We have seen the Sabbath ordained of God at the close of the creation
week. The object of its Author is worthy of especial attention. Why
did the Creator set up this memorial in paradise? Why did he set apart
from the other days of the week that day which he had employed in rest?
“Because that in it,” says the record, “he had rested from all his
work which God created and made.” A _rest_ necessarily implies a _work
performed_. And hence the Sabbath was ordained of God as a memorial
of the work of creation. And therefore that precept of the moral law
which relates to this memorial, unlike every other precept of that law,
begins with the word, “Remember.” The importance of this memorial will
be appreciated when we learn from the Scriptures that it is the work of
creation which is claimed by its Author as the great evidence of his
eternal power and Godhead, and as that great fact which distinguishes him
from all false gods. Thus it is written:
“He that built all things is God.” “The gods that have not
made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from
the earth, and from under these heavens.” “But the Lord is
the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting King.”
“He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the
world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his
discretion.” “For the invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.” “For he
spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Thus
“the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”[34]
Such is the estimate which the Scriptures place upon the work of creation
as evincing the eternal power and Godhead of the Creator. The Sabbath
stands as the memorial of this great work. Its observance is an act of
grateful acknowledgment on the part of his intelligent creatures that he
is their Creator, and that they owe all to him; and that for his pleasure
they are and were created. How appropriate this observance for Adam! And
when man had fallen, how important for his well-being that he should
“remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” He would thus have been
preserved from atheism and from idolatry; for he could never forget that
there was a God from whom all things derived their being; nor could he
worship as God any other being than the Creator.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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