Law of (or re) the Sabbath 20. Law of (or re) CS 66; PP 307-8 Christ arraigned before Sanhedrin on charge of breaking DA 211 Christs work of healing was in harmony with DA 456-7 connecting link between God and man SR 141 embodied in law given at Mt. Sinai DA 283; PP 306-8 form of expression employed in PP 525 given to test mens loyalty 1BC 1106 is of imperishable obligation DA 283 NT does not re-enact CS 66 partial observance of, has worse effect on sinners than no observance 4T 248 not accepted by God 4T 248 preserved by miracle during 40 years of Israels wanderings 1BC 1102 referred to in Matt. 5:18 DA 283 secular labor on Gods rest day is forbidden by DA 207 validity of, assumed in NT CS 66 work of relieving the afflicted is in harmony with DA 206 work on Sabbath that is in harmony with DA 285 It was by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who gave His life for the life of the world, that this plan for systematic giving was devised. He who left the royal courts, who laid aside His honor as Commander of the heavenly hosts, who clothed His divinity with humanity in order to uplift the fallen race; He who for our sake became poor that we through His poverty might be rich, has spoken to men, and in His wisdom has told them His own plan for sustaining those who bear His message to the world.--R. & H., Feb. 4, 1902. {CS 66.1} Gods Reserves of Time and Means The very same language is used concerning the Sabbath as in the law of the tithe: The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Man has no right nor power to substitute the first day for the seventh. He may pretend to do this; nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure. The customs and teachings of men will not lessen the claims of the divine law. God has sanctified the seventh day. That specified portion of time, set apart by God Himself for religious worship, continues as sacred today as when first hallowed by our Creator. {CS 66.2} In like manner a tithe of our income is holy unto the Lord. The New Testament does not reenact the law of the tithe, as it does not that of the Sabbath; for the validity of both is assumed, and their deep spiritual import explained. . . . While we as a people are seeking faithfully to give to God the time which He has reserved as His own, shall we not also render to Him that portion of our means which He claims?-- R. & H., May 16, 1882. {CS 66.3} Possessions as Well as Income to Be Tithed As did Abraham, they are to pay tithe of all they possess and all they receive. A faithful tithe is the Lords portion. To withhold it is to rob God. Every man should freely and willingly and gladly bring tithes and offerings into the storehouse of the Lord, because in so doing there is a blessing. There is no safety in withholding from God His own portion.-- MS 159, 1899. {CS 66.4} CS 66 Jesus had come to magnify the law, and make it honorable. He was not to lessen its dignity, but to exalt it. The scripture says, He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth. Isaiah 42:21, 4. He had come to free the Sabbath from those burdensome requirements that had made it a curse instead of a blessing. {DA 206.1} For this reason He had chosen the Sabbath upon which to perform the act of healing at Bethesda. He could have healed the sick man as well on any other day of the week; or He might simply have cured him, without bidding him bear away his bed. But this would not have given Him the opportunity He desired. A wise purpose underlay every act of Christs life on earth. Everything He did was important in itself and in its teaching. Among the afflicted ones at the pool He selected the worst case upon whom to exercise His healing power, and bade the man carry his bed through the city in order to publish the great work that had been wrought upon him. This would raise the question of what it was lawful to do on the Sabbath, and would open the way for Him to denounce the restrictions of the Jews in regard to the Lords day, and to declare their traditions void. {DA 206.2} Jesus stated to them that the work of relieving the afflicted was in harmony with the Sabbath law. It was in harmony with the work of Gods angels, who are ever descending and ascending between heaven and earth to minister to suffering humanity. Jesus declared, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. All days are Gods, in which to carry out His plans for the human race. If the Jews interpretation of the law was correct, then Jehovah was at fault, whose work has quickened and upheld every living thing since first He laid the foundations of the earth; then He who pronounced His work good, and instituted the Sabbath to commemorate its completion, must put a period to His labor, and stop the never-ending routine of the universe. {DA 206.3} Should God forbid the sun to perform its office upon the Sabbath, cut off its genial rays from warming the earth and nourishing vegetation? Must the system of worlds stand still through that holy day? Should He command the brooks to stay from watering the fields and forests, and bid the waves of the sea still their ceaseless ebbing and flowing? Must the wheat and corn stop growing, and the ripening cluster defer its purple bloom? Must the trees and flowers put forth no bud nor blossom on the Sabbath? {DA 206.4} In such a case, men would miss the fruits of the earth, and the blessings that make life desirable. Nature must continue her unvarying course. God could not for a moment stay His hand, or man would faint and die. And man also has a work to perform on this day. The necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be supplied. He will not be held guiltless who neglects to relieve suffering on the Sabbath. Gods holy rest day was made for man, and acts of mercy are in perfect harmony with its intent. