Faith of Abraham Pt. 5

 The truth… Original Institutions….and God's Laws Reality in God from everlasting to everlasting. 

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CHAPTER IV. STEPS OF THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM Pt. 5

Continued…

And when the Lord directed Jacob to go to Bethel, he said to his household "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, . . . and I will make there an altar unto God." Gen. 35:2, 3. Here it was understood that they were unclean in the sight of God, not fit to approach unto his altar while the strange gods were among them. Jacob buried their idols in the earth. And the curse came upon Ham for the violation of the fifth commandment; Gen. 9:21-25; but if the law had not been known he could not have been guilty.

Numerous evidences are found in the book of Genesis that the people knew that adultery was sinful. When Abimelech would have taken Abraham's wife, not knowing that she was his wife, the Lord commanded him to restore her; and the king said to Abraham, "Thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin." Gen. 20:4-9. And when Joseph refused to comply with the immoral request of his mistress, he asked, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Gen. 39:7-9. These are but a few of the evidences on this precept. When the messenger of Joseph accused his brethren of stealing his cup, they offered proofs of their honesty towards him, and inquired: "How then should we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold?" Gen. 44: 4-9. See also chapter 31:19, 30, 32, 39. The transgression of the tenth commandment must precede the violation of the eighth, and it is as sinful to covet as it is to steal. Nothing positive is found in the book of Genesis in regard to the ninth precept. That it was wickedly broken is a matter of record, for Joseph's mistress maliciously bore false witness against him. Likewise in the book of Genesis not a word is said concerning the sinfulness of taking the name of God in vain. But we find explicit testimony in Leviticus 18. Said the Lord to Israel: "After the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do." He then enumerated a list of abominable practices among which is the following: "Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God;" and afterwards added: "For in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: and the land is defiled; therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it." Lev. 18:3, 21-25. Profanity was sinful in the nations of Canaan; and because of it and their other sins, the Lord visited them in judgment. But it was as true of them as of others, that "sin is not imputed when there is no law." For God is no respecter of persons. This is further proof of what Paul teaches in Romans 3, that Jews and Gentiles are and were all amenable to the same law. The evidence in regard to the sabbatic institution is most positive and clear. The Sabbath was not only known before the law was given on Mount Sinai, but it was distinctly enforced before that time. Ex. 16:22, 23. We learn that a double portion of manna was gathered on the sixth day, and on that day Moses said: "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." The morrow was the seventh day of the week, and it appears from the language of Moses that it was already the Sabbath, before its arrival, and therefore by a previous appointment. When the Lord expressed his intention to give them manna, he declared as an object before him: "That I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no." Verse 4. When some of the people sought for manna on the seventh day, the Lord said: "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?"

Verse 28. From all this it is very plain that the Lord had a law for the observance of the Sabbath before it was given on Mount Sinai. It was called the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. How it came to be the rest of the holy Sabbath, the commandment spoken by Jehovah himself informs us: "In six days the Lord made 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" Ex. 20:11. This transaction took place at creation,--before the fall of man. Unlike the ceremonial laws for sin-offerings, it was instituted before sin existed. 

The Sabbath is a commemorative institution; but it commemorates the work of God--not of man. It originated in the mind and will of God himself, and was not made necessary by an act of rebellion as even the gospel was. It was an original institution, as was marriage, and as such it would have existed and continued if man had never fallen. 

With what propriety, then, can men call it a Jewish institution? It is so called by many, but in direct contradiction of the Bible, which plainly says: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20:10. These are the words of Jehovah himself, and who dares to dispute his claim? He also said of the Sabbath that it is "holiness" to the Lord. Ex. 31:15; margin. By the mouth of the prophet he called it, "My holy day." Isa. 58:13. It was consecrated from the beginning, as the commandment says and the historic record proves: "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Gen. 2:3.

Thus have we identified the holy covenant of God, his word which he commanded to a thousand generations; which was given to Abraham and to Isaac, and confirmed to Israel for an everlasting covenant. The violation of this law has brought the curse upon all the world, Jew and Gentile alike, from which curse we must be redeemed by the blood of Christ in order that we may inherit the blessing of Abraham. Gal. 3:13, 14. And being thus freed from its condemnation we must "Go and sin no more," and walk in the steps of that faith which our father Abraham had, that we may do his works and be his children in truth. John 8:33-39. Jesus, the seed of Abraham, says: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Matt. 7:21. The will of the Lawgiver is found in his law, as Paul shows in Rom. 2:17-23. Without obedience to the law of God our faith is dead, and our profession of love to God is vain, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." 1 John 5:3.