After God created heaven and earth and all that in them is in six days, on the seventh day he rested from all his works that he had made and God blessed the seventh day and he sanctified it because in it he rested from all his works. See Genesis 2:3. The Creator blessed the seventh day – the Sabbath – and hallowed it (made it holy). Thus the Sabbath was instituted when there was only the first human couple in the Garden of Eden. In the Gospel, Jesus said:
“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” Mark 2:27, 28.
It is through His Son that God created the world (when he said to His Son: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” Gen. 1:26), and he blessed and sanctified the seventh-day Sabbath before the fall of man. It is Christ who talked with Moses face to face (Num. 12:8) and brought the children of Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Jesus was the Leader of the Israelite nation; he went before them and he was their rearward through their whole journey. It is he who walked before Israel by day in the pillar of cloud to guide them through the way and in the pillar of fire by night to give light unto them so that they could keep walking by day and by night. See Ex. 13:21. Paul the Apostle confirms this truth with the following words:
“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” 1 Cor. 10:1-4.
Before God gave the commandments to Moses he tried His nation to see whether they would heed his words regarding the seventh day when he said:
“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 not. 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… And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.” Ex. 16:4-5; 22-30.
By sanctifying the seventh-day Sabbath, God was trying and proving the obedience of the nation of Israel. We can see very clearly that even before the giving of the commandments the Israelite nation knew that the seventh day is the Sabbath – “the holy sabbath unto the LORD”.
Those who worshiped God after the creation of the world kept the Sabbath. To this testify the Bible accounts regarding the time before the giving of the law from Sinai. Noah sent the dove three times from the ark, once every seven days – three Sabbaths. Gen. 8. The account of the manna being sent in the wilderness testifies that the Sabbath was known and kept then. Ex. 16:22-30.
Time was divided into weeks by the ancient Mesopotamians and Arabs (Gen. 29:27). Traces of this division have been found in many ancient nations, so much apart from one another that it can never be thought that they received it from Sinai and the Hebrews. And when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments written by his finger, God confirmed even more clearly the requirement for a man to keep the Sabbath and hallow it, by the following words:
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For 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.” Ex. 20:8-11.
The commandment for us to keep the Sabbath has its place in God’s Ten Commandments. The observance of this day is vital for everyone, as a willful neglect of it makes him soon sink into infidelity, vice, and wickedness.
The Sabbath is a part of the commandments of the moral law that is not only for the Hebrews but also for all who accept the Word and for all mankind. Jesus Christ and the apostles never said that it is not binding for any and everyone. The Fourth commandment is just as binding for us as the third and the fifth one. Moreover, the Sabbath is not only to be kept here but we are told that in the new earth, the Sabbath will be kept through all eternity.
“And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.” Isa. 66:23.