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hours pain that may be relieved upon the Sabbath or any other day. {DA 207.1} The demands upon God are even greater upon the Sabbath than upon other days. His people then leave their usual employment, and spend the time in meditation and worship. They ask more favors of Him on the Sabbath than upon other days. They demand His special attention. They crave His choicest blessings. God does not wait for the Sabbath to pass before He grants these requests. Heavens work never ceases, and men should never rest from doing good. The Sabbath is not intended to be a period of useless inactivity. The law forbids secular labor on the rest day of the Lord; the toil that gains a livelihood must cease; no labor for worldly pleasure or profit is lawful upon that day; but as God ceased His labor of creating, and rested upon the Sabbath and blessed it, so man is to leave the occupations of his daily life, and devote those sacred hours to healthful rest, to worship, and to holy deeds. The work of Christ in healing the sick was in perfect accord with the law. It honored the Sabbath. {DA 207.2} Jesus claimed equal rights with God in doing a work equally sacred, and of the same character with that which engaged the Father in heaven. But the Pharisees were still more incensed. He had not only broken the law, according to their understanding, but in calling God His own Father had declared Himself equal with God. John 5:18, R. V. {DA 207.3} The whole nation of the Jews called God their Father, therefore they would not have been so enraged if Christ had represented Himself as standing in the same relation to God. But they accused Him of blasphemy, showing that they understood Him as making this claim in the highest sense. {DA 207.4} DA 206-7 Bidding His hearers marvel not, Christ opened before them, in still wider view, the mystery of the future. The hour cometh, He said, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment. John 5:28, 29, R. V. {DA 211.1} This assurance of the future life was that for which Israel had so long waited, and which they had hoped to receive at the Messiahs advent. The only light that can lighten the gloom of the grave was shining upon them. But self-will is blind. Jesus had violated the traditions of the rabbis, and disregarded their authority, and they would not believe. {DA 211.2} The time, the place, the occasion, the intensity of feeling that pervaded the assembly, all combined to make the words of Jesus before the Sanhedrin the more impressive. The highest religious authorities of the nation were seeking the life of Him who declared Himself the restorer of Israel. The Lord of the Sabbath was arraigned before an earthly tribunal to answer the charge of breaking the Sabbath law. When He so fearlessly declared His mission, His judges looked upon Him with astonishment and rage; but His words were unanswerable. They could not condemn Him. He denied the right of the priests and rabbis to question Him, or to interfere with His work. They were invested with no such authority. Their claims were based upon their own pride and arrogance. He refused to plead guilty of their charges, or to be catechized by them. {DA 211.3} Instead of apologizing for the act of which they complained, or explaining His purpose in doing it, Jesus turned upon the rulers, and the accused became the accuser. He rebuked them for the hardness of their hearts, and their ignorance of the Scriptures. He declared that they had rejected the word of God, inasmuch as they had rejected Him whom God had sent. Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me. John 5:39, R. V. {DA 211.4} In every page, whether history, or precept, or prophecy, the Old Testament Scriptures are irradiated with the glory of the Son of God. So far as it was of divine institution, the entire system of Judaism was a compacted prophecy of the gospel. To Christ give all the prophets witness. Acts 10:43. From the promise given to Adam, down through the patriarchal line and the legal economy, heavens glorious light made plain the footsteps of the Redeemer. Seers beheld the Star of Bethlehem, the Shiloh to come, as future things swept before them in mysterious procession. In every sacrifice Christs death was shown. In every cloud of incense His righteousness ascended. By every jubilee trumpet His name was sounded. In the awful mystery of the holy of holies His glory dwelt. {DA 211.5} DA 211 The Sabbath was embodied in the law given from Sinai; but it was not then first made known as a day of rest. The people of Israel had a knowledge of it before they came to Sinai. On the way thither the Sabbath was kept. When some profaned it, the Lord reproved them, saying, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? Exodus 16:28. {DA 283.1} The Sabbath was not for Israel merely, but for the world. It had been made known to man in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation. Of