The Seventh Day of the Week is the Sabbath of the Lord

THE SABBATH A MEMORIAL

A memorial is that which serves to keep in memory. The Passover and Feast of unleavened bread were designed to call to mind the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, and thus keep in memory their great Deliverer. The Lord’s Supper and Baptism were given to remind the church of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and thus keep in memory our Lord and Master. SDSL 7.1

The Sabbath was designed to call to mind Jehovah’s Rest on the seventh day, after he had created all things in six, and thus keep in memory the living God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. It is the great safe-guard against Atheism and Idolatry. If men had always kept the Sabbath, they never could have forgotten God; never would have doubted the existence of the Creator, for this institution was designed to point them back to the time when he created the heavens and the earth. And they never would have worshiped other gods, for this institution points out the true God, who created all things in six days, and rested on the seventh. SDSL 7.2

The Sabbath, then, is a memorial of the living God. The institution is perfectly calculated to call the Creator of all things to mind, and keep him in perpetual remembrance. God wrought six days in the work of creation, and rested on the seventh day. The Sabbath law says, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath [Rest] of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” He who observes, and understandingly celebrates Jehovah’s Rest-day in its weekly returns, is in a special manner led to contemplate his six days’ work of creation. And as he views the heavens above, and the earth beneath, and surveys the Creator’s handy-works, his mind is led upward to the living God. Among all the holy institutions God has given to man, none is more sacred than the Sabbath. It stands in the very front. It is the mighty monument, reared at creation to point our race heavenward to the omnipotent God. It is the chord that binds finite man to the infinite God; the chain that links earth to heaven, and man to his Creator. SDSL 7.3

But we are told that the Sabbath was instituted for the Jews alone, to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt, and the following passage is cited as proof: — “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.” Deuteronomy 5:15. SDSL 8.1

Give this text all its meaning, and it utterly fails to prove what it is said to prove. Look at the circumstances under which it was spoken. While the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they could not keep the Sabbath, and God had stretched out his arm and brought them from the house of bondage where they could observe his Rest-day. Moses here refers to the time when the Lord commanded them to keep the Sabbath, at the giving of the manna, and does not mention one act by which God then made the Sabbath. SDSL 8.2

But thirty days later, God spake the Sabbath law in the audience of the people, and refers back to creation as the time when, and for the reasons why, the Sabbath was instituted, as follows: — “For [because] in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:11. SDSL 8.3

But the idea that the Sabbath can commemorate the deliverance of Israel from Egypt will not bear a moment’s investigation. That deliverance had two yearly memorials, fit as to their character and time. The Passover was a memorial of the destroying angel passing over the houses of Israel when he saw the blood of the lamb stamped upon their door-posts, as he went on his way to destroy the first-born of man and beast in all Egypt. As they prepared and ate the lamb in Egypt, so were they to do annually. SDSL 9.1

The feast of unleavened bread was a memorial of their sudden departure from Egypt. The destroying angel went on his way, and smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh unto the first-born of the captive, and there was a great cry in Egypt. Pharaoh rose up in the night and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “Rise up, and get you forth from among my people.” “And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men.” And the children of Israel “took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders,” and journeyed from Ramses to Succoth, and there “baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt.” The design of the feast of unleavened bread was to keep this circumstance in remembrance; for when their children should inquire for the reason of this feast, they were to point them back to the time when their fathers were thrust out of Egypt at midnight, taking with them dough which they afterwards baked and ate, unleavened. SDSL 9.2

We will now take a view of their fitness as to time. The Passover lamb was slain in Egypt on the fourteenth day of the month Abib. So was the Passover observed; not weekly, nor monthly; but on the same day of the same month, annually. In like manner, as to time, was also the feast of unleavened bread observed. Here, then, are two memorials of the deliverance of Israel, perfectly fitting in their character, and as to their time. SDSL 10.1

Now we will see if the rest of the holy Sabbath also is a fit memorial of that event. The children of Israel left Egypt in haste. They were even thrust out by night. To say that such a rush could be commemorated by rest, is the very height of folly!! Again, that deliverance occurred on the fifteenth day of the first month; and as the fifteenth day of Abib came but once a year, the memorial of that deliverance could not be weekly, but annual. SDSL 10.2

But the Sabbath is indeed a memorial, and when correctly applied, its fitness to the event to be commemorated will be seen and admired. God rested (or ceased to create) after the six days of creation. Man is required to celebrate that rest by ceasing to labor. Rest commemorates rest. God rested on the seventh day of the first week. Man is required to rest the same day of every week. SDSL 10.3