Objection:
Exodus 16:29 and Nehemiah 9:13-14 prove that the Sabbath was not given until Israel left Egypt. The very silence of the Scriptures regarding anyone’s keeping it before that time is strong corroborative proof.
Answer:
Two claims are here made: First, that the Sabbath was instituted in a Jewish setting. This claim is intended to prepare the next, that the Sabbath was made only for the Jews.
Exodus 16:29 and Nehemiah 9:13-14, whatever they state, are supposed to neutralize the statement in Genesis 2:2-3 and entirely erase it from the record. But does one Scriptural statement do that to another? No. When one text appears to contradict another, we may be sure that we have made a mistake in our interpretation of one of the texts. Genesis 2:2-3 stands firmly as a testimony that God rested on the seventh day of the first week of time and then and there blessed it. Thus we are prepared at the outset to believe that whatever Exodus 16:29 and Nehemiah 9:13-14 teach, they do not teach contrary to Genesis 2:2-3.
Exodus 16:29 is part of the narrative of the giving of the manna, which was to be collected each day for the six working days, with twice as much to be collected the sixth day, because God gave no manna on the seventh day. But some of the Israelites, contrary to God’s command, went out on the Sabbath day to collect it. This caused the Lord to inquire of Moses: “How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days.” Exodus 16:28-29.
Nehemiah, long afterward, recalls what God did for Israel in bringing them out of captivity, declaring in part: “Thou came down also upon mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: and made known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and, commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant.” Nehemiah 9:13-14.
These passages deal with essentially the same incidents and are so similar in construction that they should be considered together. Let us note specific phrases:
- “The Lord hath given you the Sabbath.” Exodus 16:29.
- “Gave them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments.” Nehemiah 9:13.
- “Made known unto them thy holy Sabbath.” Nehemiah 9:14.
We believe that the answer to the objection before us is revealed in the second of these three phrases. If, as claimed, the construction of the first and the third phrase requires the conclusion that the Sabbath law did not exist before the Exodus, then the structure of the second phrase requires us to conclude that the wide range of statutes, laws, and commandments that were formally stated at Sinai did not formerly exist. Therefore, not only would it have been no sin to work on the seventh day, previous to the Exodus, but it would have been no sin, previous to Sinai, to have done any of the things prohibited by the various laws and commandments which God “gave them” at that time.
But no one will claim that it would have been right to do the latter, for Christians agree that nine of the Ten Commandments express eternal moral principles. If not, at Sinai, when God commanded, “Thou shall not commit adultery,” it might be said that He then gave Israel the law against fornication in one sense of the word. It was the first formal proclamation of that principle to the newly formed nation that stood in need, at the outset, of a clearly expressed code of laws. But no one believes for a moment that previous to the giving of that law against adultery from the flaming mount, there was no divine ban on adultery and therefore no sin in indulging in fornication.
Even so with the Sabbath law. Along with the other great precepts of the Ten Commandments and many other statutes, it was formally made known to Israel as they began their national life. The long darkness of Egypt had entirely blurred their understanding of God’s will. Now by the light of the pillar of fire, God made dear to them all His requirements, including the Sabbath.
God declares, “I made myself known unto them [The Israelites], in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.” Ezekiel 20:9. Would the objector reason from this text that God did not exist before the Exodus? No. Then why contend that the Sabbath did not exist before that time simply because God then made it known to Israel? The facts are that the knowledge of God and the Sabbath had largely faded from the minds of the Israelites during their long Egyptian bondage.
Only a word needs to be said in reply to the claim based on the fact that the Scriptures are silent about anyone keeping the Sabbath before the Exodus. The few pages of the Bible that precede the account of the Exodus cover some twenty-five hundred years. Obviously, only a few high lights of the long record could be penned. Chiefly, Moses sought to provide its running narrative to connect creation with the events that followed the fall of man, on down through the Flood, the call of Abraham, the rise of Israel, and their exodus from Egypt. Little is mentioned of the religious activities in which men engaged during those twenty-five hundred years. To present this silence of Scripture as proof against the seventh-day Sabbath is to rely on an exceedingly weak argument.
Those who promote the importance of Sunday generally include in their reasoning that man needs a recurring day of worship each week, nor do they set any bounds of time or place on that claim. Hence those who lived before the Exodus needed such a recurring day. Seeing they were in need, would God fail to provide for that need? Indeed, did He not do that very thing when, at creation, He set apart for holy use the seventh day? And do we need to find a specific mention of their keeping that day before we reasonably conclude those holy men like Enoch, Noah, and Abraham kept that sacred day? In fact, what other conclusion would be reasonable? Did not Abraham keep God’s commandments (See Genesis 26:5)? Was not Enoch in such agreement with God that he was translated (See Hebrews 11:5; cf. 1 John 3:22)? Didn’t Noah, like Enoch, walk with God (See Genesis 5:24; 6:9; cf. Amos 3:3:) and was designated by Him a perfect man? Surely then, these men followed the example of the Lord they served and kept holy the Sabbath day.