that law of which the fourth commandment forms a part, Christ declares, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law. So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creators power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, Gods holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. From one Sabbath to another the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up to worship before Me, saith the Lord. Matthew 5:18; Isaiah 66:23. {DA 283.2} No other institution which was committed to the Jews tended so fully to distinguish them from surrounding nations as did the Sabbath. God designed that its observance should designate them as His worshipers. It was to be a token of their separation from idolatry, and their connection with the true God. But in order to keep the Sabbath holy, men must themselves be holy. Through faith they must become partakers of the righteousness of Christ. When the command was given to Israel, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, the Lord said also to them, Ye shall be holy men unto Me. Exodus 20:8; 22:31. Only thus could the Sabbath distinguish Israel as the worshipers of God. {DA 283.3} As the Jews departed from God, and failed to make the righteousness of Christ their own by faith, the Sabbath lost its significance to them. Satan was seeking to exalt himself and to draw men away from Christ, and he worked to pervert the Sabbath, because it is the sign of the power of Christ. The Jewish leaders accomplished the will of Satan by surrounding Gods rest day with burdensome requirements. In the days of Christ the Sabbath had become so perverted that its observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather than the character of the loving heavenly Father. The rabbis virtually represented God as giving laws which it was impossible for men to obey. They led the people to look upon God as a tyrant, and to think that the observance of the Sabbath, as He required it, made men hard-hearted and cruel. It was the work of Christ to clear away these misconceptions. Although the rabbis followed Him with merciless hostility, He did not even appear to conform to their requirements, but went straight forward, keeping the Sabbath according to the law of God. {DA 283.4} Upon one Sabbath day, as the Saviour and His disciples returned from the place of worship, they passed through a field of ripening grain. Jesus had continued His work to a late hour, and while passing through the fields, the disciples began to gather the heads of grain, and to eat the kernels after rubbing them in their hands. On any other day this act would have excited no comment, for one passing through a field of grain, an orchard, or a vineyard, was at liberty to gather what he desired to eat. See Deuteronomy 23:24, 25. But to do this on the Sabbath was held to be an act of desecration. Not only was the gathering of the grain a kind of reaping, but the rubbing of it in the hands was a kind of threshing. Thus, in the opinion of the rabbis, there was a double offense. {DA 284.1} The spies at once complained to Jesus, saying, Behold, Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. {DA 284.2} When accused of Sabbathbreaking at Bethesda, Jesus defended Himself by affirming His Sonship to God, and declaring that He worked in harmony with the Father. Now that the disciples are attacked, He cites His accusers to examples from the Old Testament, acts performed on the Sabbath by those who were in the service of God. {DA 284.3} The Jewish teachers prided themselves on their knowledge of the Scriptures, and in the Saviours answer there was an implied rebuke for their ignorance of the Sacred Writings. Have ye not read so much as this, He said, what David did, when himself was an hungered, and they which were with him; how he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, . . . which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Have ye not read in the law, how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Luke 6:3, 4; Mark 2:27, 28; Matthew 12:5, 6. {DA 285.1} If it was right for David to satisfy his hunger by eating of the bread that had been set apart to a holy use, then it was right for the disciples to supply their need by plucking the grain upon the sacred hours of the Sabbath. Again, the priests in the temple performed greater labor on the Sabbath than upon other days. The same labor in secular business would be sinful; but the work of the priests was in the service of God. They were performing those rites that pointed to the redeeming power of Christ, and their labor was in harmony with the object of the Sabbath. But now Christ Himself had come. The disciples, in doing the work of Christ, were engaged in Gods service, and that which was necessary for the accomplishment of this work it was right to do on the Sabbath day. {DA 285.2} Christ would teach His disciples and His enemies that the service of God is first of all. The object of Gods work in this world is the redemption of man; therefore that which is necessary to be done on the Sabbath in the accomplishment of this work is in accord with the Sabbath law. Jesus then crowned His argument by declaring Himself the Lord of the Sabbath,--One above all question and above all law. This infinite Judge acquits the disciples of blame, appealing to the very statutes they are accused of violating. {DA 285.3} Jesus