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The Law for Man’s Happiness, May 6
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of
the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Psalm 19:8
.
In the beginning, God gave His law to mankind as a means of attaining happiness
and eternal life. Satan’s only hope of thwarting the purpose of God is to lead men
and women to disobey this law, and his constant effort has been to misrepresent
its teachings and belittle its importance. His master stroke has been an attempt to
change the law itself, so as to lead men to violate its precepts while professing to
obey it.
One writer has likened the attempt to change the law of God to an ancient mis-
chievous practice of turning in a wrong direction a signpost erected at an important
junction where two roads met. The perplexity and hardship which this practice often
caused was great.
A signpost was erected by God for those journeying through this world. One
arm of this signpost pointed out willing obedience to the Creator as the road to
felicity and life, while the other arm indicated disobedience as the path to misery
and death. The way to happiness was as clearly defined as was the way to the city
of refuge under the Jewish dispensation. But in an evil hour for our race, the great
enemy of all good turned the signpost around, and multitudes have mistaken the
way.
Through Moses the Lord instructed the Israelites: “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. Ye shall keep the sabbath
therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to
death: for whosoever doeth any work ... in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put
to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the
sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between
me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed” (
Exodus 31:13-17
).
In these words the Lord clearly defined obedience as the way to the City of God;
but the man of sin has changed the signpost, making it point in a wrong direction.
He has set up a false sabbath and has caused men and women to think that by resting
on it they were obeying the command of the Creator.
God has declared that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. When “the
heavens and the earth were finished,” He exalted this day as a memorial of His
creative work. Resting on the seventh day “from all his work which he had made, ...
God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (
Genesis 2:1-3
) (
Prophets and Kings,
178-180
).
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