one that is strictly logical, reasonable, and just. These words were, in each case, an appeal to the gratitude of as rebellious people. God had conferred on them signal mercies; he asked them to show, by their obedience toward himself, and their pity toward their fellow men, that they remembered this. SOSL 45.4

(c) But the third reason for asserting that the Sabbath is a memorial of the flight from Egypt, or at least for claiming that it originated after that event, is found in what is said in Exodus 31, and Ezekiel 20, relative to the Sabbath as a sign between God and Israel. Yet the conclusion does not follow from the premises. Why was the Sabbath a sign between God and Israel? SOSL 46.1

(1) The first important fact is, that Israel was the only people that God had upon the earth. The duty to be the people of God was not something peculiar to Israel; but obedience to that duty distinguished them from the rest of the world. SOSL 47.1

(2) While the Hebrews worshiped the God that made the heavens and the earth, the nations around them worshiped false gods of every kind. SOSL 47.2

(3) It was perfectly appropriate and suitable to the case that God should designate his Sabbath as a sign between himself and the only people that acknowledged the Creator of the heavens and earth. The sign expressed their faith in the God that made the heavens and the earth, as distinguished from all false gods. It also expressed their faith that God made the heavens and earth in six days, and rested on the seventh, and that he hallowed that day in memory of that fact. Indeed, the very words in which God appointed the Sabbath to be a sign between Israel and himself, cited their minds to the creation for the origin of the institution: “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” Exodus 31:17. And thus the grand feature of the Sabbath, that fitted it to be a sign between God and the only people that acknowledged him, is the fact that the Sabbath points to God as the Creator, and traces itself back to the close of the creation week for its own origin. The reasons therefore assigned for the assertion that the Sabbath was a memorial of the flight from Egypt, are found to be utterly destitute of any evidence for their support. That the Sabbath does not commemorate the flight of the children of Israel from Egypt, can be clearly shown. SOSL 47.3

(a) It has been proved to originate at the creation of the heavens and the earth, and to be a memorial of that event. Exodus 20:8-11. SOSL 47.4

(b) There is nothing in resting on the seventh day of each week to commemorate a flight at midnight on the fifteenth day of the first month. Exodus 12:29-42; Numbers 33:3. SOSL 47.5

(c) God did give to the children of Israel a twofold memorial of the events of their deliverance out of Egypt: the passover and the feast of unleavened bread. The passover, on the fourteenth day of the first month, to commemorate the fact that the angel of God did pass over the Israelites on that day when he slew the first-born of the Egyptians; and the feast of unleavened bread, on the fifteenth day of the same, to commemorate the fact that when they fled out of Egypt on that day it was in great haste, and with their bread unleavened. Exodus 12, 13. This memorial pointed the children of Israel back to the deliverance out of Egypt, just as the memorial of the Sabbath points its observers back to the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the Creator’s rest from the same. SOSL 48.1

(d) Those who assert that the Sabbath was designed to be a weekly commemoration of the flight of Israel out of Egypt, assert that it originated at the fall of the manna, a little more than a month after they left Egypt. But if it is a weekly commemoration of that event, why was it deferred for five weeks before being appointed? That is very unlike the work of God. We say that the Sabbath is a memorial of the work of creation, and we show that no sooner was that work finished, and the rest of the Creator an accomplished fact, than the Sabbath was set apart to a holy use. It would be much more proper to say that the Sabbath is a memorial of the fall of the manna, than of the flight out of Egypt, as, on the view held by our opponents, there was no Sabbath till that point; yet there should have been, at least five weeks earlier, if it was a fit thing in the mind of God that there should be a weekly memorial of that event. God never delays to do his work when the reasons for that work once exist. SOSL 48.2

The sixteenth of Exodus does not give us the origin of the Sabbath. It treats the sacred rest-day of the Lord as an existing institution, and not as something which came into existence at the fall of the manna. But it does do two things that are of great importance: 1. It shows that God has a definite day for his Sabbath; and, 2. That he took care that it should be definitely known by his people. The fall of the manna for six days, and its cessation on the seventh, left no chance for doubt as to what day was his Sabbath. God proposed, by the giving of the manna, to prove his people, whether they would walk in his law or no. He gave them bread from heaven. They had only to gather each day what God sent them. And, whereas they had been in cruel servitude, and in circumstances of deep distress, now their yoke was broken from off their necks, and they were God’s free men. The fall of the manna gave them every facility for the observance of the Lord’s rest-day. And, whereas God proposed to prove them, in this new and changed situation, whether they would now observe his Sabbath, he gave them no precept respecting it till they had by their own action on the sixth day shown a purpose to prepare for the Sabbath. Yet some on the seventh day persisted in the violation of the Sabbath. The fall of the manna began God’s work of proving his people respecting the Sabbath. That work continued during the whole period of forty years. And during all that time the Hebrew people did, to a very alarming extent, continue to violate the Sabbath of the Lord. See Ezekiel 20. SOSL 48.3

The sixteenth of Exodus shows that the day of preparation for the Sabbath was not a mere Jewish tradition, but something which God himself first enjoined upon that people. Verses 5, 23, 29. SOSL 49.1

This chapter connects the record in Genesis 2:1-3, and the statement of facts given in the fourth commandment, in a most wonderful manner. Genesis 2:1-3, gives the sanctification of the seventh day for time to come, in memory of the Creator’s rest on that day. It therefore reaches forward into the distant future. The fourth commandment, given twenty-five hundred years after that event, traces its sacredness back to the creation of the world. The sixteenth of Exodus, standing between these two, presents us the definite seventh day, pointing it out by the fall of the manna. It contains no act of making it holy, on the part of the Lord. It recognizes its sacredness; it treats its observance as a matter of existing obligation. Surely, those who contend that the Sabbath originated with the events of this chapter, do greatly err. SOSL 49.2