did not let the matter pass without administering a rebuke to His enemies. He declared that in their blindness they had mistaken the object of the Sabbath. He said, If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. Matthew 12:7. Their many heartless rites could not supply the lack of that truthful integrity and tender love which will ever characterize the true worshiper of God. {DA 285.4} DA 283-5 He now gave a test by which the true teacher might be distinguished from the deceiver: He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of Him that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. John 7:18, R. V. He that seeketh his own glory is speaking only from himself. The spirit of self-seeking betrays its origin. But Christ was seeking the glory of God. He spoke the words of God. This was the evidence of His authority as a teacher of the truth. {DA 456.1} Jesus gave the rabbis an evidence of His divinity by showing that He read their hearts. Ever since the healing at Bethesda they had been plotting His death. Thus they were themselves breaking the law which they professed to be defending. Did not Moses give you the law, He said, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill Me? {DA 456.2} Like a swift flash of light these words revealed to the rabbis the pit of ruin into which they were about to plunge. For an instant they were filled with terror. They saw that they were in conflict with Infinite Power. But they would not be warned. In order to maintain their influence with the people, their murderous designs must be concealed. Evading the question of Jesus, they exclaimed, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill Thee? They insinuated that the wonderful works of Jesus were instigated by an evil spirit. {DA 456.3} To this insinuation Christ gave no heed. He went on to show that His work of healing at Bethesda was in harmony with the Sabbath law, and that it was justified by the interpretation which the Jews themselves put upon the law. He said, Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; . . . and ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. According to the law, every child must be circumcised on the eighth day. Should the appointed time fall upon the Sabbath, the rite must then spirit of the law to make a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day. And He warned them to judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. {DA 456.4} The rulers were silenced; and many of the people exclaimed, Is not this He, whom they seek to kill? But, lo, He speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? {DA 457.1} Many among Christs hearers who were dwellers at Jerusalem, and who were not ignorant of the plots of the rulers against Him, felt themselves drawn to Him by an irresistible power. The conviction pressed upon them that He was the Son of God. But Satan was ready to suggest doubt; and for this the way was prepared by their own erroneous ideas of the Messiah and His coming. It was generally believed that Christ would be born at Bethlehem, but that after a time He would disappear, and at His second appearance none would know whence He came. There were not a few who held that the Messiah would have no natural relationship to humanity. And because the popular conception of the glory of the Messiah was not met by Jesus of Nazareth, many gave heed to the suggestion, Howbeit we know this Man whence He is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is. {DA 457.2} While they were thus wavering between doubt and faith, Jesus took up their thoughts and answered them: Ye both know Me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of Myself, but He that sent Me is true, whom ye know not. They claimed a knowledge of what the origin of Christ should be, but they were in utter ignorance of it. If they had lived in accordance with the will of God, they would have known His Son when He was manifested to them. {DA 457.3} The hearers could not but understand Christs words. Clearly they were a repetition of the claim He had made in the presence of the Sanhedrin many months before, when He declared Himself the Son of God. As the rulers then tried to compass His death, so now they sought to take Him; but they were prevented by an unseen power, which put a limit to their rage, saying to them, Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther. {DA 457.4} Among the people many believed on Him, and they said, When Christ cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this Man hath done? The leaders of the Pharisees, who were anxiously watching the course of events, caught the expressions of sympathy among the throng. Hurrying away to the chief priests, they laid their plans to arrest Him. They arranged, however, to take Him when He was alone; for they dared not seize Him in the presence of the people. Again Jesus made it manifest that He read their purpose. Yet a little while am I with you, He said, and then I go unto Him that sent Me. Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come. Soon He would find a refuge beyond the reach of their scorn and hate. He would ascend to the Father, to be again the Adored of the angels; and thither His murderers could never come. {DA 457.5} DA 456-7
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 16:30:18 +0000
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