The Everlasting Covenant

The Seventh Day of the Week

There is but one period of seven days, and that is the week which was known from the creation. God worked six days, and in those first six days He finished the work of creation; “and He rested the seventh day from His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” ¹ Therefore, when God says that the seventh day is the Sabbath, He means that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, the day that is commonly known as Saturday. The sixth day, upon which the children of Israel were to prepare for the Sabbath, is the sixth day of the week, commonly called Friday. EVCO 229.3

This is also settled beyond all controversy by the account of the crucifixion and burial of Christ, where we are told that the women came to the sepulchre “in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week;” ² and by another writer that it was “when the Sabbath was past.” ³ We refer to these texts to show that the first day of the week immediately follows the Sabbath, and that no time intervened between the close of the Sabbath and the visit of the women to the sepulchre. Now when we read the record in Luke, we learn that when Christ was buried “that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on.” The women came and saw where He was laid, “and they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” And “upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre.” ¹ EVCO 229.4

The Sabbath followed “the preparation,” and immediately preceded “the first day of the week.” Therefore the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. And it was “the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Therefore the Sabbath of the commandment is none other than the seventh day of the week. This was the day which God marked out in the most special manner as the Sabbath, by performing wonderful miracles in its honour for forty years. EVCO 230.1

Let this fact be well considered. Let it be remembered that whenever in the Bible the Sabbath is spoken of, the seventh day of the week, and that only, is meant. That long before the days of Moses, this Sabbath of the fourth commandment, together with the whole law, was inseparably connected with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, will be very apparent as we proceed in our study. EVCO 230.2