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The Sabbath Intended for All Humankind, May 2
You made known to them Your holy Sabbath, and commanded them
precepts, statutes and laws, by the hand of Moses Your servant.
Nehemiah 9:14
, NKJV.
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
humankind. 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 and women.
“The sabbath,” it is plainly stated, “was made for man.” Let everyone, therefore,
who is in danger of being deceived on this point give heed to the Word of God
rather than the assertions of human beings.
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.
Every human being has been placed on trial, as were Adam and Eve in Eden.
As the tree of knowledge was placed in the midst of the garden of Eden, so the
Sabbath command is placed in the midst of the Decalogue. In regard to the fruit of
the tree of knowledge, the restriction was made, “Ye shall not eat of it, ... lest ye
die.” Of the Sabbath, God said, Ye shall not defile it, but keep it holy. “Remember
the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” 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 mortals or
of angels that will detract one jot or tittle from the sacred law of Jehovah.—
The
Review and Herald, August 30, 1898
.
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