From the Red Sea to Sinai
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The day before the Sabbath should be made a day of preparation, that
everything may be in readiness for its sacred hours. In no case should
our own business be allowed to encroach upon holy time. God has
directed that the sick and suffering be cared for; the labor required to
make them comfortable is a work of mercy, and no violation of the
Sabbath; but all unnecessary work should be avoided. Many carelessly
put off till the beginning of the Sabbath little things that might have
been done on the day of preparation. This should not be. Work that
is neglected until the beginning of the Sabbath should remain undone
until it is past. This course might help the memory of these thoughtless
ones, and make them careful to do their own work on the six working
days.
Every week during their long sojourn in the wilderness the Is-
raelites witnessed a threefold miracle, designed to impress their minds
with the sacredness of the Sabbath: a double quantity of manna fell
on the sixth day, none on the seventh, and the portion needed for the
Sabbath was preserved sweet and pure, when if any were kept over at
any other time it became unfit for use.
In the circumstances connected with the giving of the manna, we
have conclusive evidence that the Sabbath was not instituted, as many
claim, when the law was given at Sinai. Before the Israelites came
to Sinai they understood the Sabbath to be obligatory upon them. In
being obliged to gather every Friday a double portion of manna in
preparation for the Sabbath, when none would fall, the sacred nature of
the day of rest was continually impressed upon them. And when some
of the people went out on the Sabbath to gather manna, the Lord asked,
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“How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?”
“The children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to
a land inhabited: they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders
of the land of Canaan.” For forty years they were daily reminded by
this miraculous provision, of God’s unfailing care and tender love. In
the words of the psalmist, God gave them “of the corn of heaven. Man
did eat angels’ food” (
Psalm 78:24, 25
)—that is, food provided for
them by the angels. Sustained by “the corn of heaven,” they were daily
taught that, having God’s promise, they were as secure from want as if
surrounded by fields of waving grain on the fertile plains of Canaan.
The manna, falling from heaven for the sustenance of Israel, was a
type of Him who came from God to give life to the world. Said Jesus,