1. “On the sixth day...Moses...said...Tomorrow is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to Jehovah” (Exo. 16:22-23, see also vv. 24-30).
The Old Testament law required the children of Israel to keep the Sabbath. But before God gave the law at Mount Sinai, Moses spoke concerning the Israelites’ keeping the Sabbath rest in the wilderness. This shows that even before God gave the law, His people knew of the matter of the Sabbath rest. The patriarchs in the age before the law must have learned about the matter of the Sabbath from those who went before them and passed it on from generation to generation until the time of Moses.
When God gave the law, He ordained the Sabbath as a day for His people to keep. There were at least seven points concerning the Sabbath that God wanted His people, the Israelites, to keep during the age of the law.
1. “Remember the Sabbath day so as to sanctify it... For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day” (Exo. 20:8, 11).
God wanted the Israelites to keep the Sabbath so that they would remember Him as the God of creation. This reason is connected to creation. Although the Israelites were fallen and under the law, God did not want them to forget the rest that He had provided for them in His creation. By requiring the Israelites to keep the Sabbath, He reminded them that He created all things to enable man to rest with Him.
1. “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that Jehovah your God brought you out from there...; hence, Jehovah your God commanded you to hold the Sabbath day” (Deut. 5:15).
God wanted the Israelites to keep the Sabbath so that they would remember Him as their Savior. This purpose is connected to man’s enjoyment of rest in God’s creation. As the Creator who creates all things well, God still desires that man would enjoy Him as rest, so He became the God of salvation to the Israelites. Requiring the Israelites to keep the Sabbath, therefore, demonstrated and testified that He is the God of salvation and rest. Just as God’s creation is for man’s rest, God’s salvation is also for man’s rest. God ordained rest for man in His creation, and He also ordained rest for man in His salvation. Therefore, He wanted those whom He saved to keep the Sabbath to demonstrate this fact.
1. “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever”; “That they might know that I am Jehovah who sanctifies them” (Exo. 31:17; Ezek. 20:12, see also v. 20).
God wanted the Israelites to keep the Sabbath because the Sabbath was a proof that they belonged to Him. God chose the Israelites from among all the nations as His special chosen ones. The people of the ancient world, no doubt, had special days, but they did not keep God’s Sabbath; this proves that they did not belong to God. Only the Israelites belonged to God, so God told them to keep His Sabbath as proof that they belonged to Him. During the age of the law, the Sabbath was a sign that the Israelites were separated from the rest of the people in the world and signified that they had been separated from the world to be sanctified to God.
2. “You shall keep My Sabbaths; I am Jehovah your God” (Lev. 19:3).
God wanted the children of Israel to keep His Sabbaths to prove that He was their God; He wanted them to testify with the Sabbath that they took the God of the Sabbath as their God.
1. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath” (Exo. 20:9-10).
God wanted the Israelites to keep the Sabbath to signify that man cannot obtain rest through works. In the original rest of creation, man did not need to work before he rested on the Sabbath. Man’s fall damaged the Sabbath rest ordained by God. Although God desired to save man back to Himself after the fall, man tried to please God through his own works, not realizing that he was powerless to do so. God gave the law to man to show him that he was powerless and could do nothing in himself to please God. Therefore, under the law God required man to labor for six days and to rest on the seventh day as a sign that man’s efforts to obtain rest are according to the principle of works. This principle is completely different from the principle of grace. According to the principle of grace, as seen in the original Sabbath rest of creation, man obtained rest without working. Man was able to rest and then work; man enjoyed a day of rest and then labored for six days. But according to the principle of works, as signified by the Sabbath under the law, man could not obtain rest without working. Man was required to work before resting; man had to work for six days before resting on the seventh day. But even when man works, he cannot obtain rest. This is seen in the fact that the Israelites were constantly breaking the Sabbath (Num. 15:32-35; Ezek. 20:13; Neh. 13:15-18), proving that God’s Sabbath rest cannot be obtained by man’s own works under the law.