How the Sabbath was made; institution of the Sabbath

‘’This is that which the Lord had said, tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord.’’ Exodus 16:23

The Sabbath commandment was a part of God’s law before this law spoken from Sinai, for this incident occurred before Israel came to Sinai. ‘’As presented to us in the scriptures the Sabbath was not invention of any religious founder. It’s not at the first part of any system of religion, but an entire independent institution. Very definitely it is presented in Genesis as the very first institution, inaugurated by the creator himself. It was purely religious, wholly moral and wholly spiritual. It had no prescribed ceremonies, no sacramentarian significance. It required no priest, no liturgy. It was for man as God’s creature, steward and friend.’’  -W. O. CARVER, Sabbath observance, p. 41, copyright 1940, by Sunday school board of southern Baptist convention. Used by permission.

The Sabbath is indispensable to man, being promotive of his highest good, physically, intellectually, socially, spiritually and eternally. Hence its observe is connected with the best of promises, and its violation with the severest penalties. Exodus 31:14-17, Jeremiah 17:21-25, Ezekiel 20:12, 13. Its sanctity was very distinctly marked in the gathering of the manna. Exodus 16:22-30. The original law of the Sabbath was renewed and made a prominent part of the moral law or Ten Commandments, given through Moses at Sinai. Exodus 20:8-11

‘’the Sabbath was binding in Eden and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word ‘REMEMBER’ showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with, when they will admit that the other nine are still binding.’’ -D. L MOODY, Weighed and Wanting (1898 ed.), p.46, 47

What Is Sabbath?

‘’Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.’’ Genesis 2:1, 2

‘’For in six days the Lord  made the 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 20:11

The Sabbath is the memorial of creation. God designed that through keeping it, man should forever remember Him as the TRUE AND LIVING GOD, the creator of all things. Sabbath is therefore defined as a specific day set aside by the creator of heaven and earth for man to observe and worship him.

God reserved the Sabbath for his own service, he appointed, that as long as sun or the moon, the heavens and the earth, should endure, the children of men should spend this day in the worship of him who ‘gave life and breath and all things. The Sabbath is unique by these three distinct acts: God rested on it, He blessed it and He sanctified it. Sanctify means ‘’to make sacred or holy,’’  ‘’to consecrate,’’  ‘’to set apart as sacred.’’