Bible Question: What day is the Sabbath day? |
Bible Answer: As we consider God's dealings with His creatures we find that his commandments for them are not the same at all times. To our first parents in Eden God gave the mandate to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth, etc., and also commanded them as to what trees they could eat the fruit of. But he said nothing to them about a rest day. Noah was commanded by God regarding the building of an ark, the sanctity of life and blood, etc., but not a word did he receive regarding a sabbath. Coming down to Abraham, we find that God gave him certain instructions regarding the offering of sacrifices, circumcision, etc., but he was neither commanded to build an ark nor told to observe a sabbath day. During the time that the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt they certainly could not have kept a sabbath day. In fact, it was only after the Israelites had come out of Egypt and were in the wilderness that a rest day, one out of seven, the seventh, was enjoined upon any of God's creatures, and that in connection with gathering their food supply, the manna which fell from heaven. God distinctly told them that they were to gather twice the usual amount on the sixth day, as no manna would fall from heaven on the seventh day. In spite of this, however, on the seventh day "there went out some of the people to gather, and they found none". For this Jehovah, through Moses, severely rebuked them. Their difficulty in complying with this law is further circumstantial evidence that they were not accustomed to sabbath observance.-Ex. 16:25-30 On the plains of Moab, where God's law was restated to the Israelites, they were plainly told: "Jehovah our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Jehovah made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day." Nor was this sabbath for other peoples, it was to be a sign between them and Jehovah.-Deut. 5:2, 3; Ex. 31:17. Nor was the sabbath for the Israelites limited only to the seventh day of the week. The seventh month was made outstanding, both by the day of atonement, the tenth day, and by the feast of tabernacles, which began on the fifteenth day. The seventh year was a sabbath year; no crops were to be planted or harvested, God assuring them that enough would grow on the sixth to last them until they had harvested the crops of the eighth year. After seven such sabbath years came the jubilee year, on which freedom was proclaimed throughout all the land, when all debts were canceled and when, with few exceptions, all that had been lost during the past forty-nine years was restored. All these sabbaths were part of one system. If one sabbath is still to be observed, then also should the others. And, for that matter, keep all the law, its sacrifices, etc., "for," as James says, "whoever observes all the Law but makes a false step in one point, he has become an offender against them all."-Jas. 2:10 CHRISTIANS NOT UNDER THE LAW The apostle Paul, however, assures us that Christians are freed from all obligation to the law arrangement: "He kindly forgave us all our trespasses and blotted out the handwritten document against us which consisted of decrees and which was in opposition to us, and He has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the torture stake. Therefore let no man judge you in eating and drinking or in respect of a feast day or of an observance of the new moon or of a sabbath, for those things are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ." (Col. 2:13, 14, 16, 17, |