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The Center of the Law, May 4
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exodus 20:8
.
In the very bosom of the Decalogue is the fourth commandment, as it was first
proclaimed: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour,
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” (
Exodus
20:8-11
)....
Christ had opened the door, or ministration, of the Most Holy Place, light was
shining from that open door of the sanctuary in heaven, and the fourth commandment
was shown to be included in the law which is there enshrined; what God has
established, no man could overthrow (
The Great Controversy, 434, 435
).
God has given us His commandments, not only to be believed in, but to be
obeyed. The great Jehovah, when He had laid the foundations of the earth, had
dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty, and had filled it with things useful to
man—when He had created all the wonders of the land and the sea—instituted the
Sabbath day and made it holy. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, because
He rested upon it from all His wondrous work of creation. The Sabbath was made
for man, and God would have him put by his labor on that day, as He Himself rested
after His six days’ work of creation.
Those who reverence the commandments of Jehovah will, after light has been
given them in reference to the fourth precept of the Decalogue, obey it without
questioning the feasibility or convenience of such obedience. God made man in His
own image and then gave him an example of observing the seventh day, which He
sanctified and made holy. He designed that upon that day man should worship Him
and engage in no secular pursuits. No one who disregards the fourth commandment,
after becoming enlightened concerning the claims of the Sabbath, can be held
guiltless in the sight of God....
At the very beginning of the fourth precept, God said, “
Remember
,” knowing
that man, in the multitude of his cares and perplexities, would be tempted to excuse
himself from meeting the full requirements of the law, or in the press of worldly
business, would forget its sacred importance.... But He claims one day, which He
has set apart and sanctified. He gives it to man as a day in which he may rest from
labor and devote himself to worship and the improvement of his spiritual condition
(
Testimonies For The Church 4:247-249
).
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