The Sabbath Points to the Creator

[Daily Devotional]

The Sabbath Points to the Creator 

Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you
throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth
sanctify you. Ex. 31:13. 

The Sabbath was given to all mankind to commemorate the work of creation.
The great Jehovah, when He had laid the foundations of the earth, when He
had dressed the whole world in its garb of beauty, and created all the
wonders of the land and the sea, instituted the Sabbath day and made it
holy. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy, the Sabbath was set apart as God's memorial. God sanctified and
blessed the day in which He has rested from all His wondrous work. And this
Sabbath, sanctified of God, was to be kept for a perpetual covenant. It was
a memorial that was to stand from age to age, till the close of earth's
history. 

God brought the Hebrews out of their Egyptian bondage, and commanded them to
observe His Sabbath, and keep the law given in Eden. Every week He worked a
miracle to establish in their minds the fact that in the beginning of the
world He had instituted the Sabbath. . . . 

There are those who hold that the Sabbath was given only for the Jews; but
God has never said this. He committed the Sabbath to His people Israel as a
sacred trust; but the very fact that the desert of Sinai, and not Palestine,
was the place selected by Him in which to proclaim His law, reveals that He
intended it for all mankind. The law of ten commandments is as old as
creation. Therefore the Sabbath institution has no special relation to the
Jews, any more than to all other created beings. God has made the observance
of the Sabbath obligatory upon all men. "The sabbath," it is plainly stated,
"was made for man." Let every one, therefore, who is in danger of being
deceived on this point give heed to the Word of God rather than the
assertions of men. 

In Eden, God said to Adam concerning the tree of knowledge, "In the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." "And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil." Adam listened to the voice of Satan speaking through his
wife; he believed another voice than that which spoke the law in Eden. . . .


As the tree of knowledge was the test of Adam's obedience, so the fourth
command is the test that God has given to prove the loyalty of all His
people. The experience of Adam is to be a warning to us so long as time
shall last. It warns us not to receive any assurance from the mouth of men
or of angels that will detract one jot or tittle from the sacred law of
Jehovah (Review and Herald, Aug. 30, 1898). 

>From Lift Him Up - Page 53